Typical day of a linedriver

Wait till you hit top scale - you'll feel that way even more.

 

I agree jakebrake! I'm at 55cpm and not at top rate yet (NY wages). I do get mad when my truck can't handle the mountains but like cenutry said ill take my little truck any day over those mega carrier sleepers

 

Wow .55cpm for Ny! Bayarea is just as bad for cost of living. You can live in a Drug dealer gang infested neighborhood in a small randown apt for 1200 a month in the bay. That's the price of a newer home mortgage in my area. I've passed some of these sleeper trucks pulling 80-90k with my Rocky set climbing hills with my lil OL daycab and they only got single trailers. Must hurt that Super T pride a lil lol.

 

.55 CPM sounds great but how many miles you running a day/night? Also how many hours you working?

 

I am in the intermountain region. Cost of living is a bit lower, so they start us out at 41 cpm. We run anywhere from 370 to 580 miles per shift, plus at least three hours worth of pay for hooking and waiting. So.... Between $240 to $320 can be a reasonable night.

 

When I worked for big "R" I never got a better truck when we switched I got one just as crummy as the one I got out of. I was just happy if I did not have to jif up. I tried to jiff with an old Mack (bent) old jiff (bent) they went about 1/2 way had to call a wrecker to pull apart. Hated the dark terminals. I miss it sometimes.

 

I'll just throw this out there to maybe answer your question a little. Your hours and miles will always vary till you have enough strap to hold a good time or bid. That said, even if you only run 2 or 3 nights per week, at those rates you'll still make what you would running otr plus you're home daily. It really pays off once you've been there a while and can hold a good run - we are around .60 now at this terminal and I run about 2500 per week with at least 20 hours of clock time on top of that. It's more than I really wanna do but am grossing between 1900 and 2100 per week.

Everyone wants to know what you make to start but the real money and good runs come with time. Even then I'd rather work 3 days per week and be home instead of 5 days away for the same money.

 

Yeah, it is a local CDL job. I'd take a pay cut, run less but still be in my own bed each night rather than being out weeks at a time away from home. I have been called off quite a bit these last few months. Crap happens... this comes with seniority. If you are the new fish or the low man on the totem poll, you won't run as hard.

I will fill in anytime someone rather wants to watch a game or attend some specific holiday that I don't observe. Either way, when I come through the door, my dog won't go: "Hey, who's that guy?" like he did when I came back from Iraq.

 

Jakebrake pretty much summed it up. Although his company is 5 days a week mon-fri where as we are a 24/7 operation all holidays etc. I have to do 6 trips before I can take time off and it's anywhere between 24&60 hours off which ever I choose. As our contract we don't honor the 34 hour reset but also have to keep our hours below 70 in order to work. So if you burn a 14 hour day and only have 2 hours to left to your 70 and let's say only 8 become available and you have 10 hours you can work till you at least have 14 hours. This week I had it good, had 2270 miles, not including my layover pay, hook times, wait times. I usually average 320-530 miles a day. Our pay is from 12am sun -12am sun. This week I got it all in so it will be a good pay week. Sometime you might get work one day, none the next then again etc. I was called into work on break pretty much everyday. I keep my hours like that because no one wants to in at that time

 

Thanks guys for explaining, I definitely agree on being home at night. I am a linehaul driver also, my company is similar to ACH1130. 24/7 but we have a set schedule and the option to pick up an extra day if we want. We only do a 34 hr reset if we pick up extra days and get up against the 70 hr rule.