What Kind Of Income Can A Driver Expect To Make?

As with anything, you are going to find a range of pay amounts in the industry, since it is a varied and diverse industry. What is defined as trucking is the guy driving a dump truck locally, the guy delivering soda pop and beer, the long haul guy running cross country, and everything in between that involves a truck. Some people do pretty well financially, some do not. Where you are located and the prevailing wage scale can have a big effect on how much you earn. Live in the deep south, and the basic pay scale is much lower than in the northeast. Look for your dream hjob that gets you home every night and off every weekend, and it will pay less than some other jobs. There are plenty of compromises to be made.

Typically, starting pay is going to be in the 30-40k range, depending on the company, the products hauled, and where and how far you run. Most of the major companies that have training programs, tend to pay towards the bottom endge of the pay scale. There are some exceptions, but in general they swap you a low wage for the training and wheel time in their trucks. Later on, you can take this experience and turn it into a better job, usually with a different company, but first you have to get the experience.

Some of what you get paid depends on what you haul. Vans, reefere, and flatbeds are the industry standard, and any company running them tends to have plenty of competition that will come in and take away their business on a moments notice. They are also fairly easy trailers to operate, without many moving parts and limited possibility of making uncorrectable mistakes, so they get used in a lot of companies that use new drivers. Something like food ingredients or liquid chemicals, making a rookie mistake and hooking up to the wrong fitting can be a major problems, resulting in contamination of food items, or incompatable chemicals being mixed together. So those types of trucking tend to shy away from brand new drivers. And liquids take a little bit more skill to handle, and aren't the best to learn on.

For getting started, plan on a relatively crappy year in most cases. Lots of time away from home, not the greatest pay in the world, and seemingly endless miles to go. That's the usual practice for getting started, and paying the dues that will get you set up in a better deal. The better places are out there, and they need drivers, but they don't need drivers so badly that they will take on beginning drivers. They would rather have a truck sit empty than put the wrong person behind the wheel. It may sound a little bit cruel, and like it's some kind of closed society or exclusive club, but that's the rules these companies have established. And most companies that have these types of policies, have them because of past experiences, or because the insurance world simply won't cover them if they can't prove their drivers have a good history and background.

As for owner operators, the recommendation you will probably get on here is not to even think about that until you have 5 years of experience behind the wheel. You need experience driving, you need experience in running the books and figuring out the finances, you need experience in maintenance, and a plethora of other areas befor owning your own truck. It isn't as simple as simply buying a truck and hooking up to a trailer. Actually, it can be that simple, but making a success of it is something else. At this point, you don't even know what you would haul, and picking out a truck is primarily a job of matching the machine to the job you are going to do. making bad decisions, and becoming an owner operator the wrong way is one of the fastest ways to go broke without entering a casino.

This may not be the advice you want to hear, but it's factual. Make sure that your wife is ready for the possibilities of things happening when you aren't home. I don't think the industry spends enough effort on explainign to spouses what the job will be like, and lots of potential truckers founder on the rocky part of the marriage. It's not something that has to happen, but often does because the expectations and the reality don't match up.

 

By the way, you aren't upsetting anyone with the questions. It's much better to ask now and get some info than not and get into a bad situation later on. I'd much rather that you ask now and decide for or against, rather than not ask and be disgruntled and worried out on the highway while passing me in a rainstorm.

 

Why don't you ask your wife if she'd like to tune in to the Truckers Wives postings? Maybe she'll make some friends and not feel so all alone

BOL!

 

Don't apologize. There are many people, including myself, who devote time to this site for the very reason that you are here. We are here to help.

Read this very closely. Net income, or that which you can spend is what is important. All quotes that you see are reflective of GROSS income amounts. Now, this is not to say that one cannot make a fine living in trucking, but you have to be careful in your choices along the way to achieve it.

If you've read many posts on this site, you should have some idea of the pitfalls that one can get into. On the other hand, a good husband and wife team can actually make the MOST potential net income that can be made in the industry. Why? Because team operations are in high demand, and married couples are the most successful combination for team operations.
Couples are in high demand, and a good company will pay you very well, once your record is established.

Now...those that own a truck do gross more, and a team owned truck will gross double what a single truck can, again, under optimum conditions, and with the right company. However, under the economic climate that exists at the moment, the compensation to owners by just about every carrier, has not matched the costs of operating those trucks, which has led to a sharp decline in profit that should be made. When you factor in the cost of fuel and the costs of insurances that one SHOULD carry at all times, both of which are skyrocketing, owners are eating the increases, at the expense of the bottom lines that carriers assure for themselves.

Another thing I always caution, is to NOT walk before you can run. It's practically financial suicide to jump into the position of being an owner/operator before knowing a bit about the industry. You need to get a feel of the areas of the country where profit is maximized versus those areas where you will lose by going into them. Part of the big problem is that most all carriers pay the same rate per-mile, no matter where they try to send you, and the operating costs to go into the northeast or the far west, can be like night and day, versus operating in the southeast or the midwest. You have to be able to know when a lease agreement shoved in front of you, is worth signing or rejecting. You will want to get a grip on how shippers and receivers operate, and when it makes sense to take or reject a load, for the immense differences in what it takes to load it, haul it, and get it off your trailer at the other end.

