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Originally Posted by South Bound
Why are there so many truckers out there making a decent living? I guess from what some people are writing I should turn tail and run from the trucking industry. If it is really this bad out there, why are there so many truckers still driving out there? My goal is to get my CDL, unfortunately I will have to sign on with a company to pay for it, work for them for a while OTR, and then find local work, which there is tons of here in Georgia. I just do not get all the negative posts out there, is it really that bad?
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I'll be honest with you. As far as OTR goes, what it boils down to is that the time/effort invested in the job doesn't equal the pay received. You might think $1,000 per week sounds like a pretty good paycheck. But figure that you'll be clocking in 80-100 hour workweeks which means you're making around 11 bucks an hour. Now consider for that amount of money, you're away from home for up to two weeks at a time with scheduled hometime a roll of the dice. You're not eating healthy and your body gets soft from sitting on your rear-end for 11 hours straight. You're also working irregular hours: days, nights, mornings, weekends. Sometimes you run when your body wants to sleep and sleep when your body wants to run. And the sleep you do get usually isn't the quiet, deep rest that your body needs for REM. Often, you aren't able to get a shower or even sleep in a place with bathroom facilities and running water.
You also aren't paid for alot of things. You won't get paid for all the miles you drive. If there's no freight in your area then you sit around waiting on a load for free. You get nothing/peanuts to get loaded/unloaded. No pay for inspecting the truck, fueling the truck, traffic jams, dropping/hooking trailers, washouts, pallet swaps, scaling loads, chaining, sweeping trailers, checking into shippers/receivers, etc. If your truck breaks down or you're scheduled for a PM at the terminal then you won't get paid for that either. No overtime after 40 hours on the job. You're also not treated very well at alot of places. Some places won't even let truckers use their restrooms. Others take your keys and make you wait in a small room with nothing but a broken card table and a Coke machine while you're getting loaded/unloaded.
You don't have to believe me but the numbers tell the tale: OTR as a whole enjoys a massive 130% turnover rate, which means that these big McMega fleets are going through thousands of drivers per year. That's why there's a driver shortage. Not because there's not enough qualified drivers to do the job. It's because most people won't stay in the job for the low-wages and crappy lifestyle being offered.
