Let's Argue About First-Year Driver Pay and LTL vs. OTR

vaportrail

Well-Known Member
you really wanna work 70+hours a week at 55years old screw that...
 
You're not going to make big money off the bat driving OTR. That is one of the biggest fallacies in the industry. You'll be lucky to make $30,000 in your first few years.
 
You're not going to make big money off the bat driving OTR. That is one of the biggest fallacies in the industry. You'll be lucky to make $30,000 in your first few years.

First sentence true, 2nd sentence false. If your not braindead, you will likely make more than 30K in your first full year alone. From there, you can easily be knocking on the door of 50K+ in your 2nd and 3rd years, if you choose companies wisely.

The information on this forum alone should steer any potential driver to better money that what you are saying.
 
Im with Batman its always better to under estimate then to over estimate. Also seeing driver is already in a money crunch. Those first few checks will have him pulling out his hair. He is also more gullible to the fleece purchase scams that promise big bucks.

MoSt people make more money when they know how to work the logbook, and spend more weeks on the road. Rookie home sickness will eat up his checks. Otr training doesn't pay much either unless you go with prime. But again he must watch out for the lease purchase scam that his trainer will be brain washing him with.

Whatever you do be safe, cover your donkey, use good judgment, and don't get in a hurry. Sadly your school will teach you barely how to pass your test, and training company Hmmm they probably want teach you much either. Good luck.
 
First sentence true, 2nd sentence false. If your not braindead, you will likely make more than 30K in your first full year alone. From there, you can easily be knocking on the door of 50K+ in your 2nd and 3rd years, if you choose companies wisely.

The information on this forum alone should steer any potential driver to better money that what you are saying.
You're starting to sound like a recruiter instead of a driver.

Typical OTR solo mega fleet driver runs an average of 2,000 miles a week. Typical 30 cpm beginner pay would give you a gross check of $600. Multiply that by 52 to get $31,200.

Nobody makes $50,000 plus a year to start with, and it doesn't matter how smart or how much of a hard worker you think you are. If everyone made over $50,000 within their first few years, turnover rates and driver shortages wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as they are now.
 
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You're starting to sound like a recruiter instead of a driver.

Typical OTR solo mega fleet driver runs an average of 2,000 miles a week. Typical 30 cpm beginner pay would give you a gross check of $600. Multiply that by 52 to get $31,200.

Nobody makes $50,000 plus a year to start with, and it doesn't matter how smart or how much of a hard worker you think you are. If everyone made over $50,000 within their first few years, turnover rates and driver shortages wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as they are now.
With a year experience, you can easily be driving a truck for .45/mile or higher.

And no company has ever held me at or below 2000 miles per week, not even regional gigs.
 
You're starting to sound like a recruiter instead of a driver.

Typical OTR solo mega fleet driver runs an average of 2,000 miles a week. Typical 30 cpm beginner pay would give you a gross check of $600. Multiply that by 52 to get $31,200.

Nobody makes $50,000 plus a year to start with, and it doesn't matter how smart or how much of a hard worker you think you are. If everyone made over $50,000 within their first few years, turnover rates and driver shortages wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as they are now.
I start drivers at $52k/year and then with bonuses and bennies they can earn around $70k.

If I exclude Duck, the company average miles per month is over 12,000. With him....it's more like ....well he does a fine job.

I've even paid for CDL classes in advance, dug drivers out of holes in SC and given them a new beginning.

I really don't know what game you're playing with your posts that ultimately seem as though you pulled them outta yer arse but you do NO service to people interested in trucking careers when you continually misinform and mislead.
 
You're starting to sound like a recruiter instead of a driver.

Typical OTR solo mega fleet driver runs an average of 2,000 miles a week. Typical 30 cpm beginner pay would give you a gross check of $600. Multiply that by 52 to get $31,200.

Nobody makes $50,000 plus a year to start with, and it doesn't matter how smart or how much of a hard worker you think you are. If everyone made over $50,000 within their first few years, turnover rates and driver shortages wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as they are now.
My first year out with the largest mega-carrier in the US, I averaged 2,800 miles/week. I was making 34cpm when I left with right at a year in.

No idea where you get your numbers.
 
And DoubleD, what I offer new drivers is truth, not a sugar coated 9-iron measuring contest. I'm a driver that has been there and done that, and will be HONEST about my experiences and income. If that isn't provoding a good service to newbies, then what is?

