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Old 02-21-2009, 06:25 PM
  #8  
Cubdriver
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Joined APC: May 2006
Position: ATP, CFI etc.
Posts: 6,056
Default Ten bucks an hour

If you average out what you put in in terms of time from day one in the business and do not jump to the 6 month period you did well after 6 years of slavery you will find you made something like $10 an hour for your work as a truck driver. You may be talking about some final position you had for 6 months where you made better, but I was in the business for over ten years and I know what people made in the industry and I did or knew about everything including the "gravy" jobs you speak of.

I worked for big companies, small ones, drove dump trucks, reefers, flat beds, daycabs, drop decks, did long haul, short haul local, moved rail containers, drove brand new equipment, drove junk, owned trucks, ran long haul and worked day jobs, did local delivery, on and on and I never saw more than about $10 an hour. There are a few jobs in trucking where the hourly rate is not bad, but as you admit it is impossible to get them with less than a few years experience. Jobs like high-seniority LTL routes and those you describe are few and far between and very hard to get. It's just like being the top guy at FedEx as a pilot. These days if you even get paid $15 an hour you are above average. In fact, if you are in the TOP TEN PERCENT of truck drivers in terms of wages you will make about $50,000 a year for a 2,000 hour work year and it goes DOWNWARDS from there.

Don't take it from me, take it from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics:

USBLS- Truck Drivers

Also, you should thank your lucky stars you never took a cloverleaf too fast in that fuel truck because if you had, you would be missing in action. Ever seen what happens to the few that did take a cloverleaf a little on the fast side? I have. They are dead and no one could find them. In most cases the entire overpass had to be bulldozed from the damage.

Last edited by Cubdriver; 02-21-2009 at 06:38 PM.
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