Pay From Companies?

Wow!!! I appreciate the response. I think my ultimate goal is to haul tanker (fuel) or other loads locally. Or even food service. And and Pepsi/Coke doesn't pay enough.

I can get my CDL but I want to come home every night or if not every night at least most of the week I want to be home.

Where can I find these jobs where should I be looking?

You may want to look into Linehaul at a LTL company, such as but not limited too Old Dominion, Saia, Estes, XPO Fed Ex and Ups.

I have been with OD for almost 2 years now, I have my own daytime run,am home every night and off Sunday and Monday. Plus I will be right around 100k for the year.

Solo stands alone...

Have been Solo flatbedder for TMC for 4 months now and my lowest take home (after taxes) has been $1339.32 and my largest week (after taxes) has been $2202.49.

I'm staying in the $1500-$1600/wk after taxes range as an avg.

If you take my gross pay and just divide it by ALL miles (not including tarp and bounce pay), it works out to $.55/cpm

If you take my gross pay + tarp pay + bounce pay and divide it by dispatched miles, it jumps up to $.65/cpm

Are you sure you mean after taxes are withheld? Here is why I’m doubtful...

Solo your federal income tax bracket is about 18% (ever dollar you earn, 18 cents goes to the fed.). Add in other mandatory taxes withheld like FICA and you’re likely at 25%. If you are required to pay state and local income tax, perhaps even higher. Which means “conservatively” your pretax, gross pay would need to average $2200 to have an after tax check of $1600. That’s not a 90k run rate, it’s over 110k annually. With only 4 months of experience, that would make you the highest paid company driver on this forum by far.

Using the same basic logic, your claim of $2200 as a “high” after tax check, would require a $2950 gross, pretax check. That income, based on your CPM rate of 65, would mean you covered 4500 miles during that pay period.

If you are paid bi-weekly I can easily understand this (but it puts you at a 55k annual run-rate, much less than your claim of 90k) but over a 7 day period how did you cover 4500 miles an average of 642.75 per day? Can you explain that?

Obviously you are doing quite well, and man, “that’s fantastic”, happy for you. However the actual numbers and tax laws don’t lie. If your claim is true...I’d gladly throw tarp in freezing rain; we’d all be clamoring to drive a truck for TMC and every other flatbed carrier would be paying the same comp. levels in order to compete for experienced drivers. I am not seeing that. There is an undeniable parity in this business that doesn’t support a large fleet of company drivers “averaging” 110k per year.

For me, Old School and Turtle are the most notable flatbedders on this forum, the drivers consistently setting the bar for the rest of us and frequently posting meaningful, factual and valuable information. With a high degree of certainty, I know they are not making a 110k annual income driving for their companies...but based on your math, you will easily surpass them.

How about you come clean and provide something substantial in support of your numbers. I don’t mean any disrespect Solo, it’s just that we are about Truth here...and myself and several others are finding it difficult to accept your numbers as fact. If indeed they are, I’ll apologize profusely and trash my calculator.

I don’t know G-town, I’m just out of rookie status in a similar flatbed outfit, running the same way solo does, and am slated for high 90’s this year (and that’s with several weeks at home.) Not unusual for my division, and actually low compared to a couple of our other divisions. Here’s my last two weeks:

Andhe78 wrote:

I don’t know G-town, I’m just out of rookie status in a similar flatbed outfit, running the same way solo does, and am slated for high 90’s this year (and that’s with several weeks at home.) Not unusual for my division, and actually low compared to a couple of our other divisions. Here’s my last two weeks:

Got it.

You actually supported part of my point; your comp. number presented is gross; pretax, before any deductions withheld. Your take home pay is likely 25-30% less than your gross number. About $1500. Or less if you have medical insurance.

And you are also doing really great!

Thank you.

G-town, I think the other thing people miss is how much ancillary pay we get. You mentioned having to get 4500 miles to gross solo’s amount. Those two examples of mine above are actually on the light side because of how little extra pay I got. The NYC pay was about it. Less tarping in summer, so about $75 lost there. Didn’t make our weekend guarantee either week, so lost out on a couple hundred more. No short loads, no multi-stop, etc. Miles driven is not the only thing on our check, I’ve had weeks grossing almost $3k with only 2k miles driven simply because how our short load pay is set up.

Now, I’m not saying solo isn’t blowing smoking up our butts, and I don’t know all of TMC’s pay structures, but I do know it’s possible with certain regional flatbed outfits.

Those are good numbers. You should feel happy with your progress.

Wow!!! I appreciate the response. I think my ultimate goal is to haul tanker (fuel) or other loads locally. Or even food service. And and Pepsi/Coke doesn't pay enough.

I can get my CDL but I want to come home every night or if not every night at least most of the week I want to be home.

Where can I find these jobs where should I be looking?

You may want to look into Linehaul at a LTL company, such as but not limited too Old Dominion, Saia, Estes, XPO Fed Ex and Ups.

I have been with OD for almost 2 years now, I have my own daytime run,am home every night and off Sunday and Monday. Plus I will be right around 100k for the year.

Wow that sounds great! What is your driving/CDL background? (How long/years, sponsored CDL through a mega or did you foot the bill)

Also how did you get on with OD? just applied and was hired?

I only had 2 months of driving 1 of which was solo, I went to a private school in Illinois it cost around 2,500 i think.

I was lucky and had a in my father is a manager at OD so that helped. OD does hire right out of school but it depends on what your local terminal needs. A couple people behind me at my terminal came right out of school, as well as from the dock to driver program.

I don’t know G-town, I’m just out of rookie status in a similar flatbed outfit, running the same way solo does, and am slated for high 90’s this year (and that’s with several weeks at home.) Not unusual for my division, and actually low compared to a couple of our other divisions. Here’s my last two weeks:

Quick question, are you regional or OTR? I'm just curious because Maverick is one of the companies that I'm very interested in. I assume you do flatbed and not glass due to your tarp pay. Do glass drivers make about the same?

Bobcat Bob wrote:

OD does hire right out of school but it depends on what your local terminal needs.

This is a key statement. One of our members got hired onto a brand new OD terminal but they still required 1 year OTR. Right now they are short on drivers again and may accept less. But the one near me wants more experience. They have a busier area and more applicants so they can be more selective.