Arrow; How Can You Not Make Money There?

[dcedlr]

I am leaning towards Arrow for the following reasons:

1. $.34 per mile, and 3 mo go to $.36 (not bad for no experience)

2. $275 per quarter safe operating bonus (possible)

3. Incentive pay of 10-14K miles per month + $.01 mi <14K + $.02 mi

3. $30 tarp pay

4. Detention pay

5. Layover pay

I have read a lot of negative on Arrow on here but I do not understand how you cannot make money driving for them. Lets say you only get 2000 miles a week. That is still 2000 X .34 = $680 wk = $35,360 yr. I will not get rich off of that but I certainly will not be starving. As for being out 3-4 weeks at a time, I have no family so it really does not matter to me. As long as my mortgage and car note gets paid and I have a little spending money I will be happy with $35K minimum my first year in this business. Hell, driving only 2000 miles a week, that potentially gives me some time to see the sites or relax and kick it some. If I am missing something please tell me because I am interested in hearing both sides. However, I just do not believe that drivers are not getting at least 2K miles a week or nobody would work for them.

I have read a lot of negative on Arrow on here but I do not understand how you cannot make money driving for them. Lets say you only get 2000 miles a week. That is still 2000 X .34 = $680 wk = $35,360 yr. I will not get rich off of that but I certainly will not be starving. As for being out 3-4 weeks at a time, I have no family so it really does not matter to me. As long as my mortgage and car note gets paid and I have a little spending money I will be happy with $35K minimum my first year in this business. Hell, driving only 2000 miles a week, that potentially gives me some time to see the sites or relax and kick it some. If I am missing something please tell me because I am interested in hearing both sides. However, I just do not believe that drivers are not getting at least 2K miles a week or nobody would work for them.

Arrow is flatbeds. That's the worst business to get into with the housing market in the dumps.

$680.00/70 hours per week = $9.71/hr (actually less when you consider no overtime in OTR trucking). Get 1 job paying $13.00/hr at 40 hours and another part-time job at $8.00/hr for 20 hours. You'll make the same money, work less, sleep in your own bed everynight, and have every weekend off.

OTR is a terrible way to make a living. And "kicking back" in truckstops, rest areas, and deserted off-ramps gets real old real quick. Stay home, have a life, get laid, etc and forget over-the-road trucking.

[dcedlr]

I get what your driving at but to start out I need to go somewhere. I disagree with your figues though because if I cant drive 2K miles in 70 hours than I need a new job. If you can average just 50 mph for your 70 hours you would get 3,500 miles. If you average 50 mph for your 2K miles thats $17 an hour. Granted, the rest of the time I am in truck stops, etc. but I am not driving. I do not mind being away from home and can find things to do to occupy my time; take a run, watch tv or movies, surf the net, check out the sites if possilbe.

My point is that people are complaining about not making money at Arrow and unless they are getting less than 2K miles a week (which I doubt seriously from drivers I have talked to) they are making decent money. If they are getting 3K or even 2.5K a week, they are making damn good money. At least as a driver with no experience. Just my opinion and would like to hear if anyone is actually getting less than that.

[Orangetxguy]

I get what your driving at but to start out I need to go somewhere. I disagree with your figues though because if I cant drive 2K miles in 70 hours than I need a new job. If you can average just 50 mph for your 70 hours you would get 3,500 miles. If you average 50 mph for your 2K miles thats $17 an hour. Granted, the rest of the time I am in truck stops, etc. but I am not driving. I do not mind being away from home and can find things to do to occupy my time; take a run, watch tv or movies, surf the net, check out the sites if possilbe.

My point is that people are complaining about not making money at Arrow and unless they are getting less than 2K miles a week (which I doubt seriously from drivers I have talked to) they are making decent money. If they are getting 3K or even 2.5K a week, they are making damn good money. At least as a driver with no experience. Just my opinion and would like to hear if anyone is actually getting less than that.

The thing you need to keep in mind here, is "What about the dispatcher". If you got lucky and were assigned a decent dispatcher...one that actually does his/her job, and keeps the trucks loaded and running, then it is realistic, even in todays economy, to average 3000 miles a week. But...if you sit for 2 days between each load, and each load you deliver only involves 900 miles of total driving...at 36 cents per mile, plus the extras, your not gonna make much money.

Been there done that.

[Ian Williams]

I get what your driving at but to start out I need to go somewhere. I disagree with your figues though because if I cant drive 2K miles in 70 hours than I need a new job. If you can average just 50 mph for your 70 hours you would get 3,500 miles. If you average 50 mph for your 2K miles thats $17 an hour. Granted, the rest of the time I am in truck stops, etc. but I am not driving. I do not mind being away from home and can find things to do to occupy my time; take a run, watch tv or movies, surf the net, check out the sites if possilbe.

Have you even started driving yet? Just wait until you get to burn 6-8-10 hrs at some shipper or receiver.

