Truck Driving Jobs

Anne Marie · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 31 Location: Seattle, WA

can you take home 80,000 to 100,000 per year after taxes driving truck? Some of these companies say you can. I want to know what you all think. 8)
Anne Marie

Rawlco · Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Posts: 1124 Location: Central Maine

The first year driving a truck a new driver will probably take home $30,000 to $35,000. The second year an ambitious driver may earn up to $50,000.

$80,000 to $100,000 may be possible for a team. To earn that much each driver will be working at least 70 hours a week.
(EDIT: These figures are before taxes. This is your gross pay)

Rule #1: Recruiters for companies LIE.
Rule #2: If a recruiter seems to be telling the truth, refer to rule #1.

Smooth · Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Posts: 383 Location: NE Ohio

If your an o/o you can make 200k a year , just with the expenses taken out it will still probably be well under 100k . There are rare exceptions but you can make 100k a year , my friends dad works for Wayne Dalton Corp and takes garage doors up to Nova Scotia and back to Ohio every week and is home weekends and makes around 105k a year , of course he has 26 years with this same private company . Wal-Mart drivers can make close to 100k , same with Yellow,ABF and UPS drivers . I was in Nashville the otehr day and a guy with 7 years with Yellow showed me his pay stub , he runs very hard , but has made 46k this year , that puts him on pace for around 90k . Other guys with bids make anywhere from 60k to 80k a year . But any common carrier you can't make 100k a year . Let's do the quick math 40cpm at 150,000 miles a year is 60k , and that is running hard .

Oh yea you said 80k to 100k a year after taxes , noway , nohow . The more you make the more they take .

4roses · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 7:32 pm Post subject:

I agree Rawlco ... the first year will be closer to $30,000. ... and that will depend on how many miles your dispatcher gives you and if your on time with you loads and many other factors. .... Most newbies DON'T start out at 40cents a mile .... closer to 28-32 cents a mile .... your first couple of years will be the time your proving yourself. If your serious about being a truck driver... anything is possible .

GMAN · Joined: 13 Feb 2005 Posts: 9398 Location: Tennessee

[quote="Anne Marie"]can you take home 80,000 to 100,000 per year after taxes driving truck? Some of these companies say you can. I want to know what you all think. 8)
Anne Marie[/quote]

Not likely, Anne Marie. For you to net that much after taxes you will need to gross $120-140M per year. That is not likely to happen driving a truck. If you are in a niche' area of the business it may be possible, if you own the truck. I have known of drivers who have grossed over $120M/yr before taxes, but those were in niche' markets and are not the norm. Most will be around $40-65M/year with a few years experience. I would be interested in knowing which companies are telling you that you can earn that much money after taxes.

Anne Marie · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 31 Location: Seattle, WA

Well two of the companies are Forward Air. They said gross 140,000 to 180,000 and take home 80,000 to 100,000, thats as an owner operator. And Quality Carriers said gross 200,000 take home half as an owner operator. But my husband has driven for 17 years. I dont know, just not sure what to believe.

Rawlco · Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Posts: 1124 Location: Central Maine

Ooh, as an owner operator that changes the situation a little. GMAN gave good advice on that aspect.

I seriously doubt that you will clear $100,000 if you only gross $140,000 to $200,000 and taking fuel, truck payment, insurance, maintenance, misc expenses, taxes and such out of that. For leasing to a company like those a better estimate would be 25% to 35% of your gross. If you are really sharp and have good luck you could do better. If you aren't a business person it may be better to stay a company driver.

A good tool to use is the ooida cost per mile spreadsheet available at:
http://ooida.com/trucking_tools/CPM/cost_per_mile.htm
to figure your costs and such. There is a lot of information available on this forum in the Owner Operator section about how to estimate costs.

GMAN · Joined: 13 Feb 2005 Posts: 9398 Location: Tennessee

[quote="Anne Marie"]Well two of the companies are Forward Air. They said gross 140,000 to 180,000 and take home 80,000 to 100,000, thats as an owner operator. And Quality Carriers said gross 200,000 take home half as an owner operator. But my husband has driven for 17 years. I dont know, just not sure what to believe.[/quote]

Forward Air advertises paying $0.93/ on their website. For your husband to gross $180,000 he would have to run almost 200,000 miles a year. Quality advertises $1.15-2.92. I am sorry to disappoint you, but I seriously doubt if you will clear 50% after expenses and taxes. Fuel expense alone will run $50-60M for every 100M miles driven. Then you have insurance expense, maintenance expense, equipment payments, etc., 8)

Highwayman · Joined: 27 Feb 2005 Posts: 1139 Location: At home

Anne Marie wrote: can you take home 80,000 to 100,000 per year after taxes driving truck? Some of these companies say you can. I want to know what you all think. 8)
Anne Marie

An owner/operator might gross that much, but net income could be less than that of a company driver.

Smooth · Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Posts: 383 Location: NE Ohio

Those morons at Forward Air are full of it , the comapny drivers at Forward Air are with Landair , they advertise in newspapers that they make 70k a year , so full of it , makes me physically ill .

GMAN · Joined: 13 Feb 2005 Posts: 9398 Location: Tennessee

[quote="Smooth"]Those morons at Forward Air are full of it , the comapny drivers at Forward Air are with Landair , they advertise in newspapers that they make 70k a year , so full of it , makes me physically ill .[/quote]

Both companies are owned by the same guy, or was. From the low pay they offer owner operators, I seriously doubt that they would pay their company drivers that much money. At Landair, they only do oil changes every 50,000 miles. If they cannot or won't do proper maintenance on their equipment, they certainly are not going to be willing or able to pay their drivers that much money.

dollarshort · Joined: 16 Feb 2006 Posts: 509 Location: South Central PA

The only way you would make anywhere close to that kind of money is to be hauling white powder in the trailer. And I'm not talking about flour.

Sheepdancer · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 1353

Most likely it would be pretty tough to make 100 grand a year as a company driver......but it can be done. We have a few of them here.
Not only do they drive they actively recruit. Like most companies we pay drivers 500 bucks for anyone they recruit. So do the math. Say a driver in ohio is making 44 cpm and getting only our average miles, 2700 a week. .44 x 2700 x 52 weeks is 61 grand a year. If he recruited 1.5 drivers a week (yes it could be done easiely for a go getter) that would mean hiring 78 drivers a year....78 drivers x500 = 39,000.
39,000 + 61,000= 100,000 a year.
Now with that said.....Can it be done? Yes.....Is it done? very rarely

solo379 · Joined: 14 Feb 2004 Posts: 3145

Is it possible? Yes! Is it common? No!
And it's absolutly impossible, with the companys you've mentioned! :sad:

BIG JEEP on 44's · Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 1:32 am Post subject:

This kind of reminds me of the movie with jonh candy ( Armed an dangerous) when they are going through new hire orientation , and the Hippe inquires about the pay-scale.....you would have had to see the movie to understand this association , But it fits real nice with what most comanies , and their earning potential promises....

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