Starting pay for OTR??

Become company, play their stupid waiting game. You're going to hear "oh we don't have a truck for you, but if you lease...." statement. Stay for 2 years and once that dui is 5 years old, u might have a good shot at a better company

 

Learn how to drive bud. Do not lease. My grandad was an O/O in the golden days of trucking and he has even told me it's easier to be a company man. The stress and hard work doesn't pay off. And most importantly... DO NOT get into trucking just for the money. You have to like the job and trucks. Getting into it for money is setting yourself up for failure. After a few years of experience, you can make 100k and be home every night but you have to wake up everyday wanting to see that truck.

 

Actually no not sad.

FFE had me recovering tractors internally for a while. When I am in Lancaster doing nothing, they throw 20 to 50 bucks at me for catching a tractor and bring it in to the shop so that the company can process it. Said tractor is usually filled with qualcomm rantings of the driver who left it and is required reading in case a major pre-trip check item will be present like a broken spring or something, especially stabotage.

I could try and make a living recovering tractors if the company don't mind flying me all over the USA to get em. But it will take some money to get it to make it happen. A thousand a week salary or similar to do that work is not bad at all considering the necessity to carefully check said tractor out in addition to having potentially a violent criminal action against you, the recoverer.

Several tractors a day with FFE in my time gave me a wealth of experience with what to expect from disgrungled employees and remembering my own nasty stuff and seeing first hand what other quitting drivers did to sabotage company equipment on the way out the gate while getting caught btw... it's a dirty necessary business recovery. It makes for a very interesting work day and potential for anything to happen, good or bad makes one alive.

 

If you are having a hard time about money and expect trucking to rescue you from money problems, expect to be paid less than minimum wage from time to time, if you are paid at all.

I have said to others in the past including those seeking to leave a 100K gross income existing right now and fall down the ladder of income to 20K the first year... after taxes and expenses of the road.

Most people laboring under debt, mortgage and kids etc cannot sustain in trucking. What about me? well, our home was paid for. When we put the house to bed for the month the electric bill was 28 dollars total for the month and there is 600 dollars on the power company account, 500 dollars on the 10 dollar monthly water bill, 700 dollars paid to the gas co that only needs maybe 23 of that each month... essentially a years worth of bills paid for up front across the expenses each month to zero. Everything that comes in minus food is profit for us. That is how we did ours. Savings ranged from 10, 15 thousand dollars in cash ready to go at any time. 9-11 was the ultimate threat. Our Payroll was destroyed along the people who were killed with it in the towers. it ws 6 weeks before we got paid again. that 12K came in handy and kept us rolling.

When you do not have debt to speak of then go for trucking with my love and blessing. But most people are not debt free.

 

Thank you x1heavy. Always a pleasure to read your posts. When I joined this forum a while back I almost commited to FFE... Wow my career could be different now

 

FFE is gone, bought lock stock and barrel by KLLM who I consider to be a upstart uppity scrappy produce hauler from the east coast with cabovers going into places built for box trucks back in the 1920's

I rely on my time with FFE because of all the people I ran for it had contained for the few years I was there a complete range of things to be doing as a trucker going from Recovery, to training a spouse, then teaming with spouse and occasionally evaluating another student now and then and running all sorts of reefer freight, I wasnt bored with FFE. There are some people in Lancaster up until the summer of 2001 Ive had respect and love for and wondered if they stayed on to work for KLLM. There was a supervisor who was in charge of road tests and rounding up the newbies in orientation several times a day for this and that is one example. ive wondered how he got on these days. Does he still terrorize the KLLM recruits I wonder.

 

Yup I had a ticket lined up for Dallas back in 2011. Was looking forward to it or an opportunity running Western 11 with Schneider out of French Camp. Met a gal in that process and got lucky enough to score a local tanker gig out of school. Used to ride with Grandad every summer all over the country as a kid. My dad was his mechanic as a teen and later was a mechanic at UPS. I'm not saying you need to have this much of a background growing up to be a truck driver but it sure did give me that love. To the OP, please don't get into this industry for the money. You've gotta have a love for it.

 

Beau is right, I did this because it was greater than myself keeping America going. Being deaf closed the Marine corps to me and my family was pretty ####ty when they found out that a deaf person is now a trucker it was also a economic choice as well. Maryland is too pricey and I did not want to live in my parents basement for 30 years no way. So, trucking was it for me. And how.

Im not sorry I did this, I made for myself a decent future and ended up where I am here in the south with someone I love very much and will grow old with. (And vice versa) but for the body itself the costs imposed by the work I have done, I consider myself lucky to have made it into the 50's and still have all my parts. I do not expect to be around 5 years from now but for the time being Im happy as a clam. Broke and starving at times but at other times it's steak and taters to share all around. It's all good.

The money? Just clear your debts and stay out of vices like gambling and it wont matter if you were paid one dollar or 10,000 dollars you will still be in profitability. And by implcation being able to eat, rest and be strong for the next call given to you by dispatch. Your life is the truck and your truck will give you a life.

There is no room for children, spouses, family etc. You are gone weeks, months if not a year at a time. It's a journey. If you still have money after all that however little is it you are doing good.

 

Good call. My sis wants to get into trucking but she wants to do it for the money. I keep telling her that's not why I do it. Yea.. I'm on track to make 106-110k this year as a local driver BUT it's all relative bc I'm in CA. I'm married now and have an amazing year and a half year old daughter. I grew up in Maryland and unfortunately it's not much better than here..

 

California was a interesting state but I guess I was more lucky than most. The DOT inspections in San Jose and up in Donner were very unpleasant, I rather have a root canal even though the papers were in order and the rig in good shape The Law in Cali always tried to give me a feeling that I was somehow illegally existing and daring to breathe the air. The one good thing Cali was for me was some of the Ladies who turned out to be very good friends in certain areas and honorable would be another word too. Leaving off the inspections Cali was not that bad. But for my own politcal reasons I rather not bring up here because the Mods know me pretty well already I considered the entire USA a home. It's hard for most people who do not truck to understand. Here or there or somewhere it mattered not, and again it does matter when you are with people you love and vice versa.