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Is $69,000 a year enough for driving a truck?

Freightmaster1 said:
I checked with an veteran industry watcher on this article and here's his comments...




The US Bureau of Labor Statistics put the mean (average) annual wage for heavy truck or tractor-trailer drivers at $50,340 in 2021. The median (half make more, half make less) was $48,310. Only the top 25% make more than $59,000 a year. Now, those drivers may be employed by the larger carriers that have raised wages several times in the past couple of years (and in 2018). Still, those wage numbers aren’t as high as the ones we hear from industry sources, which I believe cover a narrower band of truck drivers and trucking companies than the BLS surveys.


In 2019, the mean tractor-trailer driver wage reported by BLS was $46,850. That gives us a 7.5% jump in the average heavy truck driver wage in two years. The average US wage that year was $53,490, so that figure jumped 8.9% in the same period.


The average US wage in 2021 was $58,260. There’s a 13.6% gap between the $50,340 mean truck driver wage and the average US wage. I think in the first years of the 2000s the gap was only 1% to 3%, but it expanded quickly as US wages on average began rising. Interestingly, the average wage for courier and express delivery drivers last year was $62,720. So I’m skeptical when I hear that truckload drivers on average are making as much as $69,000 a year. Maybe at larger truckload carriers with high volumes and hundreds or even thousands of trucks.


Even if you narrow the BLS data to Truck Transportation drivers (local and long-distance TL, LTL, HHG, specialized), the 2021 average is still only $52,240. (You can check the BLS data I’ve cited here: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes533032.htm).


So it seems in trucking there are pay leaders and pay laggards. But these annual wages, at least in the case of truckload drivers, are based on per mile pay, not fixed salaries.
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Freightmaster1 said:
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The Feds should make all truck drivers hourly paid. Then there would not be all those strings attached to their pay. The reality is, that truckload carriers, with all the pay schemes are paying only between $15-18 an hour when said and done
 
I lean away from government taking away the union job and responsibility.
Anything given to the government decreases our numbers and money and power.

Legislate and make it easier for drivers to have union representation in some way or other. Not by company....too easy for goverent and investors to control.

Representation for individuals wherever they work or apply.
Contracts .
Get rid of the majority vote requirement to have representation. If it's the unions desiring majority vote then that probably needs serious changing.

Market based not socialism based.

If unions are lobbying for this.....once again they use our money and numbers to lobby for nonunion people. It's bullshit.

If they want OT pay...let them join the union.
When they do that we can improve our own jobs which are always taking concessions as is.
 
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slavenomore said:
I lean away from government taking away the union job and responsibility.
Anything given to the government decreases our numbers and money and power.

Legislate and make it easier for drivers to have union representation in some way or other. Not by company....too easy for goverent and investors to control.

Representation for individuals wherever they work or apply.
Contracts .
Get rid of the majority vote requirement to have representation. If it's the unions desiring majority vote then that probably needs serious changing.

Market based not socialism based.

If unions are lobbying for this.....once again they use our money and numbers to lobby for nonunion people. It's ********.

If they want OT pay...let them join the union.
When they do that we can improve our own jobs which are always taking concessions as is.
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That's not always true, steel haulers used to be almost entirely union, just like freight, actually a lot of freight lines had special commodities divisions, just for the steel industry.

Entirely paid in percentage, always was, always will be. The ibt signed off on it for decades, and still do, at the few remaining barns.

I get your point about bargaining being taken away from the free market, and taken over by the government.


Fwiw, a friend of mine and myself have both been paid hourly, with overtime, and now we are both paid by the job. It's a little more responsibility on your end, getting paid like that, but we both make a LOT more money.
 
Freightmaster1 said:
I checked with an veteran industry watcher on this article and here's his comments...




The US Bureau of Labor Statistics put the mean (average) annual wage for heavy truck or tractor-trailer drivers at $50,340 in 2021. The median (half make more, half make less) was $48,310. Only the top 25% make more than $59,000 a year. Now, those drivers may be employed by the larger carriers that have raised wages several times in the past couple of years (and in 2018). Still, those wage numbers aren’t as high as the ones we hear from industry sources, which I believe cover a narrower band of truck drivers and trucking companies than the BLS surveys.


In 2019, the mean tractor-trailer driver wage reported by BLS was $46,850. That gives us a 7.5% jump in the average heavy truck driver wage in two years. The average US wage that year was $53,490, so that figure jumped 8.9% in the same period.


The average US wage in 2021 was $58,260. There’s a 13.6% gap between the $50,340 mean truck driver wage and the average US wage. I think in the first years of the 2000s the gap was only 1% to 3%, but it expanded quickly as US wages on average began rising. Interestingly, the average wage for courier and express delivery drivers last year was $62,720. So I’m skeptical when I hear that truckload drivers on average are making as much as $69,000 a year. Maybe at larger truckload carriers with high volumes and hundreds or even thousands of trucks.
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If anyone in 2022 is operating heavy machinery for less than 60k (even as a rookie), that company should be ashamed. Imagine expecting people to be away from their families for less than a good lifestyle.
 
LTLAnonymous said:
If anyone in 2022 is operating heavy machinery for less than 60k (even as a rookie), that company should be ashamed. Imagine expecting people to be away from their families for less than a good lifestyle.
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At best, I'll make what I made last year, around 108k, and I definitely had at least 5 weeks off, due to equipment problems.

But I also have a great boss, and I park 2 miles from where I live.
 
LTLAnonymous said:
If anyone in 2022 is operating heavy machinery for less than 60k (even as a rookie), that company should be ashamed. Imagine expecting people to be away from their families for less than a good lifestyle.
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I make around 60-65k a year but i’m home everyday .I work sun-thurs and my income hasn’t changed a whole lot from when i starting working at my Canadian mega in 2012 .I average between $25-25.65 a hr depending on if i work 11 hrs a day or not .it’s Easy going company no one really bugs you is why I have stayed . Very little turn over on our daycab side ,day shift maybe has 8 drivers and night shift has 3 drivers and most drivers have been here 10 plus years . I work 5pm- 3-430am. Now the otr guys is a different story like all mega companies drivers come and go . that wasn’t always the case we had a lot of guys here with over 10 years running otr but that changed when a lot of companies up their pay just before covid
 
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White said:
Been double that for years. Linehaul M-F home everyday.
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I believe it. During the 80's I was a company drive for a man in Wisconsin hauling potatoes for chips and soups. I made nearly tripled that during those years. Never home but had plenty of money. That wife drank it all up and blew money like a steam engine blows steam. If only I had been married to my present wife back then, but she wasn't even born until 1966 and was living with her Mom and Dad in Ohio. They would have croaked back then. Lol. Moved on to LTL and provided a good living for many years. Slowed down, retired, working part time with a concrete company that hardly ever tells me what to do unless one of our other plants fall behind on rock or sand then it off to bail them out. Life is good.
 
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