Looking to go back OTR

You have to pay your dues. Experience really does pay. So, to answer your question, yes I would. My first year I think I made 27K, no BS. It sucked but I loved what I was doing. So, yeah, I'll settle for a little less to do what I love. I've been driving 7yrs now and I've got a great paying job in the oilfield of west TX. Before this I worked in PA making 60K working 50-55hrs (home every night) a week. 0.45cpm, load pay, unload pay, and weight pay.
If you want that good job, get your 3yrs under your belt.

Seriously???? Mr. High Tech Computer Guy? Are we all having flash backs to the 9th grade or is it just me?

 

My first trucking job five years ago, I made 25%, ran hard, sometimes illegal, was out 2 to 3 weeks at a time and grossed about $450/week on average, as an expediter. I told my wife at the outset, that it would be a couple of years, before I had the experience to make a decent wage, so she continued to work.

My second trucking job, was with a local manufacturer that made 2K to 10K dump trailers. I hauled them on a 53' stepdeck and came back empty from every run. I started at $750/week salary and after almost 2 years I made $900 a week salary, plus $25 per day expenses paid in cash. I had two weeks off at Christmas, with pay and was home every weekend and at least one night during the week.

My third trucking job was as a lease/operator. Great gig, until fuel prices went up faster than the FS did. I did this for one year, to the day. My take home (without taxes taken out) for that year was $67,283.52.

My most recent full time driving job was only for 5 months, when the economy went sour and I was laid off. I made $17.50 an hour, averaged 55 hours a week (15 hours at time and a half) and was home every night. That's $1093.75 a week, with a 20 minute, one way commute to the yard. Had I not been laid off, the company matched half on the 401K, with an annual bonus match of anywhere from 143% to 347%, based on the last 10 years of profit.

So, yeah, you can make a decent living in this industry, but you gotta pay your dues first and get the experience. That first job was hell, we nearly lost our home, with a take home of under $400 a week average, but I knew that going in and was prepared, knowing there was light at the end of the tunnel.

Lastly, this industry isn't just about making money, as many here have pointed out. Over the last five years, I've had the opportunity to visit old friends from my time in the Corps, visit family I might have never seen again, I've crossed the prairies and the plains, seen mountain goats, grizzly bears, bison herds, snow capped mountains in July, the Painted Desert, put my feet into the Pacific Ocean, stood at the top of a mountain peak, that was over 14,000' above my home town on the coast of Florida, walked Paul Revere's route on his famous ride, toured the oldest commisioned warship in the world, fished for trout in Wyoming and thousands of other things, I'd never have been able to do, working in construction.

It's way more than just a job. It's an adventure. Each day, I call my wife and daughter. My little girl goes to her big wall map and asks where I am and where I'm going, so she can check it on her map and see what's near there for me to take a picture of for her. I record things on video and email it to her, or post it online for her to see. One day, she'll go with me and see them herself.

So, enough of this BS about how much money we make and how hard it is. We make a lot more than just money, y'all.

 

For the last time, I know what money I made and and how hard I worked. You sound like one of the know it alls who sit in a truck stop all night and ##### and complain on the radio for hours while others are working. I never said anything about your infamous .40 per mile. I was paid percentage of load and it was very good paying freight. Of course other cut throat companies heard of it and it no longer exists. I had to make 1 round a day that consisted of just under 600 miles, loaded both ways. My percentage...if loaded both ways... would pay me 537.00. We would average 4 rounds per week and have 4 weeks off per year. So you do the math since you seem to think you know everything. Just in case you cant figure out numbers that high it would be approx 103,000 and thats no BS. As I said in an earlier post, I had to give it up for personal reasons but the guys who stayed on it when it got busier made just under 125,000.

 

For someone that has a high tech computer job, you seem to have a hard time computing what is said. I think your operating system has a flaw or a virus. Maybe you need a new calculator!!
It has been explained to you quite a few times and you still don't get it.
I'll have a big mac and an order of fries. Sound familiar?
See ya,--- you only wish you could be us!
Maverick

 

Look, this is my last post on this stupid thread. I used to drive OTR years ago. I also worked the management side of it too. I know the game and I know the pay. None of you guys are making big money driving a truck. Thats why the turnover rate is so high. Hell, if drivers were making as much as some of you claim, we'd all have a steering wheel in our hands.
I'm a computer software engineer and I make a real good living. All of you seem to want to put down McDonalds employees but the joke is on you. THEY make more than you do per hour. They don't sit somewhere all day for free like most of you.
Like I said, I used to drive OTR so I feel your pain. If you want to keep up this facade that you are making more than the national average I couldn't care less. I know the truth.

 

The sign of a wise person is how they handle them selves in interesting discussions and situations , and learning to ignore perceived ignorance
Please keep your post's polite and respectful !!!!!!!

 

So did you have to wait 3 years until you got a better job?

 

This is my actual w-2 from Wally World—the last year I worked there. It is for the ENTIRE YEAR! My pay rate was $8.50 an hour and they allowed me to work 3 to 4 days a week... no more. I couldn't get a second job because of the odd hours they would schedule me.



Let's just say that in my current trucking job I made, in one week, what Wally World paid me for a whole month!

I'm home weekends and now we can eat real food and have lights in the house.

 

I guess we can be thankful for something, your last post.
We all enjoy everyone participating in the forum, except when someone comes on and calls people liars and puts them down for doing something they want to do and enjoy doing.
We haven't been putting down McDonalds employees, just certain people who claim to be what they are not.
If you are a former trucker, I used to be an astronaut!
Maverick

 

1st this ol jarhead thanks you for your service.

I heard this same BS when I was in. You are not on duty 24/7. So looking at your pay that way is looking at it wrong. I don't work but 8-10hrs and i get paid for that. the rest of the time is mine to do as I please.

As for the post " Work to live...not Live to work" What a sad way to live.
Your work should be a part OF your life. Part of who you are. If you are just working to live then you need a new job. To many things to do to do something you hate.