Money vs quality of employment

I take home $1200-$1500 a week AFTER deductions when I take no days off, a full week. When I take 3 days off? That week might be as low as $500-$600, it just depends on how I’m dispatched And if my back load gets back in time before the week ends I can make a little more. It all works out the same in the end.
I’m on pace to make about $65,000-$70,000 this year. I’ve got almost 4 years experience in a perfect record. Dry van and reefer. I know darn well I could go make $20,000 a year more or so somewhere else. My mailbox is full of these offers every single day. But I don’t get messed with where I’m at. They run me at a pace I like. They leave me alone. If I do want an extra day off? It’s not a national crisis. They just let me take it.

money isn’t everything when it comes to trucking to a point. If you’re miserable you’ll end up job hopping and quitting and losing out in the end. I wouldn’t leave one job for another for $10,000 more a year if I’m going to be miserable. What’s the point? So I can quit in six months and move to another miserable job? There really is more to it than just the end salary. You’ll learn as you go along.

 

This topic reminds me of something my father said about 2 years before he died. During the 90s I was rarely at home. When I did get back home I tried to spend time with him. I drove him down to the 76 Truck Stop in Commerce Georgia (this was in the mid 90s today is a TA last I heard) and took him through the truck parking. Then drove back out and parked in front of the restaurant. He told me to NEVER allow a carrier to put you in a new Truck like these condos and pay you a substandard CPM. He went on to say that trucking done correctly was a tough job and a good driver is worth their weight in gold. My father quit school during his 8th grade, when 17 enlisted in the Army, and fought in Korea. Came home married my mother and basically drove trucks until he retired in the early 90s. In some of my comments going back several years, you will see I refer back to a company called Arrow Trucking. Basically, the people that ran that carrier were crooks. They left hundreds of drivers stranded when they went belly up. I gave a driver enough money to get home and eat. Whats so spooky about this is my father told me years before to always keep enough money on you to get home in case your carrier shuts down. Many carriers even back in the 70s and 80s were run by crooks. So yes, I think the quality of the job is important, but don't allow yourself to get hypnotized by some (redacted) crook!

 

$1000/week!? I was making more as a freight handler before this Covid inflation. You can easily clear that as a forklift driver and not even have to touch any boxes. 3 day weekends too. That’s lower than Mega starting pay.

 

The speed of trucks is overrated, so that really shouldn't factor into your decision. It sounds like you really want to make this switch and just need someone to tell you that you are not crazy for doing it.

You aren't crazy. Money isn't everything. Go with what your heart tells you.

 

I wouldn’t drive at 62. Life is too short.

As for the pay, net income is meaningless for comparison. Your deductions are completely different than everyone else reading your post.

 

In case you overlooked it, that is $1,000 net. Without knowing OPs tax situation, hard to say what the gross is.

 

You drive 62 or under, if you drive through cities at any point, so the speed of trucks is really a non-factor, despite many drivers thinking it's of importance.

 

If I only drove in cities and or only in the state of California, 62 would be fine. But for most of the other states, it doesn't keep up to traffic on interstates outside of cities.

It is slow to the point of becoming a nuisance. You must have seen slow trucks like Prime, May, and Raiders Express. They all do or used to run at 63 or less and they all caused backups. I'm just saying that it's miserable to run slower than all the rest of the traffic all the time. Driving a truck needs to be more than just about money, it should also be enjoyable in my opinion.

 

Have you ever clocked the difference in time of arrival on a 500-mile trip where a vehicle's max speed is 70 versus 62? It's not much of a difference. Usually it's about 15 minutes, give or take. Why? Because over that 500 miles, a driver will encounter heavy traffic, slower speed limits, and eventually traffic control devices.

Volume of traffic, not slow vehicles, is what causes backups. If a vehicle is moving at 62 mph, how is that resulting in traffic backing up to move slower than 62 mph? Just doesn't compute.

 

I get what you’re saying. However I was entertained the day before yesterday watching a prime truck try to pass another truck and I am not exaggerating it took him 38 minutes to get around the truck. Traffic was backed up behind him in both lanes for literally as far as I could see, mile upon miles upon miles. Now I’ve seen slow passes before they take a few minutes or maybe a maximum of four or five minutes but never a half an hour plus. I couldn’t believe neither one of the trucks would back off. I never understood that. If someone is passing me and we are neck and neck, I’ll back off one or 2 mph for a few seconds and let them go by. Ultimately it’s the passers fault for thinking they have more speed than they do. But I don’t see any sense in holding up everybody.