All things are not equal in this industry, and the Government has washed their hands of regulating it, except in areas of safety enforcement. The financial aspects of it are largely contractual matters, and there are people just waiting to exploit the ignorant (those that are not aware) that enter into it.

Absolutely. If you so desire, you and your wife could make a fine living, and eventually control your own destiny. The key thing here, is to take it slow and easy, do the research necessary to go into this with your goals in mind, the knowledge to make wise and informed decisions, and to reach those goals in all the right ways. Your first year will be the hardest, and will come with the most sacrifice. After that, you will be able to write your own ticket.

Okay...let me be blunt. The trucking industry is a very competitive environment. Over the past three decades, it has become very volatile as well. There are times when freight is good, and there are times when freight is slow. There are no absolutes in the industry. It makes no matter where you hang your hat. There's good times and bad times. There are good DAYS and bad days.

One of the more frustrating aspects of the industry in my estimation, and where drivers make their biggest mistakes, is to set their priorities in the wrong direction. Many will choose a job, according to the truck they will drive. Others base their decisions on the highest rate per-mile that is offered, and as I pointed out to another poster, this is not always the best deal. Still others will not check out a carrier before going to work for them, to have a complete understanding of what the working conditions truly are, or what the net income will shake out after the carrier nickel and dimes them to death, and they get trapped, because they are then working week to week, and cannot afford to make a change that needs to be made.

My first job as a truck driver, which lasted for eight years, was working for a man who had the philosphy that a "starved truck driver made the best truck driver". He would allow them to make just enough to keep them there, and not a nickel more. It worked. The man offered nothing that I consider today to be worth accepting, in terms of decent working conditions, yet people stayed with him for years. The reality is, we didn't starve at all. I made a fine living while working for him initially, and through him, after I bought my first truck. He taught me how to manage my money. He was so tight, that he squeezed George's face until it turned red, but he retired after sixteen years in the business, a multi-millionaire. I can honestly say that despite all, I didn't adopt many of his philosophies, but I sorted through them to improve myself, because of him. I'm not nearly as heartless as he was. His motivation was money, whereas mine is contentment and being merely comfortable. I like to sleep at night.

Anyway...the point is...you have to be careful to be evermindful of the fact that not every week will be the same, nor can you count on making the same amount of money each week. You have to set back for the bad weeks, with the extra you make on the good weeks. And this holds true whether you are a company driver, or an owner/operator. Those in trucking are paid according to production, and the things that affect production can range wide and far, and most times, they are completely out of the control of the drivers themselves. Some can deal with that, and some cannot. The ones that seem to have the most trouble, are those that come from careers where they were paid by the hour. Previously salaried workers follow a close second.

An observation I have witnessed repeatedly, is seeing people sit around and count every minute, and every penny, when they calculate what they are making, rather than to widen their view to the larger picture. I have always focused on what is netted for the the week or month, rather than the hour or day. A man can drive himself crazy by counting pennies and worrying about what they are "losing" when idle.

If your wife is indeed "needy and materialistic", I would caution you that this could be a stumbling block for her, because it will take time to reach optimum income. This is not the same thing as landing a job at the local auto plant, where incomes are practically guaranteed to be generous and assured. It's a long arduous process, and everything has to be measured and weighed, in order to take the right steps to get to the top of the game.

To be quite honest, you can count on making $24,000 per driver to perhaps $30,000 per driver initially in SPENDABLE net income, IF you hook up with a good company that will keep you moving. Establish a safe driving record and attain a good work record, and the top end of that spectrum can be a realistic $40,000 to $50,000 net, again by making wise choices. There are many, or most for that matter, companies that will limit your potential earnings to around two-thirds that amount, and to also be quite honest, most fall into that trap as well.

My personal analysis where it concerns Owner/Operators, is that the current economic climate, will limit a driver to netting less than what a company driver can make, IF all things are equal, and all drivers have similar benefits in place for themselves. Yes...you can shave by not doing so, to increase net income, but at what cost? An owner/operator who lands in the hospital with an injury or serious illness, can lose out big time if they are uninsured.

I made the switch from being an owner/operator the first of this year, to a company driver, after two decades of operating my own trucks. My net spendable income has risen by 25%. When I factor in what I have saved in insurance costs, my income has doubled. The co-pays on the required medicine that my wife and myself take, gives me another $1750.00 a year in savings, because I previously had no prescription benefit with my health insurance coverage, that had come to cost me more than $1200.00 a month. While I enjoyed the freedoms of operating my own business, I was throwing good money down the drain.

Everyone has unique circumstances, and I suppose that every person has to weight all the factors involved to arrive at the best decision, and what risks they can afford to take. I'm not much of a gambler myself, because I've lost out too many times when I tried to play that way.

I'm sure that if you take the time to do as I have learned to do, the decisions that you make will be the best for your circumstances and needs.