[Ian Williams]

If you are strictly about the $ you are in the wrong line of work.

Yes you can make good money driving once you get some experience, but barring a working you arse of 80+ hrs/week with zero time off in some profitable niche you are not going to break $100k/ year. Anyone who tells you otherwise is attempting to sell you a bill of goods.

[driverboy]

Short of scanning my weekly paystub and posting it on an internet forum there is no way to prove to the naysayers my wage, nor do I have any desire to.

Regardless to those newbies reading these threads, it is possible to make over a 100K/year as a company driver, I'm doing it. Those that state it's not possible are not making that much, that would be a given. Have to offer some glimmer of hope to new drivers turning to the internet to see what trucking is all about.I do not see the lure of working for peanuts in a dangerous occupation, I would rather work retail/restaurant for similar money and safer worker conditions than 80,000 lbs. rolling down the highway.

Day-cabs, sleep in my own bed, 8-9 hour run depending on how smooth the day goes, minus the blizzard part.

[crazyWillie]

Originally Posted by BIG JEEP on 44's

This kind of reminds me of the movie with jonh candy ( Armed an dangerous) ....

i love that movie

John candy Wat you haulin here
Truck driver : ROCKET FUEL YEEEEEHHHAAAWWWWW

all this while plowin through traffic

[stevedb28]

I was talking to a driver for McLane Dist. and he said that he knew of 2 drivers there that were making over 100k a yr. But they have 2 drivers in a truck and they have several drops in one metro area usually. And the work involved in some serious labor. He told me the drivers get commission off of several factors including weight and the price of the delivery. The drop he made at the store I was at was 50.00 and they were there for about 30 minutes and on their way. Thats per driver and they were both unloading even though on their logs one was bunked (whats the use in even having a log book if you lie that bad)? Anyway, I believe that they can make that much as a company driver because I personally dont want to handle that much freight.

[blazer]

I know a guy who drives for McLane also, makes good money too but he usually starts work at 10 pm, delivers to fast food joints in all kinds of weather, delivers to New York City regularly, hard physical labor but has a company supplied and paid lumper.

[Ideratherbedriving]

Originally Posted by Anne Marie

can you take home 80,000 to 100,000 per year after taxes driving truck? Some of these companies say you can. I want to know what you all think. 8)
Anne Marie

My team-mate and I haul dedicated freight for "a large retailer" and we earn about 95K per year each. ( They also pay the premium for my family insurance plan... so you can add another 15K to the 95K) We drive 5-6 days a week running routes to locations 400-600 miles from our terminal.

I spend 3-6 hours at home 3-4 days a week - the other couple of days we turn and burn so we don't see home.

We worked our way into the job by consistently saying YES for a couple of years to questions like:
Would you like to work your day off? Would you like to come back a couple of days early from your vacation? You have 3 hrs left to drive, would you run this load across town instead of going to your kid's baseball game?

After we had spent two years building up our "good will" account with the powers that be, we went in and convinced them to give us one of these elite jobs.

My point is that we were very intentional about the whole thing. Nobody is out there handing these type of jobs out to just anybody. Chances are, you are going to have to pay a few dues. Also.. you need a solid work history, clean driving record, and some good solid references.

The jobs are out there. Good Luck.

[merrick4]

Well I guess recruiters lie, but sometimes you have to in order to shut people up. When someone calls up our company they ask how much can they make. I tell them that it depends on them. I don't know what their work ethic is. So I tell them that anyone who gives them a number is lying to them and they seem to get upset at that and keep insisting for a number. At that point I won't even hire them.



[QUOTE=
Rule #1: Recruiters for companies LIE.
Rule #2: If a recruiter seems to be telling the truth, refer to rule #1.[/QUOTE]

[Fredog]

Originally Posted by Anne Marie

Well two of the companies are Forward Air. They said gross 140,000 to 180,000 and take home 80,000 to 100,000, thats as an owner operator. And Quality Carriers said gross 200,000 take home half as an owner operator. But my husband has driven for 17 years. I dont know, just not sure what to believe.

Quality Carriers are liars, I was leased to them for 4 months and almost went to the poor house, it's not unusual to get negative paychecks from them..
in my current lease, last year I grossed 110,000 but you have to take expenses out of that, to take home 100,000 , I would guess you need to gross at least 190 which isnt likely to happen, even a niche market isnt going to take a newbie

[Brown67]

I'm a UPS feeder driver and will make just over 90k this year. I work about 53 hours a week. The overtime, and extra pay for triples (only do triples once every couple of weeks) and double 45's really add up. We make an extra buck an hour for pulling triples or double 45's. Only have to pull it once and make that rate for the whole night. I make two round trips from Northern Colorado to Denver every night. Work is nice and I like working nights, so its a good run. Put in a lot of years as a package driver before I moved to feeders, but its worth it. It's a pay your dues company and with 23 years in I've paid mine and now I'm doing really well. So much better than package cars. We do have mileage guys in Denver that will make 120k to 130K.

[GMAN]

If you want to make $100,000 driving a truck you will usually need to get into one of the niche areas of the industry. Cars is one area where drivers can earn from $75-125,000/year, but it is hard work and you will be out in the elements. Another is LTL. Some of the LTL carriers will pay in the $80,000+ range. Then there is heavy haul and oversize freight. It usually takes a few years to get into these specialty areas of the industry. Everyone pays their dues.