Wish I knew this before I did Linehaul, governed at 62 mph.

I'll speak for my company here and they don't send me out in subpar equipment or in bad weather. I'm home everyday working 53 hours a week 100% drop and hook terminal to terminal and gross $130,000 a year. I have no major complaints. If I didn't love what I do I wouldn't do it. I'm 25 years into this profession and I still get excited every night when I turn the key.

 

On my run the difference between a 65 and 70mph tractor is 7mins every two hours. That adds up to saving me around 50mins a night. Would I quit over it? No but I'm not running a longer run in a slower truck.

 

This is 100% an outlier, I've been doing this cracking on 12 years, the very vast majority of trucking jobs are pretty terrible these days. I mean, all things considered, they have been since the 80's.

I'd really love to know why I'm still making as much, today as a trucker, as truckers in the 80's did, when adjusted for inflation. Or is it just that I'm not working hard enough. For over a decade. Ya know, over a million miles of incident accident free experience, including no moving violations, with stable work history. I'm worth about 70k'ish for a local gig in a major US city. That is not okay.

 

The past few years all of the major LTL carriers were begging for drivers. If you're in a major city then you could have applied and been hired by one if them. You would have definitely made more than 70ish.

 

Yeah I'm talking about a mon-fri, with two full days off, not "get in on Saturday at noon and leave on Sunday at 5pm."

 

Like I said I'm home everyday and weekend. My so

If you're in a major city then the jobs are there with an LTL company. You just have to knock on some doors and make some phone calls to the terminals near you.

 

I'm not gonna keep arguing the point, you're right. Given the right circumstances, you can probably get a really great local job, that pays amazingly.
I want to work 50/60 hours a week, on a five on two off job, locally, and make good money. It's not here, in this line of work, in my experience.

 

Bud I'm not arguing either but I can tell you for a fact those jobs are out there. I have two sons that both drive. The oldest is in food service and makes 6 figures. The youngest works with me and went through our dock to driver program. His first year at 22 yrs old he made $83,000 on a Mon/Fri day shift schedule. The jobs are out there. Have you applied at Estes, OD, XPO, R&L, or any of the other ltl companies? Have you applied at GFS, McLane, Sysco or any of the other food service companies? How about the fuel haulers? The jobs are there driver. What city do you live in?

 

Drivers can make just as good money or even potentially better money, driving 62 or 72. A 200 mile run is a minimum 3 hours drive time either way. It ain't about the speed, but the efficiency.