Do OTR company drivers really incur a higher living cost than those....

Sam McCloud

Well-Known Member
occupations that are stationary and local where by the employee commutes to/from home everyday?

Let's say I am an accountant for a local bank in Fort Wayne, IN and I gross $65,000 a year. I only have to commute 5 miles per day 5 days per week in my economical car that's paid off. I have a 1-br apartment I pay $500/mo. in Indiana and the landlord pays for all the utilities. I'm single with no dependents other than myself. I have no pets or house plants. I cook my own meals at home and shower at home every morning. I can buy all my groceries at local Walmarts and Kroegers. I use the local laundromat to do my wash and I change into clean clothes at least once everyday. I belong to a local gym and pay $30/mo. as a member.

Now, hypothetically, I take a job with a mega-carrier as an OTR driver while still maintaining my apartment in Fort Wayne for at least the first year. I might see an average of five home days per month. On the road I will have to rely on the services of truck stops for most of my daily living needs. Let's say I make $65,000 gross the first year for "Tom Jones Trucking, LLC" whose home terminal is let's say 200 miles of Fort Wayne. I'm using the same income amounts for easy comparison. I know $65K gross year may sound like wishful thinking for a rookie driver but I use this amount to make comparisons easier. I wanted to become a driver because paperwork and numbers-crunching all day long was boring as hell. The roar of diesel engines and the grind of gears sparked my fancy.

Also, I don't like to use my sleeper cab as a kitchen so I will heavily rely on restaurants (not fast-food joints) over the road and will choose the healthiest choices possible from menus. I will generally buy stuff for sandwiches to keep in my cooler for lunch and snack stuff as fresh fruit but I want one hot full-course breakfast in the morning and one hot full-course dinner in the evening served to me by a waitress at a table. Even as a driver I would like at least one hot shower and one clean change of clothes daily. I like to keep fit and pump iron for fitness so gyms at TSs will be important for me in my lifestyle.

Which job will have allowed me to put more money in savings for that hypothetical year after income taxes and the cost of living? The bank accountant position or the OTR driver position assuming both jobs grossed the same?

Do truck drivers really sustain a higher cost of living than somebody with a "home" job all other things equal?

How much (or what percentage of your gross pay) were you able to put in the bank last year from your company OTR position assuming you at least maintained cheap apartment for that timeframe and weren't making car payments?
This also assumes you are single and have no animals or houseplants to need paid care for. You have no spouse or children to provide for. Everything you earn is for you only except for what the IRS takes, your home state takes and what TS/roadside businesses take out of your pocket that would otherwise be saved by having a "home"/non-traveling job.

What percentage of your GROSS annual pay could you commit to savings?
 
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Depends on your income and financial behavior.

A lot of the single no independents OTR guys live in the truck and don't bother with a mortgage or rent. They spend as little as possible on the road because they're smart and not lazy. They bank a crapload of money to set themselves up for later.


Others **** away every penny they make and can never seem to earn enough.

If you can make 65k a year at any 9-5 I say do it. I make way more than that but the hours are insane and the labor is more a physical. I wouldn't have messed up my shoulder pushing numbers.
 
Depends on your income and financial behavior.

A lot of the single no independents OTR guys live in the truck and don't bother with a mortgage or rent. They spend as little as possible on the road because they're smart and not lazy. They bank a crapload of money to set themselves up for later.


Others **** away every penny they make and can never seem to earn enough.

If you can make 65k a year at any 9-5 I say do it. I make way more than that but the hours are insane and the labor is more a physical. I wouldn't have messed up my shoulder pushing numbers.
You back working?
 
I know how you are feeling after getting my knee tune up I was bouncing off the walls. That should make short work of those. I used to grab them with vise grips and bent them back an forth, glad I didn't have too many. More glad I don't have any seals at all anymore.
 
I know how you are feeling after getting my knee tune up I was bouncing off the walls. That should make short work of those. I used to grab them with vise grips and bent them back an forth, glad I didn't have too many. More glad I don't have any seals at all anymore.
It especially sucks when you have to hold yourself back.

