New Driver Pay First Year?? What can I expect?

My scheduled run is 3,140 miles a week and I will also occasionally run a 6th day and get up to 3,800 miles. I'm a LTL linehaul driver for Old Dominion Freight Lines so I'm also home daily.

 

You can definitely get your foot in the door with Schneider, but you won't see much money in the first year. If you're content with $55 to $63k, you'll be alright there.

 

Other new drivers have posted they struggled to make $38k at Schneider.

 

That's horrible.

 

Last couple years only did around 90k..just haven’t been motivated due to lousy rates.

Before I seemed to be hovering right around 120-125k miles per year.

I got my start with an outlaw company where if you said you ran out of hours you’d be laughed at by the other drivers, lol.

Think my record was 5,300 miles in one week..glad I started with them but I wouldn’t do it again. At least back then you could rewrite history with paper. There’s tricks with the elog and very easy to run multiple logs but I’m just not into it anymore.

My elog says I ran 3,699 miles in the last 7 days and I’m sitting now with 1:10 left on my cycle.

Going to do a deadhead tomorrow and then take a 34…maybe, lol

 

Rookie pay? Figure 45 cpm at 2300 to 2500 miles per week. Then multiply that number by 52. Plan on grossing no more than 1100 per week your first year or 2. You gotta earn your keep in the industry. Some of it is that youll have to prove yourself to dispatch. Other parts of it will be rookie hiccups. You won't know the ebbs and flows of trucking right out of the gate. Lots to learn, and as you hone your skills, and learn how to utilize your clock better, your pay increases. Yoi won't learn everything in school, or with your trainer but 1100 is doable, but there will be weeks where the pay is less for reasons I mentioned above. If you can exceed that number, then that's a bonus.

 

Hell that's good for a first year driver. If he doesn't have a lot of obligations, then that's good money.

 

If you can get into LTL right out of the gate then do it. I got my son on at OD when he was 18 and he went through our driving class. He's making 6 figures now working day shift and he's home daily.

 

Feb. -Current… $24,000 GROSS $8000 in insurance and taxes. $16,000 in about 10 months. VTL 37 states east of Denver is what I run. If people who work here don’t want people to know then raise the pay! Lowest pay in the industry but you have to get the experience somewhere. If you’re on assistance, don’t give it up thinking you’ll be able to pay your bills! We’re actually homeless in this truck. Expect to work holidays too. Worked today and missed out on the company Thanksgiving dinner. Today was the worst Thanksgiving I can remember in a very long time. My wife and I drove 472 miles today and got caught in traffic on I-40 in Arkansas due to a wreck. That tied us up long enough to miss out on the Thanksgiving dinner. Looks like whatever we have in the truck now.

 

@Cherokee65 --

If your spouse is travelling with you -- she could then be your "co-pilot".

Many times...I wished I had someone sitting in the passenger seat -- scanning on Google Maps &/or Waze...& watching traffic conditions ahead -- & looking for wrecks &/or traffic jams...& also for dangerous weather conditions (on the appropriate weather or DOT app).

If seen far enough in advance -- you could often route yourself around these problems -- & save yourself A LOOOOTTT of time &/or trouble.

That's what I used a Garmin Dezlcam truck GPS for -- but another human being in the passenger seat & looking regularly at the right phone apps would be MUCH BETTER.

-- L