western regional questions

Schneider works with you for your hometime. Typical is out two weeks home two days. I do out 3 weeks home 3 days. My buddy does 6 days out two days home.

New pay varies, but the average I have heard is 28 cents a mile.

It took 90 days for my tuition reimbursement to kick in.

 

Pretty much all that.

I'll just add that starting pay for OTR is 29 CPM, but you are forced to do the company Per Diem program for the first 90 days. Because of this you will lose 2 CPM as a "Management" fee for being on Per Diem. So in reality you will be getting paid 27 CPM. They will split it automatically for you on each check. You will get 11 CPM as normal taxable pay. You then get the remainder of 16 CPM as untaxed Per Diem. The management fee is pretty much a rip off and their way of paying you less.

In the short term it means bigger pay checks now. Long term you will actually end up making less most of the time because you are still losing that 2 CPM.

Most people opt out as soon as they hit 90 days. It is generally more beneficial to find a good accountant that knows how the government Per Diem stuff works. Short term your checks may be a little smaller because of how much you are paying in extra taxes, but come refund time you will see a much larger check. This way you can also claim deductions for any business related expense that the company won't reimburse.

Home time is mostly what ever you want. I could go home every weekend for a 34 hr reset, but I wouldn't get many miles that way. To make any decent money in OTR you will need to be out for at least 2 weeks.

Tuition reimbursement is 90 days. Payments are $150 every month or something like that. Eventually I think you get one lump of cash to finish it off after a year or two with the company.

 

I started driving in 1995, pulling van freight for U.S. Xpress. When I got down with 7 weeks with my training, I was paid .25 then after my first year it was .28
I guess I'm just extremely surprised Scneider is still paying 1996 wages in 2013, 17 yrs later! The industry avg is around .45 I think. Don't know for sure as I'm o/o on percentage and was LTL linehaul before that, getting .52.

How do you guys let them get away with this crap?

 

Because they pay similar to every other one of the major starting companies?

I've been here for a year now. This is my first year of driving. I started out a 29 CPM. I'm now up to 36 CPM. I will have cleared over 37K for the year. I don't think that's too bad for my first year at the job coming in with no experience and not having to get any kind of college degree. Can't really expect to come into the job and make 50 CPM on day one.

I'm happy with the amount I make and I know it will increase in the future, I'm only 22. I have a long time left to earn more in the industry. I make a hell of a lot more than any of my friends who are working part time flipping burgers while also piling on student loans.

So I guess I'm going to keep letting them get away with paying me what I feel is a fair amount for the work I do.

 

I started out at 28 cpm (26 after the 2 cpm charge for per diem). I'm at 34 cpm now after 1.25 years of service (still on per diem so I'm actually making 32 cpm right now but I'll be coming off that here in a few days).

I'm also only 22 and I'm perfectly happy with the kind of money I make but I wouldn't complain if I made more. I drive a nicer personal vehicle then just about every one of my friends and I'm in the process of buying a house (if I can get home any time soon)

 

best explanation I've got on how they pay

 

I started driving when I was 21, I'm 38 going on 50 right now. It pains me to see guys satisfied with this. Don't forget how many more hours you are putting into the job every week to make that amount. I would put off the house and focus on investing in ways to boost my income first. And, I'm talking income per hour worked too, not just gross annually.

Go ahead and get your first year in with those slave drivers, then go find an LTL carrier to drive for or at least a private fleet to work for. maybe later on you may want to try going independent. I just hate seeing people settle, especially for huge companies that take your life for paltry money in return. Just my two cents. Don't settle, don't lie to yourself.

 

Exactly! Based on some of the posts I've been seeing here recently I have to wonder if the industry might be posting fake messages in order to lower driver pay expectations! In the year 2013 30K-35K is not "okay" for running OTR, not even your first year! I made close to 50K hauling tanker my first year and that was twenty years ago. Ever since 2005 I've made 65K-72K every full calendar year I've worked. You just have to look carefully, be patient, and keep your record clean.