Technically I can do whatever because there isn't anything physically stopping me the way a broken foot would. But if I do too much it irritates it instead of healing it and hurts like a sumbitch.

That's what makes it worse than anything. I have all this time on my hands but can't use it. I also have less money so I can't use that either. 😂
 
Yeah kind of damned if you do damned if you don't. If you don't let it heal to 100% or as close as it will get you will be right back to where you started. But then waiting to heal you will go bat shit crazy.
 
It especially sucks when you have to hold yourself back.

Technically I can do whatever because there isn't anything physically stopping me the way a broken foot would. But if I do too much it irritates it instead of healing it and hurts like a sumbitch.

That's what makes it worse than anything. I have all this time on my hands but can't use it. I also have less money so I can't use that either. 😂
I’m in the same boat ,been off work and on crutches since second week in December with a bone stress fracture in my hip.just letting it heal.
 
occupations that are stationary and local where by the employee commutes to/from home everyday?

Let's say I am an accountant for a local bank in Fort Wayne, IN and I gross $65,000 a year. I only have to commute 5 miles per day 5 days per week in my economical car that's paid off. I have a 1-br apartment I pay $500/mo. in Indiana and the landlord pays for all the utilities.


then stay there...here rents start at a meager $1,000 per month, for a studio apartment, and the landlords DO NOT pay any utilities. some places have a parking garage if you want to pay the extra each month, otherwise, you park outside.

food, cable tv, even a hot dog will cost you big bucks.

even though as an OTR driver, for me personally i'd keep my apartment at that $500 per month rent. i'd want "solitude, peace and quiet, and the opportunity to go around town to places like my barbershop, the local markets, pharmacy, etc,etc,"

i am able to make bank with me OWNING a home, paying a car lease, car/house taxes, utility bills which include water/sewer, car/house insurances, and eating quite well on real foods not junk or overly processed.
 
then stay there...here rents start at a meager $1,000 per month, for a studio apartment, and the landlords DO NOT pay any utilities. some places have a parking garage if you want to pay the extra each month, otherwise, you park outside.

food, cable tv, even a hot dog will cost you big bucks.

even though as an OTR driver, for me personally i'd keep my apartment at that $500 per month rent. i'd want "solitude, peace and quiet, and the opportunity to go around town to places like my barbershop, the local markets, pharmacy, etc,etc,"

i am able to make bank with me OWNING a home, paying a car lease, car/house taxes, utility bills which include water/sewer, car/house insurances, and eating quite well on real foods not junk or overly processed.
We haven't had $500 rent since I was in high school. There are some crap holes for like $450 but I don't count it since your car would get stolen every other week if you parked there.

An actual decent place I'd wanna live in as an accountant making $65,000 a year...you're talking $800 + utilities minimum.

Since I'm allergic to spending $9600 a year on something I'll never own, a mortgage made more sense. Plus for the same amount as a townhome I get an actual house, garage, yard, parking for multiple vehicles and trailers, etc. And the monthly payment only changes on the whim of the tax people not the whim of the owner AND the tax people.
 
then stay there...here rents start at a meager $1,000 per month, for a studio apartment, and the landlords DO NOT pay any utilities. some places have a parking garage if you want to pay the extra each month, otherwise, you park outside.

food, cable tv, even a hot dog will cost you big bucks.

even though as an OTR driver, for me personally i'd keep my apartment at that $500 per month rent. i'd want "solitude, peace and quiet, and the opportunity to go around town to places like my barbershop, the local markets, pharmacy, etc,etc,"

i am able to make bank with me OWNING a home, paying a car lease, car/house taxes, utility bills which include water/sewer, car/house insurances, and eating quite well on real foods not junk or overly processed.
If I were to take a job as an OTR driver, I would try to put a down payment on a cheap new-construction Indiana 3-br home after the first year to free me of the landlord. I would then put two room tenants in the place: those with high credit scores, clean criminal records, steady employment and good credentials only.
I would have the place to retreat to on precious few off days.

