Speaking Of Pay...

Im going to share with you guys, a check stub from my first week back OTR with Gordon Trucking ( I was local for a yr and basically had to start as a newb all over again)

I started out at .35cpm my first week back out.

2553 solo miles x .35cpm = 893.55 not a bad week starting back out. after a yr + 27 reimbursement (Toll bridge and Scales) Total 920.55 GROSS

Fed Income Tax = -20.33 Social Sec. Tax = -46.22 Medicare Tax = -10.81 MO State Tax = -16.00 Total Tax = -93.36

Insurance for Me = -37.00 Spouse = -85.00 Kids = -26.00 Misc. = -25.00 Total = -173.00

Net Pay = 920.55 - 93.36 - 173.00 = 654.19 NET

My taxes at the time where set up for 5 exemptions, my self, my wife, and 3 daughters.

Now if I didnt need the insurance, I would have an addition 173 on my net which would have paid out 827.19

hope this helps some of you with some realistic numbers. I know daniel went through a full year, I havent seen his post in a long time and can't remember how in detail he went. but figured I'd show what Mine was too.

So even if you start out at .32cpm @ 2500, you'll see around 600 Net..

Thanks for that. I don't have a wife or kids so my insurance will be cheaper. I think trucking is a job where you have to look at your pay every month vs every week because so many things can affect your pay during the week. Low miles, breakdowns, layovers etc can affect your check at the end of the week. So if you have a low check one week and the following week you recoup that loss and then some then you are back on track. Plus your bills are due every month so i think looking at what you make a month is better. I figure out my monthly expenses to live and what i want to save each month and come up with a number. Since the bills are due every month i can handle a week where i don't make much money as long as the weeks ahead i recoup what i lost and more from the previous week.

My math isn't the greatest but at 11 hours a day X 6 days a week is 66 hours. 66 hours a week X 4 weeks = 264 hours a month on the clock. Now lets say i want to make a minimum of $2500 a month (which is low for me but not horrible) $2,500 divided by 264 hours of working comes to about $9.50 an hour. That part sucks!

Most I have made was like $12 an hour.

I was only 21 when I started driving in '93 but I was making $5.50/hr working in a warehouse when I signed up for trucking school and that was the best money I had ever made to that point. Not long before that I was working in a factory for $4.00/hr until I had been there for three months and they gave me a raise to $4.10/hr. That's right.....a dime an hour raise. LoL!

$2,500 divided by 264 hours of working comes to about $9.50 an hour. That part sucks!

You're being paid to drive. If you average 50 mph and you're making 36 cpm that's $18/hr while you're driving.

The best way to determine if trucking is worth the pay or not is to look at everything you're required to do and what you're being paid for it. Do the job for a few months and ask yourself if the paychecks have been worth it. Don't worry about breaking it down by the hour, day, week, load, or anything else. Look at the body of work you do and what you get paid for it in the end.

I wrote an article called Is Trucking Worth It Anymore?. It will give you some food for thought.

When people throw out numbers of potential earnings are they talking about gross or net? I read people quoting 30k+ for a first year driver with no experience. I assume they are talking gross numbers here. So if that's gross lets take out .30% for taxes and that's down to 21k a year net.

So what are we talking here for a first year driver? 21k net or 30k net?

There are three parts to your numbers:

Gross is the earnings you make from the company That's what anyone quotes you when they say $.55 CPM. This is the biggest number, so that's what yo see in advertising. (The to 10% of Our drivers make $65,000 per year!)

Net is after taxes.

Take Home (not a technical term) is what you get to spend after the taxes and other deductions, like health insurance are taken out.

It's quite possible to make significantly more than the $35k/year "first year estimate." It basically depends on the company you choose, and how hard you are willing to work. I was very fortunate to get hired on with a great company right out of school (a smallish one that pays me extremely well), and I basically push myself as hard as I can all the time. I also drive flatbed which I guess pays a little more.

I've been keeping a running spreadsheet on my computer. Every week I input the figures from my paystub into it. Yes, I am an anal nerd.

Since I started solo OTR May 1st, through my last pay period which ended December 3rd (about 7 months), I have grossed $39,810. Now keep in mind that's everything, the "whole shebang" if you will. That number includes everything from my standard mileage pay, tarping pay, cell phone reimbursement, fuel bonuses and other miscellaneous extra pays to my nontaxable withholdings for my IRA and Flex spending account.

But just looking at the work I've done, I've grossed $32,599 for my miles driven and $3,714 for tarping, extra stops, border crossings, detention pay, oversize loads and short haul pay, which adds up to $36,313.

With 4 deductions, I have paid $3,355 in taxes (fed, state, SS and med).

After taxes, health insurance premiums and my health/retirement withholdings, my take-home pay (net paycheck) has been $32,617.

I had been working jobs where I never made more than $10 to $12/hour since 2009, so I have to say I am quite happy with this (and so is my family!)

So what I'm saying is, don't get discouraged if you were hoping to make more than $35k the first year. You just need to apply yourself and dig a little deeper than the obvious choices.

Most I have made was like $12 an hour.

I was only 21 when I started driving in '93 but I was making $5.50/hr working in a warehouse when I signed up for trucking school and that was the best money I had ever made to that point. Not long before that I was working in a factory for $4.00/hr until I had been there for three months and they gave me a raise to $4.10/hr. That's right.....a dime an hour raise. LoL!

$2,500 divided by 264 hours of working comes to about $9.50 an hour. That part sucks!

