Comments By Solo

How did your year end up turning out Solo?

Right at 125,000 miles and $76k gross for the year. I guess in the big picture, it went better than could have been expected. Made a crap ton of money, but the truck gets turned in tomorrow. Can't wait!

Heading down to the Carribean for a week+ vacation, then starting a local hourly gig ~Feb 6th.

No more frozen tarps/straps, parking wars, not being paid detention for this guy!

As somebody who currently runs 4+ miles every morning and goes to the gym every day, Flatbed was my only option/hope to be able to maintain any type of activity level.

Have you been able to keep up a fitness routine while OTR?

Not even once.

I ran all through orientation, but the moment I was issued my truck, that was the last time.

Put on 25lbs this year in the truck, and I can count on one hand how many times I ate at a truck stop.

That changes ~Feb 6th once I start my new local milk hauling gig. Can't wait.

I understand what it takes to turn those kinds of numbers. There's no luck involved.

I just don't want to see you burn yourself out.

Thank you.

I forgot to post over the weekend, but I hit my 9-months this past Friday and subsequently hit 100k miles (10k in my trainers truck + 90k in my truck) as I was rolling into Beloit for my 34. Not sure if that is avg, but I've been avg 3k miles PER YEAR for the better part of the last 10-12 years prior to driving, and now I do that in a week +/-. Almost 2k gallons of fuel for the month of October which is the highest for me as well. Christ, I'm glad I'm a Co. Driver.

I post on 3 other sites where new drivers ask daily where they should start what people are making, etc.

Nobody else on either of these 3 sites will show numbers (ie their pay stubs), they'll just say they make $300,000+ year. I'll post my stubs and will then receive short sentences to disterations via pvt messages from non-drivers, drivers from other companies, and even drivers from within TMC expressing their displeasure in the money I make...that I must be either a recruiter, owner/operator, or "liar" and just as recently as a few days ago "you're just lucky".

Oh, I'm burnt out and won't be able to sustain this...but last years top rookie made 80k gross, and I have no quit in me, so I'll knock out this first year and will best that 80k while not breaking a sweat but in full dehydration mode.

My current load of John Deere will gross my truck $3k on Monday and I'll still have the rest of the week to run.

Last week I did $5.4k to the truck off 3 loads.

I can't even BEGIN to express the amount of hate I've received with regards to the amount of money I'm making as a rookie driver, or just a company driver in general, but honestly...it's literally what keeps me going (The hate that is. The money is just cream on the top).

As for risk/reward, I still very much feel strongly about this. I will be moving on at the conclusion of my 1-year contract. Partially due to the former, but also to just how unhealthy of a lifestyle I can see this becoming if I don't stay on top of things. Though I've not run since January, people still ask me (as recently as this morning while watching the marathon in downtown Baltimore) "Do you run? You look like a runner" "Why yes I do" (Thank god I've not put weight on yet)

But burnt-out I am.

side note: We've lost 3 more drivers. 1 to a motorcycle crash they were in and the other 2 due to their GF/wife not being happy about them being gone all the time, so they each found local gigs. So of the 10, we're down to 3 remaining. 1 keeps saying he's quitting every-other-week, but he's making great money (more than TMC's claimed avg, but less than me) and each time he says he's going to this, that, or the other company...he ends up staying at TMC because he knows the money won't improve, if anything, it would decrease. 1 guy who I think stays OTR like me but has his wifes with him, so it seems to be working out for them perfectly, then me of course.

Anyway, my 9-months is coming up next week (contract amount goes down to $1k from the original 4k) and winter is nearly upon us again.

Https://imgur.com/a/CdKmgS8

I mispoke. My 6 months is this coming Sunday, but it was nice to wake-up to this weeks check this am:

The contract has lowered from the initial 4k now to 2k, and will decrease to 1k 10/25.

3 drivers from my class have already left due to not making the money they were expecting to make + not liking the OTR lifestyle Sun-Fri. You can make ok money IMHO, but not enough to justify the risk of the job by being home on weekends, but if you want to make good money (but still not worth the risk, again, IMHO), then you have to stay out OTR.

Having no wife/kids/bills really helps though.

Ok, 2 more updates and I'll call this diary a wrap (9-month mark and 12-month mark)

So I've been in the truck now over 6 months and still out here killing it...but it's tiring. Maintaining 33% and $2k weeks is mentally exhausting if nothing else. It becomes a competitive game and every second wasted from detainment at a shipper or con can cost you 1-2k in truck rev, but I push on.

I hope people who are physically capable of doing flatbed start with TMC or Maverick, because nobody else (company OTR driver) is making this kind of money consistently that I've been able to find from a few forums.

https://imgur.com/a/7LI51D7

https://imgur.com/a/vqv0VTU

That being said, I will be moving on once I hit my 1-year mark with TMC. I won't do another summer without an APU or continue OTR (which I don't intend to stop doing) w/o a pupper by my side...neither of which are available via TMC.

Your killing it at TMC . Goona make over 100k this year. Probably the world record at tmc for a company driver. Congrats

Have been Solo flatbedder for TMC for 4 months now and my lowest take home (after taxes) has been $1339.32 and my largest week (after taxes) has been $2202.49.

I'm staying in the $1500-$1600/wk after taxes range as an avg.

If you take my gross pay and just divide it by ALL miles (not including tarp and bounce pay), it works out to $.55/cpm

If you take my gross pay + tarp pay + bounce pay and divide it by dispatched miles, it jumps up to $.65/cpm

Last years top rookie made 80k. That won't even be an issue for me at this rate.

As a company driver, I'm seeing an avg of $1.93/pm

Our O/O's are seeing $2.41/pm

But so many variables to give you an accurate estimate for you.