I can live without cable TV and eat sensible healthy full-course meals. I stay away from fries, hot dogs and hamburgers. I don't smoke, drink or gamble. I think most TS's have free WiFi. I do have a 1995 Toyota Corolla that's super reliable and paid for. My single biggest living expense will be restaurant food on the road. I can still get sandwich stuff at Wally-World for lunch. It's not that I'm too lazy to cook, I prefer to do it in the luxury, space and comfort of a home kitchen and a patio barbecue. My other fear is that a trucks driver's personal time is limited as well. The last thing I want to do after up to 14 hours on the HOS clock is cook dinner. A banking job is typically 9-to-5. I don't feel truckers live 9-to-5 lives.

I wish truckers could just stop at terminals spread all over the nation owned by their respective companies to live during their off-duty hours. Such terminals might have full living quarters with full-time maids and cooks for drivers passing through off duty. Kind of like military barracks. This is how railroad train crews live, I believe. They don't have sleeper cabs on locomotives or even cabooses anymore.
 
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Seriously if you can be an accountant and make 65k where rent is $500 then do it. Don't get into trucking at all.
I really don't know what an accountant makes where the rent is paltry as it is in states like Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Kansas and Georgia. I really think OTR dry-van trucking for mega-carriers is one the highest paying blue-collar (with minimal hard labor) jobs for wherever in America you live. If you want to maintain an apartment or buy a home as a driver, it makes money sense to do it in state with low housing costs. I kinda like Indiana and those other cornbelt because I like upland bird hunting and housing's cheap too. I also like boating and there is Lake Michigan nearby. I live in Boise, Idaho right now paying $544/mo. for one room in a 2-br. apartment. Here real estate and rent has gone through the roof. In 2005, a decent 2-br apartment could have been had for $400/mo. up on the Boise bench but no more. The Rustbelt, The Corn Belt, The Heartland of America, The Old South is now the promised land for low-cost living. There is the new Eastward Expansion of the 21st century with Americans heading east because things in the West are no longer best. I also like living in a state fee of Commie Libs and gun-grabbers.

Both OTR mega-carrier drivers and bean counters sit on their tails all day long. The trucker side of it seems less boring and more scenic. The roar of diesel engines seems much more awesome than the clicking of printing calculators. Grabbing a gear shifter and stabbing the brake pedal on downgrades seems more thrilling than pushing keys to crunch numbers. So, it's not all about money. I really doubt one can get a numbers crunching job as a rookie in bum_ Indiana for over $35,000 a year. The trucker home-based in Hoosier might still bank better than many accountants, IT professionals, school teachers or store managers there. Truck driving is the blue collar job that pays the middle-class wages of many white collar occupations.
 
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We haven't had $500 rent since I was in high school. There are some crap holes for like $450 but I don't count it since your car would get stolen every other week if you parked there.

An actual decent place I'd wanna live in as an accountant making $65,000 a year...you're talking $800 + utilities minimum.

Since I'm allergic to spending $9600 a year on something I'll never own, a mortgage made more sense. Plus for the same amount as a townhome I get an actual house, garage, yard, parking for multiple vehicles and trailers, etc. And the monthly payment only changes on the whim of the tax people not the whim of the owner AND the tax people.

In Fort Wayne, IN, a 3-br/2-car home can be rented in the suburbs now as low as $450/mo.

A new-construction 3-br 1-car garage home in northern Indiana just outside Ft. Wayne can be had as low as $89K. You are now lucky to get a new 3-br home in Boise for $200K.

You want to live in an expensive state like commie-lib California. Even in the apartment complex I live in Boise downtown now, a one-br can be had $670/mo. all utilities paid. It's no fancy complex but no rat-infested ghetto either.
 
I live in a logistics corridor. Lots of jobs, higher cost of living.

Upside being I never had to run OTR even as a brand spanking newbie.
 
I think most TS's have free WiFi.
You don’t get nothing from a TS that you don’t pay for. You can’t stream anything on the free indoor WiFi. You can do some web browsing but are very limited in the content you can look at. You want decent WiFi. Park close to the fuel island as possible as that’s where the antenna is usually mounted and pay for it. It’s like 200$ a year $6 per day or a 4 hour block for $4
 

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