You're being paid to drive. If you average 50 mph and you're making 36 cpm that's $18/hr while you're driving.

The best way to determine if trucking is worth the pay or not is to look at everything you're required to do and what you're being paid for it. Do the job for a few months and ask yourself if the paychecks have been worth it. Don't worry about breaking it down by the hour, day, week, load, or anything else. Look at the body of work you do and what you get paid for it in the end.

I wrote an article called Is Trucking Worth It Anymore?. It will give you some food for thought.

Ok so i did some wrong calculating. So you are getting paid but when you aren't driving i factor that in. To me if you are "at" work no matter what you are doing you should be paid for all the time you are at work. I know it doesn't work this way in the trucking world but if you really want to know what you are really making per hour you add in the time you aren't driving. Time is money in this world the way i look at it. You might make $18 an hour actually driving but when you are sitting waiting to be unloaded or you have a few days you are broke down what does that hourly rate drop down to?

Some companies pay layover and detention pay but it's a joke amount and some places it only starts after the first 24 hours. So the first 24 hours you make nothing. I'm just going by what i read on company websites and forums.

When people throw out numbers of potential earnings are they talking about gross or net? I read people quoting 30k+ for a first year driver with no experience. I assume they are talking gross numbers here. So if that's gross lets take out .30% for taxes and that's down to 21k a year net.

So what are we talking here for a first year driver? 21k net or 30k net?

There are three parts to your numbers:

Gross is the earnings you make from the company That's what anyone quotes you when they say $.55 CPM. This is the biggest number, so that's what yo see in advertising. (The to 10% of Our drivers make $65,000 per year!)

Net is after taxes.

Take Home (not a technical term) is what you get to spend after the taxes and other deductions, like health insurance are taken out.

I know what net and gross mean that wasn't what i was asking. I was asking when numbers are given of yearly earnings are they giving gross or net numbers. When someone says you can make 35k a year the difference in the gross and net can be as much as 10k depending on where you live and the total percentage of taxes taken out.

I'm into my 1st year with Werner, and to date my gross is 44k, I am at .35 cpm , with a 2 cent bonus for all miles if I run over 10,000 miles per month. I will also receive 1/2 cent per mile bonus on December 19 (date I got my truck, and went solo) for all accident free miles driven the previous year. So I estimate I should make nearly 48k my 1st year

Most I have made was like $12 an hour.

I was only 21 when I started driving in '93 but I was making $5.50/hr working in a warehouse when I signed up for trucking school and that was the best money I had ever made to that point. Not long before that I was working in a factory for $4.00/hr until I had been there for three months and they gave me a raise to $4.10/hr. That's right.....a dime an hour raise. LoL!

$2,500 divided by 264 hours of working comes to about $9.50 an hour. That part sucks!

You're being paid to drive. If you average 50 mph and you're making 36 cpm that's $18/hr while you're driving.

The best way to determine if trucking is worth the pay or not is to look at everything you're required to do and what you're being paid for it. Do the job for a few months and ask yourself if the paychecks have been worth it. Don't worry about breaking it down by the hour, day, week, load, or anything else. Look at the body of work you do and what you get paid for it in the end.

I wrote an article called Is Trucking Worth It Anymore?. It will give you some food for thought.

Ok so i did some wrong calculating. So you are getting paid but when you aren't driving i factor that in. To me if you are "at" work no matter what you are doing you should be paid for all the time you are at work. I know it doesn't work this way in the trucking world but if you really want to know what you are really making per hour you add in the time you aren't driving. Time is money in this world the way i look at it. You might make $18 an hour actually driving but when you are sitting waiting to be unloaded or you have a few days you are broke down what does that hourly rate drop down to?

Some companies pay layover and detention pay but it's a joke amount and some places it only starts after the first 24 hours. So the first 24 hours you make nothing. I'm just going by what i read on company websites and forums.

I disagree. If you're laying down on your bunk playing video games, you think you should be paid for that? I don't.

This is just the nature of certain types of businesses. There are slow times. A guy running his own hot dog stand doesn't get to magically pay himself during the slow hours. He takes the ups with the downs and looks at the big picture.

It's the same in trucking. Except in trucking, if you're stuck sitting somewhere for repairs or waiting to get loaded, you're not the only one not making any money. The company isn't making any either. So why should they have to cough up some dough just so you can watch movies in your sleeper or sit in a restaurant and read trucking forums on your phone?

You get it while the getting is good, and you accept that the getting isn't always gonna be good. That's just the way it goes.

There are companies that will pay more than .34 cpm for a first year driver. Jordan Carriers out of Natchez MS will pay .43 for a first year. I think Maverick is at .38 and TMC is at percentage. With either of these you can easily and realistically see gross earnings in the mid $40 K/yr your first year. Just because you are a new driver does not mean you have to work for cheap. I encourage you to research the companies before you land on the first one that offers a job.

It wouldn't allow me to quote because of too many characters so I will paste this

"I disagree. If you're laying down on your bunk playing video games, you think you should be paid for that? I don't."

I also disagree. If I'm the clock and I'm not driving because of a breakdown or something out of my control i should be paid. If I'm not at home and I'm in a company truck I'm at work as far as i'm concerned. If i am in the bunk playing video games because of a breakdown that's not my problem and out of my control.

Your example of the hotdog stand owner can't be compared to an employee working for a company. Owner and employees two different ball games.

Anyway my point with all of this in the grand scheme of things you aren't making $18 an hour because you are at work clocked in and not always driving.