$35k Annualy, X0.66(taxes) / 12 Months /4 Weeks /70 Hours = $6.85 An Hour After Tax? Is That Right?

Nruck H. asks?

$35k annualy, x0.66(taxes) / 12 months /4 weeks /70 hours = $6.85 an hour after tax? Is that right?

Seems like a low starting wage to me.

Where did you come up with 35k? That is likely a "first year" compensation figure. Due to training duration and the steep learning curve, during the first year of experience, an entry level driver's income potential is lower than what you can expect year 2-5. Try to think of the first year as a paid apprenticeship.

Oh, so you're saying it's lower than that?

A lot of people enter the industry making less than $25k a year, so the first year estimate of $35k is a huge step up for them. The problem most people run into, is that they apply "normal job math" to the trucking industry, which does not work. They fail to see that they will be making MORE money than they are now, but are suddenly hung up on a per hour figure, that is inaccurate at best. In Trucking, cpm (cents per mile) is the way most companies pay, percentage of load, a smaller portion of companies pay, and some also pay hourly, which are usually your daily delivery type drivers. We have all these types of drivers on this forum, who can help you better understand.

You cannot drive more than 11 hours a day, in a 14 hour work period. A lot of times, you may only get to drive 6 or 7 hours that day, because of waiting, or breakdown, or whatever stops the truck from moving. But even if you make .20cpm ath 1500 miles a week (which is low) that is $15,600, which also equates to a $7.50/hr job at 40hrs per week. Lets say the starting pay at your new company is .35cpm which is about the average, and you are able to put in 2000miles per week, which is very doable. That comes to $36,400 per week. of you convert that to a regular 40 hr per week job you are making $17.50/hr .... However, some will go on to say that because you are on the clock 14 hours a day, you have to add that in, which, in my ROOKIE and INEXPERIENCED opinion, does not make sense either, because in a lot of cases, you are just sitting around, waiting for repairs, or the shipper or receiver to load/unload. Granted, yes, you are on the clock, but how hard is it to sit and wait? Aggravating, yes, because it can mess up your clock, and your next load, but you are SITTING, or even crashing out in your bunk on the laptop, or doing whatever, while you wait.

Some drivers, have made as much as $60k their first year, and I think one or two people on this site fall into that category. But for a normal OTR job at a good training company you can expect to make $35k to $45k. You will not work nearly as hard as some vocations, making much less than a driver.

That comes to $36,400 per week. of you convert that to a regular 40 hr per week job you are making $17.50/hr

per YEAR, sorry

Nruck H. asks?

$35k annualy, x0.66(taxes) / 12 months /4 weeks /70 hours = $6.85 an hour after tax? Is that right?

Seems like a low starting wage to me.

Where did you come up with 35k? That is likely a "first year" compensation figure. Due to training duration and the steep learning curve, during the first year of experience, an entry level driver's income potential is lower than what you can expect year 2-5. Try to think of the first year as a paid apprenticeship.

Oh, so you're saying it's lower than that?

A lot of people enter the industry making less than $25k a year, so the first year estimate of $35k is a huge step up for them. The problem most people run into, is that they apply "normal job math" to the trucking industry, which does not work. They fail to see that they will be making MORE money than they are now, but are suddenly hung up on a per hour figure, that is inaccurate at best. In Trucking, cpm (cents per mile) is the way most companies pay, percentage of load, a smaller portion of companies pay, and some also pay hourly, which are usually your daily delivery type drivers. We have all these types of drivers on this forum, who can help you better understand.

You cannot drive more than 11 hours a day, in a 14 hour work period. A lot of times, you may only get to drive 6 or 7 hours that day, because of waiting, or breakdown, or whatever stops the truck from moving. But even if you make .20cpm ath 1500 miles a week (which is low) that is $15,600, which also equates to a $7.50/hr job at 40hrs per week. Lets say the starting pay at your new company is .35cpm which is about the average, and you are able to put in 2000miles per week, which is very doable. That comes to $36,400 per week. of you convert that to a regular 40 hr per week job you are making $17.50/hr .... However, some will go on to say that because you are on the clock 14 hours a day, you have to add that in, which, in my ROOKIE and INEXPERIENCED opinion, does not make sense either, because in a lot of cases, you are just sitting around, waiting for repairs, or the shipper or receiver to load/unload. Granted, yes, you are on the clock, but how hard is it to sit and wait? Aggravating, yes, because it can mess up your clock, and your next load, but you are SITTING, or even crashing out in your bunk on the laptop, or doing whatever, while you wait.

