Truck Driving Pay is Not What it's Cracked Up to Be?

Click on the link for more at.... Hey wutzup. My brother was thinking about getting into truck driving, so I geeked out on a bunch of stuff and I want to share a few things I discovered. Most truck drivers get paid per mile, which means they are on duty and driving. What many people don't know is that most carriers will not pay if you're on duty and not driving. If your fueling your truck, inspecting it, and waiting for something you don't get paid. If you add up, ALL the hours you work divided by your paycheck your actual hourly rate will probably be less than your effective hourly pay. The good news is that when you are waiting and NOT getting paid you can still do things such as read a book, watch a show, or exercise. The real hourly rate is going to be closer to around $20 an hour (on average) starting out as a corporate truck driver but can be increased with time. Even though many advertisements will talk about gross income a year because it's easy to recruit someone as a driver. I know Walmart advertises truck drivers getting paid around 100k a year, the thing is Walmart "Only" hires the BEST truck drivers (You need lots of experience) and it's very difficult to get that job. There is also this dream to own your own truck in the trucking industry and that's called an owner-operator. Around 84% of commercial truck drivers in the U.S. are company drivers and do not own their own trucks. If you are an owner operator there is more responsibility and "hopefully" more money. The bad news when you are an owner-operator there is more maintenance and anything that goes wrong with the truck is going to be your responsibility. If the truck gets towed and needs repairs it's going to cost! If you don't have access to deep pockets of money then you're going to be out of business. Between 60-65% of owner-operators don't make it 3 years. It's not easy. If you are going to finance or lease a truck the interest rate is going to be higher than a car. Taxes are also something to think about when you're an owner-operator and can be of help if you do it right. The cool thing about being an owner-operator is you have more flexibility on what jobs to take and you can run the truck however you want it. Of course, the money "should" be higher as well and in order for it to be worth it you should be earning at least 1.5 times what you would be earning as a corporate driver. Another thing to think about is making sure you have enough work to justify all the money you're spending. The general guideline is to crawl before you walk. The first step would be to work for a corporation for "at least" 3 years. You also probably should have a TON of money saved up for emergencies, breakdowns, and other expenses. Then think about owning your own truck. If you want to learn more click on the link below or go to trustthelink.com. I created a whole post about this, plus I share some pros and cons to trucking that some people don't think about as well as a way to pick the right school and company to work for. Hope this video or podcast was helpful. If there is something you disagree with or have something to add then please leave a comment below. Bye for now.

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Truck Driving Pay is Not What it's Cracked Up to Be? is an episode from Kevin Whitsitt by Kevin Whitsitt.

This episode is 00:04:39 long.

This episode was published on Jan 22, 2023.

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