By The Numbers 2020

I was wondering with the craziness of 2020 with the lock downs and other restrictions how everyone ended up doing in 2020. A lot of people are looking for a job and this might sway them towards trucking.

I came up $220 short of hitting my goal of 100k for the year, sucks to come so close and come up short.

You beat me to it Bobcat. Was wondering if you or Rob T hit the 100k club. I was about to post mine. Came out just short of 78k. Down from 81k last year. Our business did take a hit from corona. Schools, restaurants etc. We will see how this year plays out.

Congrats fellas. Those are some serious numbers. Making me rethink my line of work lol. This year being an election year the coal industry was severely slow as it is every election year. So with all the time off, reduced hours,and slow going plus being sidelined nearly a month for some health issues I got in the equivalent of roughly 9 months of work in a good year. Pulled in just shy of $41k gross for my 3rd year in a truck. Not too shabby for 50 hour weeks or less.

Thanks to being a trainer my numbers doubled from last year. I dont know if travel allowance gets added onto the final ytd earnings or if it is already factored in?

I was extremely busy during 2020. I had to come off the road in September due to some problems with my vision. I had a detached retina which has not responded well to the surgery. So far I've had three surgeries and still have a fourth planned in a few months. It's likely that I am done with OTR driving. My doctors seem to think there is no way I will regain normal vision after we get through all this.

I was enjoying my most prosperous year yet as a driver. At the end of June I had made 50,000 dollars. At the end of September I was a little past 75,000 dollars. That put me right on track to be in the 100,000 dollar club. My flatbed work never slowed during these crazy days. I heard some of the other drivers on our account complaining, but I never felt the squeeze.

Let me just throw something in here for folks that are new and reading this stuff with interest. Trucking is a tough career to break into. Nobody jumps right in and starts making 100,000 per year. I made fifty thousand my rookie year, and I considered that to be very good. That was eight years ago. It took me a few years to get where I understood how to make things happen in my favor out here. There is a lot that we drivers can do for ourselves that will have a positive effect on our bottom line. Relationships are key in this business. Most of us as drivers will have very little contact with anybody in the offices. We have a driver manager or dispatcher , and that is our main person we deal with. That relationship is crucial. It must be cultivated and kept positive. So many drivers seem to think their driver managers are their whipping boys. They use them to blame for their failures and they try to boss them around and push them to get more miles. That's not the way to accomplish your goals. We can actually help our managers by giving them helpful communications that enable them to keep us busy. I seldom talked with my dispatcher unless he initiated the conversation. I did keep him apprised of all my progress and or problems through the tablet in my truck. Those guys are extremely busy. They don't need a bunch of drivers keeping them tied to the phone. Electronic communications help them be efficient. Learning how to properly communicate your schedule and times of availability to them will do wonders for your bottom line.

Trucking involves a lot of sacrifice. I have been in a discussion with Stoug over in the Diaries Section of the forum about ways to increase his income. He has struggled some with his enjoyment of his career. It is a lot to ask of a person to be out on the road all the time when they don't feel they are earning enough money for the sacrifices involved. Truckers are independent souls, but we have got to learn to develop good relationships with our managers and our customers. I had the surprising good will of customers who would call my company and request that I be the driver that delivered loads to them. That was crazy. I only found out about it through my dispatcher. The reason they gave was that I always called ahead and gave them an ETA and that I was never late after making that commitment. Those relationships that I developed always came back to benefit me.

Making great money in trucking has very little to do with what type freight you are pulling or what company you work for. It all comes down to being a professional who understands the little things that you can do as a driver to increase your value in the marketplace. I was just a common flat-bedder, but I made great money. I had a friend on the same account as me. He has twenty years experience. He was happy making 50,000 dollars. He never tried any harder than that. I made double his annual pay. That should show you what I mean. You get to determine your own pay out here. He was leaving all kinds of money on the table. I never liked that feeling. I want to maximize my take. It's not hard to do, it just takes commitment and initiative. We drivers set our own bar. We can set our own income level. It just takes the willingness to play the game in a way that gets results.

Great job guys!! I ended up making $100,869. Not too shabby for only having a high school diploma. I'm paid $30/hr for all hours (no OT except holidays) and it breaks down to around 58 hours a week due to roughly $10,500 in bonuses.

Total miles from January 1st to Dec 31st was 76,973 with 1,439 1/2 hours spent on the drive line. Comes out to roughly 53 mph average for the year but I do a bit of city driving as well.

I have 3 years experience driving, these numbers aren't something you'll likely see your first year especially if you're doing OTR while you get the hang of things but it is possible to break 6 figures in trucking. I'd highly recommend NOT getting into trucking strictly for the income because you'll likely be miserable.

Not an exact amount out of me, but my net was more than $60,000.

I anticipate more this year, but who knows? New regulations that may happen could have us all making less.

Great job guys!! I ended up making $100,869. Not too shabby for only having a high school diploma. I'm paid $30/hr for all hours (no OT except holidays) and it breaks down to around 58 hours a week due to roughly $10,500 in bonuses.

Total miles from January 1st to Dec 31st was 76,973 with 1,439 1/2 hours spent on the drive line. Comes out to roughly 53 mph average for the year but I do a bit of city driving as well.

I have 3 years experience driving, these numbers aren't something you'll likely see your first year especially if you're doing OTR while you get the hang of things but it is possible to break 6 figures in trucking. I'd highly recommend NOT getting into trucking strictly for the income because you'll likely be miserable.

Nice job. However, I'd like to see (not necessarily from you) gross/hours worked. I did about $72k this year without breaking a sweat. And took a Covid furlough. Still, a $100K gross would be nice :)

My gross was just above 55k and I cleared 34k and change. With 31k from my pension added in my total gross earnings will be 86k. I've been declaring "Married but withhold at the higher single rate" for both my Job and my pension. Also I paid in $50.00 extra each week from the trucking job and a extra $100.00 on my pension to make sure I paid enough in taxes. Hopefully it was enough to cover the tax bill. But then again this is the government and they will wring out every penny due to them...

Great numbers, y'all.

I topped my personal goal of 100k, as well, all while performing what I think to be one of the easiest, yet most rewarding trucking jobs around.

Being a rookie here still, I'm still at rookie pay. But by the end of this year I'll be up there at the same rate as the senior drivers, giving me another 5k-10k for the year.

Gross hours weren't tracked, but I stay very consistent at around 60hrs of on-duty time every work week. With my 5/2 - 5/3 schedule (5 on, 2 off, 5 on, 3 off), it works out to only working 20 days a month. Subtract from that the 25 paid days off a year I can earn in my rookie year, and it works out to be a pretty sweet deal for an ol redneck like myself :)