Once you get six months to a year of experience where should you go for the big buck$?

Oilfields, car hauling, ice roads? Lol Thanks in advance!

 

Find a company that likes what you do and rewards you for working hard. Stay loyal to them and put in your time for the real big bucks (truck drivers these days seem to lack patience when it comes to pay). A higher rate won't do you any favours if you are jumping from company to company every 3-6 months. Climb the ladder and get the gravy runs. You'll feel like you aren't even working for a few pennies less a mile.

 

Zeviander, that sounds reasonable. I'm just trying to figure out what the higher end pay would be for an experienced driver, and which specialties would pay the most. My worry would be working somewhere for 5 years or more and barely making more than the newbie. Hope one of the companies I'm looking at is the type you're talking about.

 

You'll need 2-5 years of experience working in the "general freight" sectors of the industry before specialized transport will consider you eligible for hire.

For instance, a fuel hauler here in Winnipeg won't hire people unless they have at least 3 years verified driving experience. It's a restriction their insurance company places on them, and they hate it (because drivers don't usually make it to three years before leaving the industry).

Heavy haul you'll need a personal reference from someone within that sector to even be given the time of day, let alone be considered for hire.

If you truly are eager to specialize in extremely high-value freight, then get into tankers as soon as possible, or flat-deck. Pulling a box or a rolling fridge won't often lead to much better than peanuts per mile.

And honestly, I don't understand where people get the idea that the highest rates are "best". The highest rates come with significantly more work and effort on your part (permitted routes, oversize tarping, escorts, different regulations, etc) while pulling unfinished steel on a flatdeck, or finished equipment (i.e. skid-steers) is super-easy work and generally pays the company a much bigger rate than say "sticks and bricks" for instance.

I'd rather make my slightly higher than industry average rate, for loaded/empty miles, add pays for additional work (tarping, loading, etc.) pulling really easy stuff around than have to worry about the different state regulations to work with something over-width for significantly more money.

This load took me under an hour to wrap in plastic, strap and tarp:



And paid $30 for that work. I'd much rather do that on a regular basis than spending 6-8 hours tarping something over-dimensional and running it across 7 different states.

 

All great points and I appreciate the perspective! I reckon I've got a lot more factors to take into consideration than just pay alone. I wonder is it easier to stay busy in tankers or flat-deck? Which would be more recession proof? Thanks for giving me some things to think about.

 

If you want BIG bucks you need to hunt the mega owner's sons/daughters, find a time machine or hit the lottery. If you want to earn a living and raise a family you should be safe, drive hard and gain experience. The latter will provide you a path to BETTER bucks but there are no BIG bucks driving a truck. If someone can prove me wrong, tell me on the lowlow and I'll give you a percentage.

 

big bucks ha ha very very funny

 

Let's put money on the back burner for a bit. How?

You get a job offer...net, $100k to you. However, you can either go local or OTR. If you go local, you have to go 14 hours a day. If you go OTR, you work 3 weeks a month and home a week. Tankers are really strict and require the most skill, carhauling is has the most insurance claims, doubles you most likely roll the truck, flats you have the greatest chance of being injured, dry van and reefer require you to take the most crap and run the most miles. Tell me which job you would like to go for and we will go from there.

 

Thanks for the response! I definitely wanna go OTR, but I'm not sure which specialty in the long run. For the sake of a mind experiment let's say tankers.

 

Tankers...you want to be paid for what you know as well as what you do.

1. You have to actually know how to drive. Tankers and double trailers require great skill. You ever watch a driver pull a set of doubles and that back pup trailer is flopping all over? The same feeling goes in a tanker. You have to be able to drive in a way that your load doesn't slosh around. Can you do that? Are you sure?
2. Many chemical plants require you to be clean shaven.
3. No pets. No riders. No bad backgrounds.

Still interested in tanker yanking? If so, @Chinatown, can you find this driver a tanker job?