who works in the trucking/transporation industry ??

[sidriptide]

i'm looking for some real-time insight into the trucking/transportation industry around the US. the opportunity has presented itself that i could get my class-A license thru my work for little or no cost so it's a no-brainer opportunity to jump at. i have driven a desk for several years and i'm secure enough to know that i can sit at this same desk for the next 20 years but i'm pretty much maxed out on wages so there is little incentive to stay on this path for the long-term, except the job security itself.
class-A drivers in the northeast pull $17 - $19 on average, and milage pay sucks because the region is so saturated you can have several stops within a few hundred miles.
a good friend of mine drives class-A in the southeast and tells me the average driver makes closer to $13 - $15 per hour, apparently the cost of living is lower.
my long-term goal is to relocate out west, maybe 4-corners area.

what is the average wage in your area?
any job you would advise against?
any exceptional companies that you love working for?
i dont mind driving or pulling long hours. just starting to hate my desk, and i'd rather change careers rather than spend any more effort looking for a second job for minimum wage.....

is OTR a good stepping stone to experience, or just a nightmare not worth getting involved in?

just looking for any input i can get to help me make a good choice.

thanks!

 

[squashman702]

What are you doing for work at the moment? I work as a manager for a major trucking company for a dedicated local account, so I can shed some insight.

The W2 we pay depends on cost of living in the area, which was around $55-$57k for where we're based out of. Drivers who want to work more can obviously increase this, as everything is paid based on activity.

Tough to say jobs I'd advise against- obviously there is more job security if you get in to something more specialized (flatbed, moffett delivery, dump trailer, etc) versus doing something like retail replenishment or dropping and hooking at locations. There's more risk of accident and injury in the more hands-on deliveries, obviously, but those typically pay more per stop. Depends on what you actually want to do as part of your deliveries.

Can't really provide advice on companies other than the one I work for, but I do know that Swift, Prime, Schneider, etc are some of the big ones that tend to cater to rookie drivers. Keep in mind that you may need a year or more experience driving before someone wants to consider you for a local job.

From what I've heard from the drivers that I've worked with, most did not like the time they spent in OTR. Tough to maintain a family life in that environment, and a lot of the time promised at home can be put at risk by missed deliveries, weather, breakdowns, etc. It was also a good foot in the door for a lot of people, however, and almost like a rite of passage.

Keep in mind, trucking is not what it used to be, which is good for drivers who want to run legal. Federal regulations get more strict every year, DOT physicals get tougher, drivers/companies are ranked nationally based on safety, etc.

 

[DrMoab]

The best advice I can give you... If the company has more than 1000 trucks, don't even think about working for them.

 

[squashman702]

The best advice I can give you... If the company has more than 1000 trucks, don't even think about working for them.

What's your reasoning behind this? Which big companies have you worked for? Not getting defensive, just curious.

 

[sidriptide]

i work as a buyer in the convenience store industry, transportation is part of the industry but i only deal with inbound logistics. i started out driving a truck and worked up thru receiving and warehouse management till i was picked for this. i was planning to get into class-A years ago but family issues made that impossible. now i'm looking at it again as a career path because my hours pretty much lock me into below $40K and it's just not enough anymore.
i'm 43 now and have no problem with the health physical requirements, i'm looking at another 20+ years of work.
realistically, if i make the jump i'm going to try to grab the most $$ i can and then see what i find i like/dislike and go from there, so i plan to get the Hazmat endorsements etc right away whether i need them or not. i knew a guy who made a killing running a seasonal fuel oil route from Montreal down here to Boston.

any insight into unions? i'm sure just like everything there are good and bad points. i just have no experience with them.

 

[Mechanic209]

I work for a truck leasing and repair company and see everything from temp drivers to people that have worked for the same company for 30 plus years. Most get their first couple years experience with whoever then find better companies to work for. Some of the experienced drivers make 60 to100k a year.

 

[DrMoab]

What's your reasoning behind this? Which big companies have you worked for? Not getting defensive, just curious.

I'm sure they aren't all bad but why risk it. There are thousands of small trucking companies looking for drivers who are much more likely to pay you better, treat you like a human instead of a number and care about you more.

I train drivers for the company I work for and the horror stories I hear from guys coming from what I like to call training companies are incredible.

 

[squashman702]

I'm sure they aren't all bad but why risk it. There are thousands of small trucking companies looking for drivers who are much more likely to pay you better, treat you like a human instead of a number and care about you more.

I train drivers for the company I work for and the horror stories I hear from guys coming from what I like to call training companies are incredible.

Training companies don't neccesarily mean all big companies are bad- I see all of my drivers every day and treat them fairly and we're over 10k drivers as a whole. Issues are handled on site when they come up; I really don't have to rely on my corporate office for much. At the same time, I can't imagine some of the bullshit that comes up with new drivers from a managerial perspective; it's bad enough with some of the guys who have worked for me that have years of experience.

 

[Boatwrench]

Get an A but also get a P endorsement. You can always fall back on driving folks from the senior center to the Indian Casinos in tour buses.

San Francisco's transit pays the bus drivers $32 per hour, but you have to deal with passengers.

 

[DrMoab]

San Francisco's transit pays the bus drivers $32 per hour, but you have to deal with passengers.

San Francisco also has 1000 sq foot houses that sell for over a millon bucks too.