Some drivers, have made as much as $60k their first year, and I think one or two people on this site fall into that category. But for a normal OTR job at a good training company you can expect to make $35k to $45k. You will not work nearly as hard as some vocations, making much less than a driver.

Really good answer Danielsahn.

Really good answer Danielsahn.

Thanks. I try not to answer anything beyond my knowledge. Sometimes i feel like I am borderline with that, in my responses, but I try to only answer within my realm of current experience. I am grateful when I am corrected, because I want to learn as much as possible, before I am behind the wheel.

One thing to watch out for is after you get thru training and your 1 year OTR ,,and you start looking for something better, is Don't end up being a 1099 Contractor.

As anyone here who's run a business will tell you that you could be paying up to 66% of your proffits in Taxes and Fees..

That comes to $36,400 per week. of you convert that to a regular 40 hr per week job you are making $17.50/hr

per YEAR, sorry

Haha, I was gonna say...

"The problem most people run into, is that they apply "normal job math" to the trucking industry, which does not work. They fail to see that they will be making MORE money than they are now, but are suddenly hung up on a per hour figure, that is inaccurate at best." ~Danielsahn

Couldn't agree more.

I enjoy listening to audiobooks, for example. After I get hired on somewhere, I will be getting paid while I listen to audiobooks.

I also have other streams of income (web design, writing fiction) that I can maintain when I'm not driving, or while I'm waiting to get unloaded, etcetera.

It's a unique job. Every job is. Calculating an "hourly wage" really doesn't account for the intangibles. And some of those are pretty valuable.

I just finished my 1st year with Werner, I run a dedicated account with consistent miles of over 10,000 per month, I have very very little down time. Right now I'm off to Office Depot distribution center in Alabama, and already have a pre-assigned load from Greenville So Carolina to DeKalb Illinois.

My gross for 12 months, and I was off 2 weeks in January, and 2 in July was $48,700 at .37cpm, I started at .37, today's check had an increase to 40.5 cpm

Bottom line is the pay is very good even starting out if you choose the right company and account to drive on. All of the big companies have multiple choices for drivers, regional , 48 states, dedicated, etc, and each account pays a different scale. I am making more than my trainer in cpm, but he grossed more due to his compensation from students.

One additional point, Nruck:

Live in your truck. No rent, no utilities except your phone. Other jobs that provide "free" room are usually in some isolated place. You get to go almost everywhere!

This thread actually brings up yet another question. For trucking companies, do you pay state taxes on where you live or where the company is headquartered?

Any company you work for should be withholding taxes based on the info on your tax form you filled out when you got hired (I forget which one it is... not w2 that's end of year taxes but w something... where you put your residence address, # of dependents and any other taxes you want withed, etc). That being said, based off of that if you your home of record for that is Texas... then no there should not be any state tax witheld... some companies though do hold back taxes based off their location BUT because that's not your home of record, when you go to file you should get every penny of that state tax back, BUT you'll need to pay your own states tax if your state has it... good ol Texas is one of those with no state income tax... that's taken out of paycheck before you see it... they still take it but you get to put it in your wallet first. everything is taxed higher here than other states that do have income tax, our sales tax, fireworks, property tax, car registration, car inspection, etc... in the end you probably pay more in those than you would with a state income tax and not having a higher rate of taxes or extra ones.

Hope this helps. Don't forget to keep all your recipts and claim any and all deductions you can, cause that'll lower your AGI (adjusted gross income, aka pre tax income) which could put you in a lower tax bracket, thus not having to pay as much... even a couple thousand in deductions could knock you from a 25% tax rate to 15% depending on what your pre AGI was and what it is after claiming deductions. and even if it doesn't, it's still less tax to pay overall, just not a huge chunk like it would be if your tax bracket went down 10% (15% of 37,450 = 5617 in taxes, 25% of 37,451 = 9362. $1 is all that separates $9362 in taxes to be paid from $5617. I used max AGI for the 15% bracket and min AGI for 25%, both filling single)

If you want to play around with it you can view the various tax brackets and what AGI / filling status they apply to here: http://www.efile.com/tax-service/tax-calculator/tax-brackets/

If there's a trucker making enough to pay 33% in taxes... he does not need to worry about the hourly pay... that's for an AGI of $189,301 to $411,500 for someone with a filling status of single. Unless he's a lease / owner op but that's cause they get a 1099-misc and taxes are just more complicated...

taxes can be really fun to play around with in terms of calculations when you understand it all... I have taken a few tax classes in college when I was going for an accounting degree so I learned a couple things... AGI is one of the more fascinating things.