[echoy97]

Before I decided what kind of job to do, I want to know more about OTR drivers. For those of you doing OTR and dont get to go home often, even if you are earning a big pay check, what do you do with it?

Lets say I am doing OTR , spending lots of time on the road and go home once a weeks or less than once a week.. Lets say I have $ to buy a $1000 TV or a $100,000 car. I only get to watch big screen TV once a week, or drive my dream car once a week ?

For those if you have experience driving OTR, i would really like to know how you enjoy spending your $$$.

And then there are things $ cant buy. Anyone got problem with family members after starting a OTR job ?

[marcel27208]

who doesnt have problems w/family members after going OTR ?

[Uturn2001]

Ok....reality check.

First year realistic income for OTR drivers is $30-$32.000.
Many 5-10 year drivers do not break the $50,000 mark.

Road expenses are going to run around $100-$140 a week on average, depending on how often you eat in a resteraunt and how often you buy your snacks in the truck stop.

So if you have a family you are not going to be buying $1000 TV's and $100,000 cars, unless your spouse is making a lot more money than you will as a driver.

As far as family members it is important to discuss the realities of what OTR driving is going to mean with them before starting. 2-3 weeks out, home for 2-3 days and do it all over again. You will likely miss some b-days, little league games, school plays, and whatever else your kids/family are involved in. You spouse is going to have to handle most things around the house and you will have to understand that there is little you can do except offer support and advice because you are hundreds of miles away. Also everyone will need to understand that except for deaths or very, very serious injuries/illnes to imediate family you will not be able to get home just because grandma fell and broke her hip or little Johnny needed 10 stiches from falling off his bike.

[Longsnowsm]

Originally Posted by echoy97

Before I decided what kind of job to do, I want to know more about OTR drivers. For those of you doing OTR and dont get to go home often, even if you are earning a big pay check, what do you do with it?

Lets say I am doing OTR , spending lots of time on the road and go home once a weeks or less than once a week.. Lets say I have $ to buy a $1000 TV or a $100,000 car. I only get to watch big screen TV once a week, or drive my dream car once a week ?

For those if you have experience driving OTR, i would really like to know how you enjoy spending your $$$.

And then there are things $ cant buy. Anyone got problem with family members after starting a OTR job ?

Like Uturn2001 said, your not making much as an OTR driver. First you need to ask yourself what expenses you have at home. Rent? Car payment? Utilities? Cable TV? Phone? Cell Phone? Insurance? Credit Card payment? What does all that stuff add up to? So let's throw out a fiction example:

Rent $600
Car Payment $200
Cable TV $50
Phone $25
Garbage pickup $15
Cell Phone $40
Insurance $100
Credit Card $50
Utilities $100
Fuel $80
Misc expenses $100

So in this fiction example you have $1360 a month in basic expenses. Now lets look a a typical newbie starting off and lets say you landed a job paying .30 cpm with a decent company and lets assume an average weekly miles at 2500.

.30 X 2500 = $750 (gross pay)

After Uncle Sugar gets done with you, social security, benefits etc your take home is going to be roughly $525 give or take. Oh you want to retire some day??? Ok, lets say $472.50 a week pay. That is $1890 a month take home. Oh yeah, road expenses for you living on the road will set you back at leat $100 a week, or $400 a month. So now you take home pay is $1490.

$1490(take home) - $1360(basic expenses) = $130 (your money)

So as you can see from a pretty simple example your not going to be buying $100,000 cars, $1000 TV's(unless you save for a very long time), or buying a mansion somewhere unless you have a spouse that also works and makes good money and you can afford to bank her checks.

It sounds like you have a pretty unrealistic view of what an OTR driver makes. BOL

Longsnowsm

[DesertRat]

I'm not exactly sure. I just get my allowance (road money) for the week, my wife spends the rest (actually she does a good job of saving a lot of it.) Truth is, I'm not home to spend the money. The bills, the groceries, the rent, all of that falls on my wife. My bit of the money is spent on food while I'm out there. On a rare occasion I will treat myself to something and then it's not an expensive something. And my wife usually sets aside a good amount of savings, so when I do get home there's always money to splurge on a good dinner, or an evening out. But that isn't because of my obscenely high income (ha ha) it's because my wife knows how to handle the money. I dunno what would happen if she weren't, and I don't want to.

[TomB985]

Longsnowsm, you have some good points.

BUT, that also depends on a lot of things. I am looking at driving for Roehl when I get back, and they start me at $.30 a mile. BUT, after a year, that goes to $.36 a mile. Assuming 2500 miles a week, that works out to a little over $46,000 gross for the year.

You can save quite a bit on $46,000 a year, if you know how to handle your money.

[geeshock]

As the others said, you realy don't usualy make big paychecks, and when you do the next one is small or non existant so they sorta cancel out eachother, lol. When on the road I get little things, like tools for the truck, books, locks, groceries at the local walmart, etc. at home Me and the wife go out to eat one night, and mabe a movie. nothing big

[Longsnowsm]

TomB985,

Good point. Roehl is a good company.

The toughest time for the newbie is surviving the first year(things are tight no matter how you slice it even with a good company). If your with a good company things will work out well once you get to that 1 year mark and beyond.

The thing that everyone should notice is that there is a huge difference between starting with a company as a newbie making .30+ cpm vs other major carriers that start the newbie at .25-.27 cpm. If you rerun that fictitious scenario at these lower pay rates you see just how tight it would be trying to live at those pay rates. BOL at Roehl.

Oh, and on that little work of fiction list of expenses I omitted groceries... People gotta eat and with only a little money left for the month it better be mac n cheese or ramen...

Longsnowsm

[One]

Pah! I've been saving for a new PC for a month+! Your not exactly white collar as a truck driver you know!

[ben45750]

Originally Posted by TomB985

Assuming 2500 miles a week, that works out to a little over $46,000 gross for the year.

Don't count on getting 2500 every week, even having a weekly average of 2500 miles is alot harder than it sounds.... prolly not going to happen your first year. Your going to have them 500 mile weeks. You cannot control freight, traffic, mechanical failures and weather. Your going to have some 3000 mile weeks and some 500 mile weeks.