Btw, I saw a celadon shuttle van at a Wallmart here in town today. I bumped into the new drivers at the customer service counter. It was a new husband and wife team, and they were trying to transfer $14 from their Comdata card to their Wallmart card. They could only transfer $10, and were $4 short of going home. I gave them $5, and they made a huge deal about it. This is the reality many new drivers face, and this is the side of the industry I try to expose to them before they make a career change because a driver acting like a recruiter told them they can make $50,000 a year plus to start with.
 
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When yall talk to people wanting to go into the industry, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BE HONEST. Nobody ever talks about the bad weeks. You know, the weeks you're going to be searching the truckstop parkinglot for cigarette butts because you can't afford to buy a pack. The weeks where you'll sit waiting for a load or truck repairs. The weeks you sit during the winter because of bad weather. Etc. It happens to us all, because that is part of the job. Don't tell newbies: "Oh, you can easily make XXX a year", when we all know that isn't true. While you may offer newbies $50,000 a year, what you won't tell them is they have to live in the truck and work 70 hours a week to get that. In a perfect world, you can make that with any company.
 
Exactly Batman expectations will ruin a marriage and a career. I was all set up to have 3000 miles this week. 1 load canceled now I'm looking at 2000.

Crap happens in this industry pretty quickly. So you better be prepared. Yes the guy can get on with an ltl company that will throw money at him and have him sitting by the phone waiting for the ok to come to work. Or he can be making 40plus driving 55 in a prime casket truck. He has a lot of options but for the most part schools are graduating people every week, and very few will gamble at putting 3 and 4 week wonders behind the wheel and paying them big bucks. Its all about location location location.
 
I got quite successful in LTL, but it wasn't easy to get where I'm at. LTL is hard work, so make no assumptions that you'll be doing nothing but D&H's with LTL. You'll have to touch everything that comes on and off your truck, and in most cases drive a truck that's older than you are. With some LTL's, you'll earn every bit of that $70,000 a year.
 
I got quite successful in LTL, but it wasn't easy to get where I'm at. LTL is hard work, so make no assumptions that you'll be doing nothing but D&H's with LTL. You'll have to touch everything that comes on and off your truck, and in most cases drive a truck that's older than you are. With some LTL's, you'll earn every bit of that $70,000 a year.
I thought you worked for the Post Office.
 
And DoubleD, what I offer new drivers is truth, not a sugar coated 9-iron measuring contest.
You offer nothing but your short lived experience with CRE and the DOOM AND GLOOM you suffered as "this is how it is newbie, so you better learn to like it!"
I'm a driver that has been there and done that, and will be HONEST about my experiences and income.
Then be honest about your tenure, your pay, how you became an authority with six months OTR.

Btw, I saw a celadon shuttle van at a Wallmart here in town today. I bumped into the new drivers at the customer service counter. It was a new husband and wife team, and they were trying to transfer $14 from their Comdata card to their Wallmart card. They could only transfer $10, and were $4 short of going home. I gave them $5, and they made a huge deal about it. This is the reality many new drivers face, and this is the side of the industry I try to expose to them before they make a career change because a driver acting like a recruiter told them they can make $50,000 a year plus to start with.
WOW!

$5 ?

With your LTL pay one would think you could've at least offered a $10!

And NO, I didn't miss your; Typical and Average. But you have no validity to your statements, they are not fact, they are your own perceptions.

Are you still reading your own posts? Are you not reading what many others are saying? Because for every one of you that don't want to be more than 150 miles from home and can't seem to make a go of OTR....
there are 10 who rebutt your experiences in a positive manner.
 
So nothing bad ever happens to you guys on the road? Trucks never break down, loads never get cancelled, you never get held up at a shipper or reciever, it never snows or rains, you never get held up in traffic? I can go on and on. I think maybe you need to take your own advice and read what you write, because we don't live in a perfect world. There is no such thing as 'stable work' in this industry, and you're a fool for trying to lead people to believe that.

By the way, never once did I say I had my own authority.

Injun, the post office is LTL. In general terms, LTL refers to multiple customers shipping product on the same trailer.
 
Rookies need to learn the good, the bad, and the ugly facts about this job. It is by no means "rainbows and kittens".

In fact, misguidance is one of the leading causes of driver turnover, and Yall are contributing to that. You are trying to sell a Pinto as if its a Ferarri.
 
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Rookies need to learn the good, the bad, and the ugly facts about this job. It is by no means "rainbows and kittens".

In fact, misguidance is one of the leading causes of driver turnover, and Yall are contributing to that. You are trying to sell a Pinto as if its a Ferarri.
Cute.

Don't you have mail to deliver?
 

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