What is good starting pay, and how much of an increase can be expected after the first year of experience? I see advertising with companies offering $1000+ per week, but I've read those can be scams where they require driving a set amount of miles that nobody gets. What is fair/good starting pay?

How long does it take to start making good money?

 

figure $36k/year to start, no reason to make much less than that.
depending on how you want to run and what you want to haul. that number will increase with pay raises, or it can jump up with more specialized and/or demanding work like flatbed, tanker, hazmat, oversized and stuff.
ltls seem to make a lot of money but you're paid by the hour and you have many stops and usually have to move your own cargo. seems like they tend to favor unions, so you may have to put in time there before you get the bigger paychecks.
i say 2 years is reasonable before you can expect paychecks that will make you see trucking as a career.
but there's no reason to starve before that.
figure 36k/year translates into $18/hr at a 40 hour/wk job.
and, yes, you work more than 40 hours per week in trucking, up to 70. however, it's not like you're standing at an assembly line the whole time.

 

Starting out as a new driver pay will be rather small during training. Once you get on your own I averaged about $800 per week during my first year with TMC. Right now I am making more than that but that may just be the seasonality of this division at TMC.

 

well, my guys at my new company tell me that I'm probably going to make the bulk of my pay in the summer months.
so save during the fat times to get you thru the lean times.

 

first year otr pays about $8- 10 per hour with about 60 to 80 hours on duty per week.