Average pay scale

[jmsconstantino]

This is a topic that probably has come up many times b4, but it has bees bugging me lately. The average pay for a driver in any area of the country is $50,000 a year, (there are exceptions) , the big companies keep increasing the cost of shipping and fuel surcharges but keep their customers due to being able to handle volume. The smaller companies continue to fall by the wayside. I thought this country was built on small business. Truck driver's of all kinds make up approx. 11 percent of the total U.S. work force, yet we work the most hours for minimal pay. We all know that trucks bring everything including huge profits. I think that it's time we stand up and get our's.

[pro1driver]

Originally Posted by jmsconstantino

This is a topic that probably has come up many times b4, but it has bees bugging me lately. The average pay for a driver in any area of the country is $50,000 a year, (there are exceptions) , the big companies keep increasing the cost of shipping and fuel surcharges but keep their customers due to being able to handle volume. The smaller companies continue to fall by the wayside. I thought this country was built on small business. Truck driver's of all kinds make up approx. 11 percent of the total U.S. work force, yet we work the most hours for minimal pay. We all know that trucks bring everything including huge profits. I think that it's time we stand up and get our's.

unfortunately, i ain't gonna happen. as long as there are trucking companies that push newbies through the system of hiring and training, we will never get a really good yearly salary. look at (for instance) the plumbing trade.....why are they so highly paid....?? its thier education, license, skills, reputation, and many others. as for drivers, face it, we ARE A DIME a dozen....check with my post in the "accident board" about the severe crash just yesterday (thursday). a driver with a huge laundry list of traffic offenses was allowed ot re-gain his license and destroy a whole city block.......all the time claiming he "blacked out".....i wouldn't believe his statement for all the money or compassion for the driver, that's available in the world....

as long as divers like that continue to drive on OUR roads, creating havoc and such, the general public would never give a flip about us. they don't ever look at the good drivers, because the good don't make such news stories.....

as long as ANY trucking company hires such drivers, the pay scale will stay low.

i don't have any exact answers myself, but i do believe we will never see any substaintial pay increases, union shop or not........

untill the big companies like Swift, Schnieder, Werner, and whomever else, stop mass producing drivers, we are all in deep crap.

as far as the small companies failing or falling by the wayside as you say......its weeding out the bad, i mean let's face it, if a small company cannot compete, its going to "go under", or merge with another company. trucking in of itself, isn't the only industry in which small size is a problem........

look at IBM, and some of the huge companies that had problems.......

only time will tell, but for now........if we "stand up and get our's".......Swift and the others will fill our seats with newbies, after we get fired.............and even cheaper than what the $50,000 per year salaries are...........

but, i do like your post.........

[Cerberus_Kelpie]

The MAIN PROBLEM for WE THE TRUCKERS is ORGANIZATION!!
This has nothing to do with the size of ones organ whether it be Musical or not.

There is TOO MUCH DISORGANIZATION in Trucking to be of any benefit FOR Truckers.
Try getting ten Truckers to simply agree on Lunch.

When DE-regulation occurred in the eighties, WE were then terminally set back by way of "yearly Income" and continue to be set back.

When there are still Trucking Companies paying some of their Drivers a miniscule $0.26 CPM, there can never be a decent wage for most of the rest of US regardless.
Sure there are some Drivers making a good living (Union mostly with set rates), and some others not of any Union that are seemingly better than most, yet the increasing costs for "doing business",i.e.; Fuel, Repairs, other repairs, Coops, Cops, Fines, Penalties, No this, No that, etc..., are what are eliminating a lot of Drivers/Owner Operators.

A LOT of US have "fall back" options yet with the Economy and costs, the wages in these "fall back" options are decreasing at a phenomenal rate and I cannot survive on $10.00-$12.00 an hour, so I remain where I am in Trucking till there is nothing more I can do.
----
I concur with pro1driver in that a Driver Training School is THE BEST option and there are as well some offers of Community Colleges.
Some Companies will sign you up with their school only to then possibly give you "just enough miles to cover the cost of your repayment plan" because there is just something undefined that is weird about you but not enough to terminate you, so they just play games hoping you'll split the scene and be saddled with their increased cost for repayment.....or so I've heard thru the grapevine.....I'm done....for now.

[jmsconstantino]

The other thing I heard about these trucking schools is that they are federally subsidised. As soon as you get your license they get reimbused federally for training you. So they allready have made money on you and don't care if you can make a living or not. If you do happen to survive for a while they do more than make a profit on you. You become a $ tool for them. It's a bad circle. I agree with disorganization. There has to be a way to organize again and gain power. I know that union may not be te answer due to corruption but what else can we do?

[pro1driver]

Originally Posted by jmsconstantino

The other thing I heard about these trucking schools is that they are federally subsidised. As soon as you get your license they get reimbused federally for training you. So they allready have made money on you and don't care if you can make a living or not. If you do happen to survive for a while they do more than make a profit on you. You become a $ tool for them. It's a bad circle. I agree with disorganization. There has to be a way to organize again and gain power. I know that union may not be te answer due to corruption but what else can we do?

i bolded your last statement......

i "would" say, "self policing" but that ain't gonna work. i "would" say better training, as for instance, an apprenticship, but that ain't gonna work, as an apprentice doesn't make squat, and a rookie driver will jump ship real fast, like what happens now...right...???

i "would" say a federal government training school so everything would be on an "even keel", but that ain't gonna work. there are too many ways to corrupt this too.....

unless the pay takes a huge jump, unless the weeks on the road take a huge cut, unless the benefits, pension plans, home time, vacation time, and so on and so forth become more attractive, the trucking industry will always be a haven for scumbag drivers (like that terrible accident in the Boston area Thursday), the trucking industry will flourish with those scumbags and as a result, we good drivers will suffer and pay dearly in MORE restrictions, laws, by-laws, DOT inspections, shipper/reciever abuses, and the list goes on and on......

this is why, i hardly ever recommend driving as a career, because it ain't a career, its a JOB, pure and simple......we don't get any respect, or whatever respect we do get, is so small in size, the very first time an accident happens (that boston accident for instance) we lost all respect we had to EARN, only to be wiped away with just one stroke of a news reporters pen..............

we will NEVER get the money we deserve....after all.......we really don't deserve it..........in the publics eye, or the scumbag companies or drivers that infest this JOB..........and we ain't NEVER gonna git rid of the stigma attached to us from the years of all of this.......

[Lurchgs]

and, of course, if the pay goes up a lot, guess who's going to pay it. Joe Consumer.

As for losing a CDL license. For serious offenses, it should be permanent. No hope of getting it back. (serious does not include 15mph over speeding - but DUI is most certainly on that list. Nor should DUI be bargainable)