Comments By Alex H.

I am so happy that you did this diary! I'm going to get my DOT physical exam on the 22nd of June and then hopefully test for my CDL permit. Then I will be going to Millington for my training. Just wanted to say thank you so much for this. Probably the best part that calmed my nerves about schooling was knowing that if I mess up somehow, I will get a second (and third, if needed) chance at the school.

I'm currently doing the Infinit-i program. (I hope you know what I'm talking about lol)

After that, If everything goes well, I will go get my permit at the local OMV and then get my physical. Then I'll be off to Memphis.

Welcome Toonces... I found footage of your driving... Toonces Driving and Driving Test

:D LOL

Drivers who have been in the industry for a little while can become very manipulative. They know the laws and regulations and they know how to play the right cards in order to hide behind those regulations to get their way.

For instance, you know as a driver that if you tell dispatch you don't feel safe to drive the truck they wouldn't dare try to force you to drive it. That's like a get out of jail free card. You take a 1,000 mile run, drive the 900 easiest miles, and then suddenly "become ill" and have to have someone else finish up the load for you. In the meantime you've made your money so you go get a nice meal, watch a movie or two, and a good night's sleep at the truck stop instead of having to find this place and sit around waiting to be unloaded. The next day you have fresh hours, you're assigned a new load, and off you go. You made your money, you got your sleep, you enjoyed some downtime, and saved yourself the grief of having to do the hard part of the run. Instead some other poor driver got suckered into doing that part for you.

Here's a great example of this kind of thing from a couple of years ago. This driver, "Abe", tried to tell dispatch he was too tired to drive. He had sat around for 20 hours doing nothing and said he couldn't sleep. When it was time to run he said he was too tired and unsafe to drive so someone else had to take his run.

Funny thing about this though - he worked for a company with guaranteed minimum pay. If you ran a minimum number of miles in a week you would get paid a certain salary which was quite a bit higher than the miles you actually ran. So if he was able to pawn this load off on another driver his pay would have worked out the same. Basically he would have gotten paid to sit around and do nothing.

Well he knew this wasn't going to fly with dispatch so he set them up. He got out the video camera and recorded the call so he could try to prove that dispatch was forcing him to drive when he was unfit, a Federal violation.

Here is the original conversation we had about it:

Told To Drive When You're Too Tired

Here's the last I heard about that guy:

Run Hard Get Paid: Not Anymore

That kind of stuff goes on all the time out there. There are a lot of hard working, safe, reliable drivers out there but there are also a lot of lazy, unreliable, manipulative jerks that will milk the system and take advantage of people every chance they get. When you've been in the industry long enough it's not difficult to recognize these situations, they're not uncommon.

I remember hearing about that guy on CNN. Yes, he made it on CNN. At the time I thought it was terrible how the company was treating him. Had no idea of the backstory, though.

Generally we try to stay on a set schedule (I drive nights, he drives days) but between time zone changes, hours availability, and appointments this is not always possible. I'd say we remain fully on schedule about 80% of the time. I don't think this is very big advantage of teaming, though.

Thank you.

Hello,

I was curious as to a possible advantage of team driving. I'm mostly a day-time sleeper (naturally) and a worker at night. I have learned from this website that a trucker has no sleep schedule. Is this also the case with team drivers? It seems like since there are two drivers, each one would have his/her set time to drive as well as his or her set time to sleep. I was just wondering if this is the case for team drivers or if they also have erratic sleep schedules.

Thanks!

Sorry Alex, all the training I do is when I talk to my peers here on this account, and what I can find the time to do here on Trucking Truth. I enjoy teaching others how to succeed at this, but I also enjoy my privacy in my own truck. My wife has tried to convince me to be a trainer, but I'm quite satisfied with trying to help out here in the forum while running my tail off out here in my little world.

Well can't blame ya for that!

As to the original question, as others have stated, it is a little difficult to put a good solid number to it. I would say that most drivers are going to be in the 45,000 - 50,000 dollar range. There are always exceptions, and you must keep in mind that the nature of this business is to reward the top producers with the top pay. As far as CPM rates go, they don't tell the whole story when it comes to your actual pay. Generally at the five year mark you will have reached top pay in this industry - it tops out fairly quickly. Where the drivers with initiative and drive come out on top is by being able to outperform their peers by getting things done, like moving their delivery times forward, managing to be the first in and the first out, managing their logs so they are efficiently operating under the rules.

I have hundreds of stories that illustrate how I beat the odds at various shippers and receivers by just working a plan to be ahead of the other guys. It's not that hard to do, but you've got to make some sacrifices and stay on top of your game to keep things moving in the right direction. Here's a small example: I was dispatched 3,650 miles this week - more than anyone else on this account. While I may be making the same CPM rate as some of the other guys I will still make more money because I got more done. Why would my dispatcher load me up so heavily when there are others here who may have only had 2,200 mile for their work week? It is simply a matter of confidence - he knew that I would get it done. He was confident that I could manage my hours so that I would not be stranded somewhere complaining that I didn't have enough hours to make it. I had a tight schedule with multiple stops that all needed to be finished on a Friday, or else I would be sitting all weekend waiting for Monday to get here - he knew that I was not about to let that happen, and that effectively sets me up for being back at our dedicated customer first thing Monday, available for the next set of loads going out. Dispatchers love the guys who "git er done." They will rely on them heavily, and they will hold back on the guys whose track records make them a little nervous. I had to drive all through the night almost every night this week to make all this stuff come out right, but that is what it took to make it happen. That is how you will end up making a decent salary in this business - be the guy who makes things happen.

Wow! That is quite a story. Hopefully I have a good trainer who can teach me tricks like that. Do you train? lol

80k? Wow, are you an O/O?

Alex, unfortunately Garry left out a lot of information on his post.

I'm assuming, from reading what he did say, that he is a company driver, probably doing some sort of a line-haul type job. He dropped a few clues we can go by like "same drop yards" and "drop n hook both ends." That all sounds like a line haul situation to me. Hopefully he will see your question and fill in the blanks for us.

These line haul jobs are unique and usually pay very well, they are also only available in limited demographics - in other words: location is key for the driver. He is very fortunate to land such a job and I'm sure he realizes that.

Thanks for the info!!

I'm in year 2. The key for me was research, research and yes more research. I started out with Prime making about $800 per week but out for very long periods at a time. I stuck it out, served my time but all the while I was researching the best possible opportunities out there. I now run the "Gravy Train" with a co-driver. Midwest - West, same route, same drop yards, drop n hook both ends, home every weekend and scrape in $80,000 😜 This was the job I always had in my mind ( never thought I would find it though, I must admit) and would not settle for compromise, in fact my financial target was $60,000. That's why I call it the "Gravy Train". Best of luck to you.

80k? Wow, are you an O/O?