Exact First Year Income. Week By Week!

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing that Daniel!

I'm still pondering how to make some of these threads more prominent. I hate the idea of "sticky" threads being at the top all the time. I have "tags" here in the forum but nobody uses them and I can't keep up with them myself. We have the search engine which works pretty awesome. We also have the Trucker's Career Guide which links to a lot of forum conversations and such. But like you said, topics like "Can I take a gun on the road" or "Should I lease/buy a truck" or "What do truck drivers make their first year?" are very common questions. Maybe we need a "FAQ" section of the forum or "All Star Threads" or something?

I don't know.

Thank you daniel this is very eye opening to a guy like me. I have some more saving to do apparently your first year on the road would be very difficult for me to keep up with my bills,rent etc. i see that it def got better for you as time went on. Not to mention the endless amount of experience you got. Im thinking of going to prime for school. I drive now for a local company not big rigs of course but a small box truck and ive met alot of central guys and they all have basically told me to stay away from central.

Thank you daniel this is very eye opening to a guy like me. I have some more saving to do apparently your first year on the road would be very difficult for me to keep up with my bills,rent etc. i see that it def got better for you as time went on. Not to mention the endless amount of experience you got. Im thinking of going to prime for school. I drive now for a local company not big rigs of course but a small box truck and ive met alot of central guys and they all have basically told me to stay away from central.

I'm glad it helped. The paychecks are very inconsistent. You really have to hope you have enough money when you're going home for hometime to pay the bills. Some weeks/months we didn't have enough to pay a bill or two because my paycheck was extremely low. But then other weeks I had plenty enough because my paycheck was huge. It can be difficult to predict the future when your paychecks are sometimes 200$ and sometimes even lower. Lets not forget that the cost of living on the road is high.

Also consider this. I made .28-.31cpm with my time at Central. Prime pays a lot more so there's no doubt that you'll make more than I did. Central was a great company to work for, I enjoyed my time there but I believe that after a year of experience I should be making more than .31cpm that's why I'm switching companies.

Anyways, I'm glad it helped. I hope all the data is easy to read.

Thank you daniel this is very eye opening to a guy like me. I have some more saving to do apparently your first year on the road would be very difficult for me to keep up with my bills,rent etc. i see that it def got better for you as time went on. Not to mention the endless amount of experience you got. Im thinking of going to prime for school. I drive now for a local company not big rigs of course but a small box truck and ive met alot of central guys and they all have basically told me to stay away from central.

I'm glad it helped. The paychecks are very inconsistent. You really have to hope you have enough money when you're going home for hometime to pay the bills. Some weeks/months we didn't have enough to pay a bill or two because my paycheck was extremely low. But then other weeks I had plenty enough because my paycheck was huge. It can be difficult to predict the future when your paychecks are sometimes 200$ and sometimes even lower. Lets not forget that the cost of living on the road is high.

Also consider this. I made .28-.31cpm with my time at Central. Prime pays a lot more so there's no doubt that you'll make more than I did. Central was a great company to work for, I enjoyed my time there but I believe that after a year of experience I should be making more than .31cpm that's why I'm switching companies.

Anyways, I'm glad it helped. I hope all the data is easy to read.

very easy to read and you are a very organized person. your daily journal was very eye opening. Im not totally torn away from the lifestyle but it did put somethings into perspective. One thing i would have liked to see that brett said in another thread is the simple stuff. like when how often do you shower are you always sleeping in the truck? what are you eating on a daily basis. I'm all about saving money and im a big tea drinker myself so what you did was very simple to me.

Thank you daniel this is very eye opening to a guy like me. I have some more saving to do apparently your first year on the road would be very difficult for me to keep up with my bills,rent etc. i see that it def got better for you as time went on. Not to mention the endless amount of experience you got. Im thinking of going to prime for school. I drive now for a local company not big rigs of course but a small box truck and ive met alot of central guys and they all have basically told me to stay away from central.

I'm glad it helped. The paychecks are very inconsistent. You really have to hope you have enough money when you're going home for hometime to pay the bills. Some weeks/months we didn't have enough to pay a bill or two because my paycheck was extremely low. But then other weeks I had plenty enough because my paycheck was huge. It can be difficult to predict the future when your paychecks are sometimes 200$ and sometimes even lower. Lets not forget that the cost of living on the road is high.

Also consider this. I made .28-.31cpm with my time at Central. Prime pays a lot more so there's no doubt that you'll make more than I did. Central was a great company to work for, I enjoyed my time there but I believe that after a year of experience I should be making more than .31cpm that's why I'm switching companies.

Anyways, I'm glad it helped. I hope all the data is easy to read.

very easy to read and you are a very organized person. your daily journal was very eye opening. Im not totally torn away from the lifestyle but it did put somethings into perspective. One thing i would have liked to see that brett said in another thread is the simple stuff. like when how often do you shower are you always sleeping in the truck? what are you eating on a daily basis. I'm all about saving money and im a big tea drinker myself so what you did was very simple to me.

I shower every day or every other day. I always sleep in the truck, way to cheap to buy myself a motel. I eat healthy religiously. I cook eggs every morning and put some black forest ham and salami with the eggs on bread. I munch on carrots when I'm driving. I eat the exact same as I do at home.

I'm the biggest tea fan around. I have over a dozen different tea boxes. Buy this for your truck:

Hot Pot

It boils water in roughly 15 minutes.

Also, purchase Mint plants and grow them in your truck. The leaves are extremely good on your stomach.

I've tried every tea out there. This is my favorite:

Guayaki Pure Empower Mint

Hey Brett, I think a FAQ section would be perfect, I thought about suggesting that the last time I read yet an other persons question about guns in trucks. It would be really handy to have all those questions and answers in one place. And Daniel, thanks for posting the info on how much you earned. I know a lot of ppl don't want to share personal financial information like that but it really is nice to know realistically what I could expect to make my first year. Thanks a bunch.

TruckMike ,he no longer comes around, worked for Prime for 3 years and posted his first year income with them. He did pretty well. If I remember right he averaged $700 to $900 a week after taxes. Daniel you might be able to search the old forums for the thread TruckMike did on his first year pay with Prime.

Great information I become solo driver at the end of the month and see I should watch my money more closely seeing the pay is not consistent really glad you posted this

TruckerMike ,he no longer comes around, worked for Prime for 3 years and posted his first year income with them

Yap, here's a couple of his articles:

My 2010 Salary – Finishing Up My Second Year Behind The Wheel

My First Year as a Truck Driver

Wow Thx Daniel! This tells me you gotta put the money up when it's good cause you may need it next week to live.