Local trucking VS. Long haul

[Jimbo]

I wish some guys would just do the math, and figure out for themselves how bad their pay is.

I was talking to a guy last week, about my work, compared to his. He runs out of the same terminal I do, and runs all over from Virginia to Maine, and as far west as Chicago. He leaves out usually on Monday afternoons, and is gone all week, running all over the place. At the end of the week, he grosses about $1,400. On bad weeks he grosses about $900, but we have a $1,000 guaranteed minimum, so that is what he gets.

He doesn't understand why I like my gig so much. I try to explain to him how good I have it, but he doesn't like doing "Local" driving.

Who cares where you are driving, as long as you are being paid better than average to do it? He is out on the road all week, while I am home every night. If he has a slow day, he sits in a truckstop, watching TV. If I have a slow day, I get home early, and watch TV in my own house. I pack a lunch every day, which saves me money, while he pays out the nose for fast food.

And when it is all said and done, I gross between $200 and $600 more than him every single week. For a guy who is always complaining how tough these times are, he sure passes up better pay without much complaint.

I get so tired of people who can't see there way to better pay. If they have a family depending on them, they better learn to do things they don't like as much, if it provides for them better.

[Bikerboy]

long haul does suck, all the free waiting time sucks, local hourly paid for all time is the only way to go.

[PartTimeDweller]

long haul does suck, all the free waiting time sucks, local hourly paid for all time is the only way to go. Not according to the dweller nation. :Trucker:

Besides, there are many doing local, even some here, that get paid percentage and donate their waiting time, or paid hourly with no OT that think it is great. At least they get to sleep in their own bed.

[Bikerboy]

my current job is hourly and OT after 44, home every night and no weekend work,and is one of the best jobs i have had yet

[Jimbo]

Not according to the dweller nation. :Trucker:

Besides, there are many doing local, even some here, that get paid percentage and donate their waiting time, or paid hourly with no OT that think it is great. At least they get to sleep in their own bed.

Even with my time loading and unloading, I make about $25 an hour. That's pretty good for a job that I don't touch a thing except a lid, and a valve.

Even if I deduct my time spent unloading, at $20 an hour, and $15 for a drop and hook, which takes me less than 15 minutes, I make about 80 cents a mile. That's 80 cents for every mile I drive, not for what some silly computer program says it should have taken me.
80 cents per mile, for driving a company truck, is pretty good money, no matter how you cut it. $300 a day is good money, no matter how much I have to do to earn it, even though I don't do much besides drive. And 71K a year, for driving to New York and back, beats the heck out of running all over the country, for 50K or even 60K.

If I have to give back to the company once in a while, like driving a pickup truck one hour to get my truck back from the shop, I don't mind. The fact that I do it, is the reason I get the high paying jobs when they come along.

Don't look at each little piece of the puzzle, that makes up your paycheck. Just look at what you gross for the whole week, and then think of what work you did to get it, and decide if it is a good deal.

[RSTrans]

As an Company Driver and an O/O that has done both the OTR thing and the Local thing it all depends on who and what you do. Granted when I was a company driver working OTR I was making better money a week compared to what I was doing locally for a company. I was making the same money if I was lucky bi-weekly locally that I'd make running OTR and get paid weekly. As far as the sacrafice goes yeah it sucked. But you do what you have to do to keep your family fed, a roof over their heads and to keep the bills paid. Now that I am an O/O and I am also working locally as a company driver for someone else it's nice but it sucks at the same time because I took a huge pay cut to be home everynight versus once every 3 months. I went from about 2500 wk before taxes after all my expenses were paid (fuel, food, etc) to on average 680 after taxes. Granted I make a good hourly wage it's still not the same. If I had the choice I would go back to running on the road but regional so I could be home on the weekends and bring home what I was brining home. Yeah if you sit down and do the math and figure the taxes I get about the same pay for less work being local, but once in awhile I would make better. It just depends on who and what you do. If your a dump truck driver locally right now your better off as an OTR driver you will do way better, but if your say a local food service delivery driver (Sysco, Saladinas, Sygma, MBM, etc) your better off than the local dump driver. It all breaks down to what kind of freight is moving right now and that is food stuffs and general goods like clothing, and other every day necessities.

Just my two cents on this. It all depends.