Newbie actual first year pay

It depends on what you see as net. Don't forget to factor in living expense on the road, if you are looking to take home $20,000. You will be paying for food, laundry and possibly some showers at the very least.

So if you are looking for $20,000, then add $4,000 for living expenses. Then add $30 per week for insurance or other deductions for another $1,600. So you need $25,600 net, which is about $31,000 gross.

If you take a day off for every week out, you will take 46 days off which leaves you 45.57 weeks of production. If you make 0.26 CPM you will need 2616 miles a week to reach this goal. $31,000 / 0.26 CPM = 119,231 miles a year. 119,231 miles a year / 45.57 weeks = 2616.43 miles per week. 2616 miles per week is 11,336 miles per month.

It always depresses me when I do the math. Even if you cut 10% or $3,100 of your expenses by paying nothing on your insurance and reducing you living costs by 37.5% or $1,500 you still need 2354 miles a week or 10,201 miles per month. I see many drivers talking about 9,000 - 10,000 miles a month.

If you could get 0.31 CPM then you would need 2194 miles per week or 9507 miles a month to meet the $31,000. You would need 1975 miles a week or 8558 miles a month to reach the $27,900 goal with reduced costs. These mileage figures are more realistic.

Based on the starting pay I see offered, the average miles a new driver seems to get and the cost of living on the road I don't see many taking home $20,000 after taxes, deductions and living costs. Don’t forget that I didn’t figure anything for the cost of driving school if you have payments.

I think the reason many are disappointed with their earnings is because they don't realize how much they will spend to live on the road and they don't realize how much home time takes from productivity. In addition, they forget to include the cost of training.

I’m sure many drivers do better. I also have seen posts from a couple of drivers who said they were stuck on short loads and local stuff. One was making around $350 a week and the other around $450 a week.

Obviously if you can get a job where you are home every weekend and can run 2500 miles a week this would be much better. Then you solve the home time problem and keep the miles and production time up.

 

yea, and if you work a 9-5 job in the city, don't forget to deduct the commuting costs, your lunches each day, your drycleaning or laundry. Don't forget the depreciation on your car and extra insurance and, and, and...

jeez!

 

Math sucks.

 

I definitely would say 25k is bottom of the barrel. I made around 24, 000 in my first 6 months of trucking.

Even being "laid back" in a down economy you should make a minimum of 35k your first year. And if actually don't might pushing a bit 45k should be very doable for a rookie driver even in this economy.

 

This is a very good point that I hadn't considered. Where I live we drive 30 miles one way and spend $40 - $50 per week on fuel. That is $2,000 - $2,500 a year. I pack my lunch at about $500 per year but eating out could be about $1,400. Depreciation is a wash as it happens whether your vehicle sets or rolls.

 

Your short lifetime? You're 55 and 25k will match your best year? Are you being serious? Have you worked any full time jobs that paid more than minimum wage?

I mean I don't have a college degree but geez even I was making over 40k driving a straight truck in the mid 90s when I was in my 20s.

 

As of my last paycheck my net for the year was $12,917.52. That's 3 paychecks short of six months of driving. My average weekly paid miles dropped slightly in the July-Present quarter, at a rate of $0.32/mile from the April-June quarter, when I was earning $0.30/mile.

At this rate I'm on track to earn around $26,000 net for my first year. I also rise to $0.33/mile in January, and again to $0.36/mile next April according to my company's pay scale.

I'd like to "push it", a lot actually, but dispatch has other ideas.

 

Ya, well, making money has never been that high on my priority list.

 

I see posts like this often but I can't figure where the jobs are to support this.

45000 / 0.30 CPM (if you can get this) is 150,000 miles. If you take 14 days of in the year which is 1.17 days a month that leaves 50 weeks working. 150,000 miles per year / 50 weeks = 3000 miles per week.

So yes if you can find a starter company that will pay you 0.30 CPM and run you 3000 miles a week you too can make $45,000. Never mind the fact that you will have one day a month off.

There is no doubt in my mind these jobs are out there. There is also no doubt in my mind that they make up far less than 30% of the starter jobs out there. This means that the average person is more than twice as likely to get one of the lower paying jobs.

I can send you to at least 6 or 8 websites to back up what I am posting. Please someone post some names of companies to back up the $35,000 - $45,000 per year starter jobs.

 

When talking about pay I think it's important to compare apples to apples. I think you get a more accurate comparison when you use gross pay figures.

Net pay will vary depending a lot of factors such as marital status, number of dependents, filing status, state of residency, insurance elections, per diem, 401k contributions and any other deductions that would vary from one driver to the next.

And living expenses shouldn't factor in either as that's a different discussion. If everyone states figure having to do with gross pay that would prevent a lot of misunderstanding and false inferences.