"Only gets paid while the wheels are rolling"?
They even get screwed on that deal,cause they get paid only a certain amount of miles for a load,most drivers only get paid for an average of 70% of the miles they actually drive a year.

 

The answer is yes....and no. You can make money with a $50,000 rig, but will find it difficult to lease to a carrier without at least 6 months to 1 year of current driving experience. If you choose to get your own authority, you will find it difficult to find insurance without at least 2 years of recent experience. There have been those who have gotten their authority without any experience. They have managed to find insurance but pay a higher premium and have to deal with restrictions on the type of cargo they can haul and some have mileage radius restrictions. You will not usually be permitted to get your own loads off the boards if you lease to most carriers, although there are some who will allow it.

You don't need to spend $50,000 to get a good used truck. That is more than I would spend starting out. I would look at something about half that price. There are good trucks for less than $20,000. This is basically a simple business with a lot of complicated rules we must follow. People fail because of a number of factors. Mostly, it is a lack of capital and/or lack of experience. Since you have business experience, that would be an asset. However, you will find this business is a different animal from what you are accustomed. If you remember it is a business, then you are one step closer to success.

 

Sometimes, it's just the way it is. If you don't like the situation / environment then remove yourself from the sit. / env. I'm amazed sometimes at how bitter people can become towards something and expect everything around them to change before they change anything about themselves or take any responsibility for where they are in life or what's happening to them.

 

Golfhobo, I can't speak for Skywalker, but he works at the same company I do, and my miles and gross income are on my tanker thread for all to see. I know he doesn't take off anywhere near as much time as I do, so I imagine his miles would be better than mine for the time being.

Still, for doing the job completely 100% by the book legal, I can't complain about how I'm doing personally, and I know that he (Skywalker) runs the same as I do in regards to legality...

 

I don't know where you are getting your information, but I have not heard of anyone only being paid for 70% of the miles they have driven. The only way I can see this happening is if you drove many miles out of route. You will likely be short a maximum of 12% or perhaps 15%, and that is only if you use household goods miles. And that is not always the case. More companies are paying practical miles and those should be much closer to actual miles driven.

If you want to be paid for fueling, doing your pretrip, etc., then most carriers will simply lower your mileage rate to compensate. That is what happens at some carriers who pay for each stop, etc., It makes the driver feel better about their pay. In most cases, carriers simply cannot afford to pay drivers more money than they do. Unfortunately, you can blame some of your fellow drivers for that. There are some who steal from their employers, kill time playing video games at truck stops and abuse the equipment that they are assigned. It takes money from everyone when this happens. If you see this type of behavior and don't report it to the company, then you are partly responsible for what you consider lower pay. In addition, many want more benefits, such as 401k, insurance, vacation pay, etc., That all costs money. You fail to understand the basics about business and economics. You only have so much money to go around. If a company can't make a profit while being competitive, then the business will cease to exist and no one will have a job. This is a demanding job. If you don't like the way the system works, then you should find something which you do like. Most people who stay in this business do well financially. If you didn't or can't do well driving, then perhaps it isn't the business you should be in. This business has been very good to me and my family. I know of a number of others who have done well in this business. If you think you can earn as much flipping hamburgers then perhaps that is what you should do instead of driving a truck. ENOUGH OF THE WHINING! :x

 

"Whining" is not wanting to do the job you're assigned to do.
Striving for more money and benefits is looking out for family and coworkers.
The way I look at it.

 

WHINE:

To express negative feelings, especially of dissatisfaction or resentment: complain, grouch, grump. Informal: crab, gripe, grouse, kick. Slang: beef, bellyache, bitch.

 

Thanks for the info, Cyanide. I haven't read your thread, but I'll look for it.

I didn't mean my question to Skywalker to sound confrontational. It is just in MY understanding.... Tankers require MANY additional jobs and waiting times that we Van/Reefer folks might not have. Therefore, one would think the miles would be lower.... hence the higher CPM for those you DO get to run.

As I've said before, MOST companies will pay higher CPM if they have shorter routes, or vice versa, or pay for "extras" if they take up alot of your time, etc.

Point is.... to a degree, it all works out to be similar. Personally.... I don't want to do all the paperwork to show every hour, or increment thereof, that I spent sitting, fueling, washing, maintaining, etc. If I did.... would I then get paid for doing paperwork??

I've heard good things about Superior... and I'm sure both of you make more money than me. Of course... I haven't been driving long either, and expect to get better paying jobs in the future.

My point has been all along, that you can't DRIVE the truck without doing the other tasks. Pay me a decent amount (based on miles) for my total time on the road, and I'll take care of the rest of it. To ME.... there's a big difference between counting the "widgets" I made today, VS. counting the number of times I SHIFTED.

 

I haven't really figured that out yet.... haven't really looked at it, but I'd have to say its probably less than 2000, in fact probably down around 1800 per week.

 

As to which one of us takes more time off...is truly debatable!! Here lately I've been taking 4 days off at a shot. I haven't posted much on actual miles etc, because its been alittle weird lately coming into the holidays. 8)

And that is one of the things that I truly enjoy about this job..... I don't ever have to worry about "logbook" issues and I stay completely legal all the time.