Yearly incomes? for new and 2, 3 years out

Yeah SNI stated 38 to 42k/yr for being a tanker driver student. In the Chicago area. He said after 3 or 4 years 55k is normal. Just wondering how realistic it is. I want to move back out east to New Jersey, I think trucking might be the easiest way to do it.

 

Thanks for the information. I do have some questions. I assume this is not a standard week. If so, this would put your annual mileage at over 200,000 miles. What kind of annual miles are you running? What kind of home time do you run, if any?

 

I am averaging right around 2800-3000 miles per week since March when I started with them.

I have had two 3400 mile weeks back to back now. This week is only looking to be 2400 miles and I just had a 34 hour reset here on Tuesday and will be home on Friday till Monday. I did it that way this week as I had an awards ceremony for my 18 yo daughter who is graduating from HS this year.

I normally will work Sunday night or Monday morning until Friday sometime with occasional arrival homes on Saturday.

Every other weekend I have parenting time with my daughter and he gets me home for that entire weekend with them from Friday till Sunday and won't send me out till Monday.

The weekend I don't' have my kids, I am out till late on Friday or come home on Saturday.

 

So, as a driver with 8 years experience, I would expect you to make more miles per week than a new driver, but we are talking about very close in the amount of miles per week. My assumption was 60 hours per week at an average of 45 MPH for 2700 miles. You are running 2800-3000, so about 10% extra, which would be expected for an experienced driver.

If you figure you are working 60 hours per week, then that would make your average MPH about 50 MPH--again, an expected average speed compared to a new driver.

Thank you very much for validating my numbers.

 

no, my average speeds are 58 mph minimum with 61 a common sight.

I base my AVG time/speed on the number of miles driven/hours on duty as recorded by our qualcomm.

Even for a rookie, that should be VERY easy to obtain. It means having the discipline to sit in the truck for 2-3 hours before stopping, getting your break over and a quick walk around the truck and back at it.

It means having "finger food" you can eat easily as you drive and then taking your big meal breaks when you are sitting on the docks or at the end of the day or before you start your clock.

Finding a work flow that lets you put the most time on Line 3 and keeping it off line 4.

 

I am talking about taking your miles per week divided by the number of hours on lines 3 and 4 and using that to figure your average MPH. You made it sound like you were running maximum hours per week, which averages out to 60-62 hours per week. However, you did give me clues that you do not work 60 hours per week. Rereading what you said, you did indicate 10.5+ hours per day, but I believe with your home time, it comes out to 5 days per week, so more like 55 hours per week for 3000 miles or an overall average of about 55 MPH.

At orientation, rather than worrying about line 3 vs line 4, we were taught to use the overall average, so knowing you average about 10.5 per day and your average MPH is 55, then you know you are driving an average of about 580 miles per day. If you have a 1000 mile run, you know you can do that in just under 2 days. If asked to run 1300 miles, you know you will need 3 days to do that. I am sorry to not clarify that when I was discussing average MPH per hour worked (line 3 and 4).

Roehl is very nice because they allow you to take a 30-120 minute break for "lunch" and mark it as line 1, rather than line 4. That means you can take a nice long lunch (I will let the reader define what "long" means to them) and not worry about cutting out of your daily drive time or your "70" hours.

As I have been told so many times when I try to generalize, it all depends on the driver, the company and the loads you are hauling. Over the long term, my numbers hold up. However, in the short term, they can be problematic (like ensuring you have the money to pay the bills this week).

Thanks again for allowing me to learn from your experience and actual miles traveled rather than just my book work!

 

those 30-120 minute lunches are NOT keeping the left door closed. You are milking the cow and it's costing you driving time during the day.

You have 11 hours each day to drive. I am maxing that out to the point I have my 30 minute and 15 minute alarms going off on a regular basis. Most days, I pull in with less than 10 minutes on my 11 hour clock for driving.

My 14 hour clock only gets approached when I am stuck on a dock and cuts into my 11 hour clock. At least the 14 hour clock does not take time off the 70 hour clock.

You do whatever you have to (as a company driver paid mileage) to keep those wheels turning.

 

Am I missing something on this one? Two to three hours is about my minimum before stopping, not something to strive for. Is there something that radically different in a tractor-trailer that is not present in a straight truck?

I'm not trying to be snooty about it. Just wondering.

 

If your employer cannot keep your average miles over 2800 a week you need a new job, new driver or exp doesnt matter. At watkins i averaged 3000 miles a month doing LTL with up to 25 stops per run, with lonestar i averaged 3250 miles a week, never once had a week below 3000 miles and i had to srap/chain/tarp loads....


I think i know what your problem is though;

You are miss understanding legal... if i wait 6 hours at a customer that 6 hours is logged on line 2 sleeper, loading/unloading/fuel/pre trip etc is 15 min period not matter how long it takes..K? Anything after 15 min is logged in the sleeper.



Im not telling you to do math now to average your speed, im telling you at the end of your day, lets say your smart and go to a company with 65mph trucks...you take your miles for the day and devide by 62 or 63mph and thatd how many hours you log that it took to drive. Doing this can add 4-9 hours to your week


Stay away from big sheety companies do your reaserch use that degree and put in some effort, find a good company with lots of miles, fast trucks, and a higher cpm. Right now i have a 75mph truck and 55cpm = cha ching

 

Thats what i was thinking when i was OTR 95% of the time i'd run my full 11-12hrs behind the wheel without stopping





American Trucker