Not sure why anyone would have to take a pay cut to run local/regional and be home more. Shorter hauls generally pay significantly better than longer runs, so the carrier is not hurting by having a driver on as local regional. In my situation, owning the truck, I started narrowing my focus to upper midwest regional starting in '99. I do significantly better than I even did running around the rest of the country. By the house a couple times a week, off on the weekends, and take 3-4 weeks off a year, and doing very well. So I have always thought this was a scam that a driver should have to take a pay cut to be home more.
It's kinda like starting at the bottom with the company so it would possibly be a pay cut at first.
Neither my current job nor this other one pays hourly so I can't compare directly. I have to do some projecting based on their pay scales which are also different. I'm also basing it on having spoken to multiple drivers, one of whom used to work where I currently do. I can't go by what he's making though because he's a more experienced driver overall, so they started him higher than I will.
I mean it might not even be a pay cut at all, I just have to assume there's a possibility.
I'm currently actually working 6 days a week per the calendar... Monday to Saturday, Sunday to Friday. Our pay period is Wednesday to Tuesday so my paychecks make it look like I work 7 days one week and 5 days the other. I typically make about $200-$280 a day if I'm planned well but some days are super short and I might do a $120 run and be done, other days are full and I'm making $360 that day. I got a couple weeks of almost nothing but those almost $360 days and it was damn good paychecks but insanely exhausting. That literally put me in the hospital, burning the benefits of working so hard right up in medical bills. I told them never to do that to me again. $200-$280 a day is a better pace and the money is "good enough."
Being dedicated to one company has the downside of getting kinda screwed when they're on a slow period until drivers start quitting. If enough quit during a slow period, my famine becomes a feast again because they don't have to spread the loads so thin. There aren't a lot of famines but they do still happen. It's usually the stores ordering less, not so much the company whose products I run not having enough stuff to load.
Now here's the thing. I make what I make because I hustle. I don't know how to NOT hustle. I tried to slow down and smell the roses but I don't have it in me yet to stop unless I absolutely must (bathroom, mechanical, mandatory break, etc). I get that *don't waste time* from my father. My hustle means I've gotten as much as 3600 miles in a week...as a local northeast driver...and that's having 2 loads a day ie four drop & hooks. This is Pennsylvania, New Jersey (Elizabeth, for example), Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, and occasionally Staten Island NY.
Anyway, that's why I asked if you all would take a pay cut or risk a potential pay cut for better hours or home time.