Flatbeds can be good if you are young, in shape and not afraid of doing some demanding physical labor. That being said its not a good time to get into that segment with the construction market tanking and it being the tail end of building season.

Right now if I went crazy and got into OTR I would try and find a good reefer outfit. Reefer and food grade tanker is the most downturn resistant segment of OTR.

The whole "Its just part of the job" free labor mindset pushed by the OTR McMegaCarriers is flawed.

You have to count all the time you spend fueling, pre and post tripping, tarping and securing you load, and screwing around with difficult stupid and slow shippers and recivers you will wind up working 60-80 hrs per week to get paid for 40-50. If you count up all the time really spent on line 4 (including that which is buried as "sleeper") you are really earning $8-12 hrs per hr for all the time you spend working.

The novelty of driving a truck will wear off rapidly, give it 6 months tops.

Unless you have NO skills whatsoever and/or live in BFE where there are no jobs you are better of staying home and working a regular job.

Looking at my last paystub I've earned a little under $30k this year to date working 40-42hrs per week 1230-9pm M-F, so I'm on track to earn $37-39k. I got my CDL in house free and clear in exchange for being a dockworker for 4 months. The other driver I trained with will earn approx. $60K working 55-65hrs week 7pm-7am on a road bid.

[Snowman7]

I am leaning towards Arrow for the following reasons:

1. $.34 per mile, and 3 mo go to $.36 (not bad for no experience)

2. $275 per quarter safe operating bonus (possible)

3. Incentive pay of 10-14K miles per month + $.01 mi <14K + $.02 mi

3. $30 tarp pay

4. Detention pay

5. Layover pay

I have read a lot of negative on Arrow on here but I do not understand how you cannot make money driving for them. Lets say you only get 2000 miles a week. That is still 2000 X .34 = $680 wk = $35,360 yr. I will not get rich off of that but I certainly will not be starving. As for being out 3-4 weeks at a time, I have no family so it really does not matter to me. As long as my mortgage and car note gets paid and I have a little spending money I will be happy with $35K minimum my first year in this business. Hell, driving only 2000 miles a week, that potentially gives me some time to see the sites or relax and kick it some. If I am missing something please tell me because I am interested in hearing both sides. However, I just do not believe that drivers are not getting at least 2K miles a week or nobody would work for them.

Your figures are accurate for a new driver. Maybe even a bit low if you get the miles. But you're naive about how much time is spent to get that money. There's just too much waiting for a load from dispatch, waiting to get loaded, waiting to get unloaded. Other than straight highway speeds everything you do in a big truck takes 3-4 times longer than a car. Just stopping at a truckstop for coffee and a leak could take a half hour. Fuel and a shower could take two hours. Miss a turn and that could cost you a half hour getting back on track. And in this business a half could cost you 8 hours if you miss a "window". Again your money expectations are no problem but your working time will be a lot more.

[Piece Of Work]

I worked for outfits in the past who gave me less than 1,000 miles one week, 1,500 the next, then 750 miles another week. On paper, ALL COMPANIES LOOK GOOD, even CR England and Werner and Prime. If you do any research on this site, you'll see what people think of those companies and what they experienced.

The above comments are the wisdom of experience. One more bit of experience would have me mention the downtime from breakdowns which could strand you for days at your own expense. Just blow a turbo and you'll see what I mean.

Get hammered by DOT or get in an accident and that all cuts into your pay. Get a speeding ticket and if you need to appear in court in the state you were fined, that travel and time and fine is at your expense.

If you hired on at CFI/Conway, you could get $42,000 your first year.

The first year is hell for a rookie, there's no easy path.

[tbrown]

I have read a lot of negative on Arrow on here but I do not understand how you cannot make money driving for them. Lets say you only get 2000 miles a week. That is still 2000 X .34 = $680 wk = $35,360 yr. I will not get rich off of that but I certainly will not be starving. As for being out 3-4 weeks at a time, I have no family so it really does not matter to me. As long as my mortgage and car note gets paid and I have a little spending money I will be happy with $35K minimum my first year in this business. Hell, driving only 2000 miles a week, that potentially gives me some time to see the sites or relax and kick it some. If I am missing something please tell me because I am interested in hearing both sides. However, I just do not believe that drivers are not getting at least 2K miles a week or nobody would work for them.

Heed everything the responders passed on regarding the reality of OTR and then add this:

My SO has worked for Arrow since this past January. They have a lot of good people working for them and have a new President who strives to improve driver pay and conditions.

The downturn at Arrow is that my honey (and many other drivers) has gotten "stuck" in more places than he can count waiting for a load out, sometimes between 3-5 days. You DON'T make money as a driver at $50 per day layover - regardless of what you're doing the rest of the time, that's still losing money. Drivers go out and bust their humps doing a very difficult job and it costs money to be out there - you'll see when you start hitting those truck stops. Don't think "how can you not make money" when you haven't sat your butt behind the wheel out there...you'll see then. :shock: