Realistic Starting Pay ?

Hey all,

Doing research before jumping in headfirst. Could you please tell me, what is a reasonable pay to expect in the first, second and third years of trucking? I'm looking into a program at a state college, the admissions guy told me $42k to 46K the first year and the upwards from there up to around $80k by the second/third year. He said typically this would be with 10-14 days out with 4 days home. Is this realistic? I've read several places that say you're out 12-14 days and other places I've read 4 to 6 weeks out. That sounds like a lot. I realize there's no set standard but is 2 weeks out a more common scenario compared to 4-6 weeks? Thanks for any info.

Hes incredibly wrong.

First of all, if your a rookie you pretty much have no choice but to do 4-6 weeks out. The "typical" policy is 1 day off for every week you're out on the road. I do 5 weeks and 4 days off. Once you can get experience you can find a job where you're home more often, but it's extremely difficult to land one of those jobs as a rookie with no experience.

The average salary for your first year is between 30-35k. Give or take. Personally I'm on pace for 31k.

You won't be going near 42-46k anytime soon. And you'll never make 80k unless you're on ice road truckers. Not even oversized haulers make that.

That guy is clearly just giving you nothing but fake information to get you to enroll. This job isn't about the money. We work about 70 hours a week. You can work two full time jobs and make a lot more and work just as much. This job is about the lifestyle, the sightseeing. You won't get rich in this industry but if this is the work you'll enjoy then you'll be one of those few Americans who actually love their job.

I realize my post sounds negative towards this career but the truth is that I love trucking and wouldn't want to do anything else. However, what I said is basically the reality of it.

Everyone I have talked to with schools, other drivers, etc. all say that the first year you CAN make between 35-42 thousand your first year. After that IF you change companies, pay scales differ greatly.

I passed a truck the other day, the sticker on the back advertising for drivers said they started out at 75 cents per mile.

Now, that sounds like and is a lot of money. But it didn't mention anything about mileage. How much experience you had to have. So who knows your yearly income.

But in saying that, with that kind of cpm , you could make well over 100,000 in a year with enough miles.

I don't see many of their trucks on the road, but I have seen a few. They only haul "special" cargo. Like high priced cars. Priceless art. ETC. Or that is what I have been told.

Heartland starts around 52 cents per mile. At 3000 miles a week, and just say 50 weeks a year, you could come close to 80,000 a year. That is just math, but it does make you think.

Yearly income has so many variables. Weather. Breakdowns. Load availability. How hard a driver wants to work. How good a driver is. Just to name a few. It is hard for anyone to say, yes you will make XXXX much per year.

Once your year is up, just look around. There are some very good paying jobs out there. But there is more to truck driving than money. As it has been said in many posts here at TT.

Truck driving is more than a job. It is a lifestyle.

If you find a job that pays good, but their other benefits stink, wouldn't do much if you need good benefits. Or you find a job with good benefits, but live payday to payday, that is not good either.

Look for the job that fits you best. There is no perfect company out there. There are just good companies and better companies. It is the driver that makes or breaks a company and what they are like.

Home time and OTR time will also vary. But rule of thumb that everyone I have talked to. On average, an OTR driver will be out 4 to 6 weeks at a time. Then home 1 day for every week out. But that doesn't mean if you are on the west coast and you have been out a month, and your company has a "hot load" that has to get to Maine and you live in FL. It is very doubtful you will be going home within that time limit.

To get tons of information about becoming a truck driver, click the tab at the top of the page labeled "Becoming a Truck Driver". It is full of articles that are great reading.

Keep it safe out there. Joe S

Welcome aboard Todd!

We have an article written by TruckerMike where he talks about his second year salary working for Prime Inc. He made $41k his second year. That's about right.

You can expect about $32k-$35k your first year, around $40k your second, and it will top out around $50k-$55k somewhere between years 3 and 5. Those are good average figures.

As far as home time, there are some companies that can get you home on weekends straight out of school, like TMC Transportation and Maverick Trucking amongst others. Dry van and flatbed companies have much better home time opportunities than refrigerated carriers. Roehl Transport has the best home time options I've seen in the industry so check that out.

The very best place to get started is our Truck Driver's Career Guide. It covers every topic imaginable that pertains to getting your trucking career underway and I highly recommend you go through it thoroughly. You'll learn a ton.

Hope this helps!

I've been driving for Schneider Bulk for about a month now. Our hometime policy is:

1) 6 flexible days per month as long as you are out for 10-14 days before going home. I have been home every other weekend (Fri/Sat/Sun) or;

2) Out 3 weeks, home 7 days straight.

You get to pick one of the hometime plans when you initially speak with your dispatcher. My dispatcher said you can change form one to the other but only 1 or 2 times per year.

As far as pay is concerned I make $0.38/mile both empty and loaded and so far I've been doing around 2400 miles per week. My checks are coming in at around $1000 gross per week. At the 6 month point they raise you to $0.42/mile, then at 1 year it's $0.44/mile. There are quarterly bonuses you can get which are about $300 per quarter, you have to meet goals like X% idle time, X% on-time delivery, no preventable accidents, etc, etc.

We also have accessorial pay. Whenever the work assignment says Live Unload I get $25. Even if I nap in my truck while customer unloads. If I am at a customer more than 2 hours I get paid $10/hour in 15 minute increments, that is detention pay. If I sit anywhere for 24 hours or more I get paid layover pay. It hasn't happened to me yet but I think it is $125 per 24 hour period. And most dispatchers are cool about it and approve it if you sat for 22 hours or 23.5 or anything like that.

I also get $150 per month for tuition reimbursement, tax free. And there was a $7500 sign-on bonus when I started. It is paid out over the first year in installments. I did not count any of that in my weekly paychecks, it all comes in on separate paychecks, so my $1000/week gross is just from miles and accessorial pay.

All my instructors and my dispatcher were honest in saying that in January and February freight slows down quite a bit... and that is when most new drivers quit because they fantasized that 2500 miles per week would last the entire year.

I am not sure what the Dry Van division is like, I haven't had the chance to talk to many of our Van guys yet. But everything my recruiter told me turned out to be exactly the way stuff works at Schneider.