Per Mile, Per Hour, Or Per Load?

Alright. I'm new. Never even driven a truck yet, so bear with me!

After I finish trucking school I have three options.

1.) Drive for a nice and small milk hauling company and get $150 a load, allowed to squeeze in two loads a day. 2.) Join another company that wants me after I graduate and get paid hourly $18/hr and overtime after 8 hours a day due to union. 3.) Join a big company and do long haul while being paid per mile.

Can you guys share the pros and cons with me? I was thinking about sticking to milk hauling since the company is less than 10 minutes away from me and will allow me to take the truck home with me even. I look forward to your answers everyone!

Alright. I'm new. Never even driven a truck yet, so bear with me!

After I finish trucking school I have three options.

1.) Drive for a nice and small milk hauling company and get $150 a load, allowed to squeeze in two loads a day. 2.) Join another company that wants me after I graduate and get paid hourly $18/hr and overtime after 8 hours a day due to union. 3.) Join a big company and do long haul while being paid per mile.

Can you guys share the pros and cons with me? I was thinking about sticking to milk hauling since the company is less than 10 minutes away from me and will allow me to take the truck home with me even. I look forward to your answers everyone!

I recommend you "milk it" for all you can . . . get it? Milk it??? Well, anyway, if you can work local and pull down $300 a day, why not? One thing, you will not be considered an OTR driver if you remain within the same state all the time so changing companies if the "milk" runs dry (another cow joke) won't be very easy.

Jopa

If I was given that choice, I would be driving a milk truck right now.

Thanks for the comments. Looks like I'm going to be milking it then!

Depends on what you want to do and what you want out of it.

Thanks for the comments. Looks like I'm going to be milking it then!

I don't know. That milk can get pretty angry especially around new guys. Might try bringing it flowers and chocolate once a month to keep it calm. I just want you to be careful cause I really don't want to see headlines like "New rookie drive sloshed to death by Angry Milk and the milk is on the run..... More at 10....."

Well OK I would love to see THAT headline but you know what I mean.

I wouldn't worry about how they pay you. I would decide based upon the lifestyle you want to live. If you have a family and want to be home as often as possible, the milk run sounds perfect. If you want to hit the highways coast to coast and really live the travelling lifestyle then get on with one of the major companies and see the country.

In the beginning you're only trying to learn the industry. You're not looking to make as much money as possible that first year. Find a company that you think will give you the lifestyle you want and a job that sounds pretty decent. Spend about a year really learning the industry and learning to handle that rig. Once you have a year of safe driving in, especially if it's OTR , you'll be able to go just about anywhere you like and drive anything.