Never drive for a company that starts you out below .40 cents a mile!

I agree with the OP. I'm starting professional truck driving school at a community college. I won't be tied in a contract with swift paying me .26/cpm so they can pay off my student loan. I don't want our kids working for .26/cpm... - Over time, pay rates should go up, not flat line or DROP! Supply in this industry is low, while demand is high. How are these companies still able to get away with .26/cpm. You aren't doing anyone a favor by working on flat/deck beds at .32/cpm tarping for free. I have done my research and have decided to only drive company owned tractors or straight out buy a user tractor... once I have 2 years of experience.

If you know of any companies that hire new students that pay well, offers lots of miles, avoids wasting your time, and has a good reputation, let me know. I'm still searching. If I can't find a company that is willing to hire me with the above standards, I'm afraid I might have to settle on .32/cpm. <-- this company gives you miles. Can't work for a company that offers .42/cpm with only 600 miles a week. Aiming for an average of 2500 miles a week.

 

I know many newbies get dumped on, mostly because they don't know better.

That being said, I paid for my own schooling. I am not indebted to SNI and would not work for a company that offered indentured servitude to me (driver mills); as for working for cheap.. My first full year with SNI, including bonuses and so on its possible I can clear 50k. Will I? Well, hide and watch. (I did the math myself, based upon one unload daily, 2k miles, and full bonus.). That's on the lower side of estimates.. I'm NOT BRAGGING AND IM NOT RECRUITING!

But in a way I'm confirming what the op said. If YOU want to get screwed over, then don't do your due diligence and just take the first offer that comes to you. I did my homework. And even if I make less than projected, I also attempted to pick a company with ties to a county I want to move to.

Do your homework.

 

I was comparing a job I had in the early 90's making .25 (1200 a wk), to the next job I had which was .34 (700 a wk) (1996), no freight, lol.
Its like they worked up a big sweat getting all the trucks loaded and out of there, then just went home, lol. They called me one day and told me I could go ahead and NOT bring the truck to the yard, just take it home. That was the day the IRS locked up there gates,lol.
I got a log truck sitting in the yard catching snow right now, lol. Have been looking for a winter driving job on the pavement to keep me busy till after spring breakup, then that old log truck will turn 1000 - 1200.00 a day on dry roads, and I beat the school bus back to the house everyday, FTW.

 

Agree 100% I don't understand that. Why run 3500+ miles a week when the issue isn't more miles hurting them, it's not enough money per mile that's the killer.

 

.34 in 96' would be like making .51 today and $700 would be like making $1,062 a week today. $33,600 for the year if you were consistent in 96' is the equivalent of $51,012

BTW I am factoring only 2014 because we don't the official inflation rate for 2015 yet obviously, also not sure what year you started at .25 but i'll just 96' as an example it would be .37 in todays money. Now think of people going to Stevens for .21 a mile today, That's .13 a mile in 96' money!

And that log truck story is awesome lol free truck!

 

This is just a touchy subject. There's guys I know who work for a carrier who only pays 0.36 a mile hauling mainly 46K paper loads up to the Northeast and they've guys whose been there over 20 years. Then there's the carrier who I was working for who was paying percentage and the money averaged out to be about 0.45 a mile and for some reason we had a decent size turnover rate.

At the end of the day, I believe alot of guys will just take the feeling of being comfortable over money.

Now for the rookie deal, those megas I believe are in a tricky situation, Aren't most of them self insured? Obviously the risk of an accident is higher with a new driver so why pay him a high wage starting off? Now my last carrier was about 200 trucks, new hires regardless of experience (including rookies who they did hire) started at 21.5% of load revenue. And don't most newbies by the time they've been there for a couple years end up making about .10 more? I know at Schneider when they tried to hire me back after their pay freeze, they bumped me up 8 cents after year.

 

Well my .25 in early 1990's was 25% of the truck revenue, then at .34... So I agree that the pay suks these days, but going after a high dollar job with an outfit that does not haul high dollar freight is not a great plan.

In early 2000's I made the same .25% but hauling POV's (privately owned vehicles) a full load paid 5.00 a mile (50 - 70k yr), but again I wasn't hauling Styrofoam dock buoys in a dedicated drop hook dry van scenario, and I lived on the road.
Some drivers just want to drive and nothing more, some guys like to work too!

 

Hey tahokid, I plan to move to Crawfordville Florida. Any good companies for newbies to start off in? The only jobs I'm seeing on craigslist are the huge corporate bottom feeders or veterans (2 year +). I'm willing to drive to Pensacola or Jacksonville if need be. U.S. Xpress is blowing up craigslist with dozens of post advertising high CPM. I'm a little hesitant and still researching the company.

 

My 1st job was USA Truck,they started me at 0.26,and they still menage to go bankrupt.How that happened?