Talk to an Australian Trucker

I have 1.

Those giant road trains....How efficient are they?

Usually, trucks in the USA hauling a standard 53 Foot dry van get about 5.5 Miles per Gallon.

 

Welcome Dougie!
Do you have any pics of road trains?
Whats the axle loading there?

 

Go to Google and search images, road train

 

I actually tried to emigrate to Australia a few years back. Apparently they don't consider truck drivers as skilled labor though as I couldn't meet the requirments for a skilled labor visa.
Anyways

There is a fair amount of the old little window needle nose petes around. I know a few guys still running them daily in WI.

They keep messing with our hours (HOS=hours of service) the most recent change makes it so we can drive 11 hours before needing to take a 10 hour break(used to be 8 hours) the 10 hour break can be split into two seperate breaks by doing a 2hr and 8 hr break. you can do 70 hours in 6 days but if you take 34 hours off in a row you get to reset that weekly hour clock.

Pay varies greatly. You basic local jobs pay little, especially if they are your 9 to 5 variety. The jobs that work nights and weekends pay more. Your over the road jobs pay pretty well but we get riped off at the truck stops so badly that it is very expensive to live on the road if you are not smart about it so in the end you probably don't make much more than a local driver if you don't pack your own food. OTR rates run all over the place from 34 cents per mile to 50 cpm but there is always a catch. the more miles a co runs the less they pay per mile, then there is safety bonuses/ drop and hook pay etc that mudy up the pay pool. So in the end unless you have a good niche market you pretty much end up in the $40k to $45k a year range. I just quit my job of 7 years pulling mobile medical scanners and I did very well there. I would have done $70k this year if I had stuck with it but that is pretty much tops in the industry from what I have found

 

Did that already thanks Ronnocomot. Thought that Dougie might have some better ones!

 

Thanks for the info Dougie!

Yup, MedicineMan, seems that degrees are what the Australians are after. I have met plenty of Oz truckers in my wanderings through the world!