Hi all!!!
I am new here and I am considering become a Truck Driver...
Was wondering if you can give me some example how much truck driver can earn:
1. Driving for my own how much I will be able to get per month or per trip etc...
2. How much earn drivers that are working for a big corp. like WALMART or Other i.e. beer company...? they get pay per hour or monthly?
Thank you all for help!
Tom

You want to drive for yourself?
First I need to know how many tire blowouts will you have,
will you be replacing that worn rearend? How much you want to pay for tolls?
What will you be paying for fuel? Will you hire a lumper or break it down to
285 small pallets(Sysco) in 2 hours yourself?
What will your fuel mileage be? Will you be hauling 45000 through West Virginia or 10000 through Oklahoma?
How many empty miles will you have?
How many times will you get lost?Etc...

Driving for a company; you'll get paid for about 90% of the miles that you drive.Depends on the co. you drive for.
But if you want to be a millionaire, just talk to Dances With Sheeps, he'll put you on the high road with JB. :wink:

You want to drive for yourself?
First I need to know how many tire blowouts will you have,
will you be replacing that worn rearend? How much you want to pay for tolls?
What will you be paying for fuel? Will you hire a lumper or break it down to
285 small pallets(Sysco) in 2 hours yourself?
What will your fuel mileage be? Will you be hauling 45000 through West Virginia or 10000 through Oklahoma?
How many empty miles will you have?
How many times will you get lost?Etc...
wowo that is a lot of stuff to consider.. so maybe let us focus on driving for corp.

Driving for a company; you'll get paid for about 90% of the miles that you drive.Depends on the co. you drive for.

All right I see but if you drive for corp. you are getting pay per hour per month? how it works.. do they pay you the same amount when you are on duty and off duty?
THX!!


But if you want to be a millionaire, just talk to Dances With Sheeps, he'll put you on the high road with JB.

You get sh*t for duty. As I've previously stated, you get paid for 90% of the
miles that you drive.Nothing hourly, nothing monthly.
There is no day rate, either, like in Europe! :roll:

Tom, if you do not have any commercial driving experience the best path to take is to attend a driving school that has a 160 (or more) hour course and then spend the next few years working as a company driver while you learn some of the ins and outs of the business not to mention figure out for sure if driving a truck is for you.

Typically OTR company drivers are paid for all dispatched miles driven loaded or empty. Depending on the company this equates to about 80-90% of actual miles driven. Most OTR companies also pay extra if you have to physically load or unload your own trailer. Some companies also pay extra if you have to wait a long time to get loaded or unloaded or if you are available but without a load for a long period of time.

2500 miles per week is considered the industry average for a solo driver. This average is arrived at through the course of an entire year. Some weeks you may only drive 1600 miles and other weeks you may drive 3500 miles, but over the course of the year a person should average around 2500 miles per week.

When you own your own truck the potential for bigger pay days is there, but there is also a greater risk involved. As an Owner/Operator pretty much everything is on your shoulders and there are few safety nets if you have equipment issues, health problems, freight issues, etc. One of the biggest mistakes O/O's make is that they do not understand that they are running a small business and fail to have the resources in place to weather the problems that will come up.

Thank you uturn2001.
Actually I had small experience going back to Europe ... and I am really surprise that according what Continental said… that if you are driving for CORP. you will not get pay for off duty time… So you are only get pay per mile (and like you guy’s said) and only 80-90% of all the miles that you made? That right?
It is a little bit strange in EU they pay you per hour and they pay you as well for the time off duty .. just to clarify.. by off duty I mean your 10 your off when you are on the road with your load…
Thanks for your help!

I have a feeling your going to be dissapointed :?

You can probably find a ton of info that will help you out regarding all of this if you search this forum.

I did my research and there are some questions left:

1. someone says on the forum: "I made more money from the drop pay than I'd have made driving a full day."
What is droop pay?

2. someone says on the forum: "I found another company. This one pays $17.39 hr and hauls mail. They state that they pay aprox 60 hrs a week. "

So are there corp. who pays per Hour? Who of you guys get pay per H..? It is common? (because in this point they pay you for the time off duty as well... at least this is how I understand it..)
thx

Drop pay is for making multiple drops or pickups on the same load. For instance, let's say you pick up a load which has 4 drops. You are paid an extra fee for each drop after the first one. Some companies only pay for extra drops except for the first and last. In this case the driver would be paid for 2 extra drops, not 4. Some companies may pay for 3. Each company makes their own guidelines.

Most over the road drivers are paid by the mile. Some are paid a percentage of what the load pays the truck. Those drivers who haul LTL freight or those with multiple stops are often paid hourly. These drivers primarily run local or within a smaller region.

Most driving jobs which pay hourly are local. Most require a minimum 1-2 years of over the road driving experience before they will hire you.