Why is trucking such a low paying industry?

I got paid $50 an hour today. I wish everyday was like that.

Mikeeee

 

I agree Danny,it is sad drivers are making next to nothing wages.Companies pay low because they can.So untill the president increases truckers wages,companies will always pay poverty wages.Obama is going to do his best to increase minamum wage to over $9.00 an hr but do you think him or anybody will help the truckers.

 

I agree,it should be illegal not paying OT to truckers.When you do the math,a driver works 70 hrs a week and not even making min wage.Everybody that does'nt drive trk,lawmakers anyway thinks are job is so easy because in their eyes all we do is drive.If they only knew.

 

I agree with you 100% it's BS.

 

It's because company drivers are replaceable cogs. Many times there is another body waiting at the door to get in, so a carrier doesn't necessarily have to pay more.

Do your research. Better paying jobs exist, but you have to dig them out. Most of the time, they only hire experienced drivers.

 

And, FWIW, some of us live in parts of the country (Cochise County, AZ) where the only industry dried up and blew away 4 years ago. Leaving the choices for employment as "skilled labor" (heavy equip mechanic/certified welder} either commute 250 miles round trip, try and find quarters that allow money sent home, or try and subsist and support a family on minimum wage in a right to work state. The only CDL jobs around for the last year have been substitute bus driving which has netted about 4 hours(@7.65) a good pay period(2 wks). A job that pays $16.00/hr period is unheard of outside of medical, or Military Intelligence background or masters level IT for the MI.
I would love to be working again with a wage that pays what my skills are worth, somewhere near my home so that I could spend time with my kids and wife, but at this point anything that pays enough to pay bills and stave of the bank isn't even a question. And military retirement doesn't go far with 4 kids and a mortgage. Rant Over

 

Burkhart Enterprises in Knoxville is looking for full time drivers; what's that all about? Wouldn't that be better than a temp. service?

 

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to make more money. You go where the better paying jobs are. I avg. $65K a year with tanker/hazmat; to some that is low pay, to me it is very good pay. If you have no endorsements, passport, TWIC, & pulling a dry van & spending a lot of time in truckstops playing video games, you will be on the bottom rung of the pay scale. I didn't really love being away from home a lot, but that's what it took to keep my family in a nice home, in a safe neighborhood. The good pay is there, but you must have the motivation to go get it.

 

Keep in mind, we are dealing with a national based type of thing as opposed to a local type of thing. That $17-$20 an hour is downright slavery, if you live in downtown San Francisco or NYC. But, if you live in the rural midwest, what you can make trucking can go a lot further. For instance, I can barely buy a little 2-3 bedroom home on 1/8 and acre tract of land in a major city for less than $200,000. But in Iowa, I can get over 2.25 acres, ranch home with 3 bedrooms, machine shed, other out buildings, far lower tax rate than in the city, for under $200,000.

One person's idea of a low wage, and maybe rightly so, is another person's decent wage. Depends where you live and your lifestyle. Carriers are getting drivers from a broad cross section of the country. It has little to do with conspiracy theories like illegals taking the jobs and other perpetrated ideas. It just has more to do with how much must be paid to get what you need. Simple supply and demand. Why pay $100,000 a year (reasonable living to do well in San Francisco) when I can pay $50,000 a year and get the same result by using a driver from Missouri. And you also have the market on freight. The market will not bear normal freight rates of $3 a mile across the board. There is just so much that can be paid to the driver and still buy fuel, pay taxes and fees and insurance, and buy and maintain equipment. Except in a niche market, no carrier can just set a price to move freight. They have to compete with other carriers.

To improve your lot in this business, you have to make yourself more marketable. Keeping a squeaky clean driving record, a virtually non existent driver score on the CSA standards, getting every endorsement on that CDL that is available, etc. And don't just hop on board with any carrier just because they run a particular tractor and have super glossy truck rag ads.