Okay - lets be serious here... Salary for a newby

You can expect about 30,000 first year depending on how much you want to be home. More if you don't go home much. Less if you have to baby sit the wife/girl friend every two weeks. Insurance is expensive at most of the companies. My company its cheapest I ever seen. 30 bucks for health insurance for the family a week. I have paid as much as 200 dollars a week for health insurance.

Once you get to the top of the pay scale don't expect any more raises. If your company hire's newbies expect to get less miles as you increase in pay.

Stress level is high because when you want to get home sometimes you can't. It seems like most people are working against you rather then for you. Even though they are probably doing all they can to help you. Sometimes its the other way around and they just care about getting their customers freight delivered on time. Cars seem to want to take off your bumper every chance they get no respect. Also have to deal with other truckers who don't care.

I don't know how many will give you a shot if you haven't had a certified school that helped you get your cdl. Working for owner operators is not fun because they will rip you off and put you in junk equipment and may try to keep you by saying they will not give you a good reference when trying to leave. So add all those things up and see what you come up with

 

This is my first full calendar year. I'm on schedule to make about 40,000. I go home every 2 weeks for 3 or 4 days. I pull flatbeds.

 

i'd say 36,000 average OTR for a whole year.

 

With most of the big companies, training from other than a school probably won't cut it. If you are able to get some training help from some local owner operators you should try to get on with one of them to get a year or two experience. Then you could go wherever you wanted.
You most likely won't make $40000 for the first year, it's possible, not likely.
Spend some time checking out companies on here and make an informed choice, but you would probably not make what you are now until at least your second year, and most companies insurance is not always first rate. Do your research and good luck to you

 

My company guarantees 50k, even for newbies, you're home weekly but you throw freight

 

throw freight, not me.

 

When I first started out with Werner, Everyone I met there wasn't making any money...Met a guy there, he had been working there 6 months, and his checks came out to a grand total of about $9500.00. That's less than $20,000 a year..I noticed just about everyone I talked to had weekly checks in the 300 to 400 dollar range... Not Good! Same thing happen to me,, never did make much money,,One time only I made $700.00 for the week, but it's just according when you send the trips in to get paid..When people ask me how much I was making,, I was to ashamed to tell them. It was awful,,, but all the major companies are I think...

 

You may make a bit more if you have a Dollar General dedicated run,,, but they can be a lot of hassle