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Trucker pay for long haul is based on mileage pay. There are additional money generated by the truck that goes to the company. I believe tarriffs and negotiated rates per mile via contract to shippers and recievers apply here. Trucking companies do a good job of keeping the drivers out of the room where rates are set on the loads. I suppose if a trio of Aluminum coil pays 2.30 a mile from Kentucky to Virginia they dont want the driver to know this rate. (HE probably made about .27 cents of that.) Trucks are expensive to operate. Wanna own one and drive it too? Wal.. Insurance, fuel, payroll, permits etc etc etc infinite nasuem.... reckon about 1.10 a mile if you wanna keep solvent. Then you add in the profit margin you will make and then the driver's pay. So I think most loads run 1.50 or so a mile. However time in the truckstops reading load boards for adhoc delieverys convinced me that loads sometime sell for maybe .78 cents a mile to the O/O (Owner operator) I could be wrong. You will be expected to drive 500 miles a day. Sickness, persnal inability to sleep less than 8 hours, time management and other issues on the driver's part better not interfere with the strength or desire to run 500 miles a day. Teams can do 1000 miles a day. I am being very conservative here. I have put away miles so high it is difficult to log it legal both as a single driver and as a team driver. YOu probably will run about 7600 miles to 15,000 miles a month. Feast and famine as a single driver. Teams will put away at least 150,000 a year. My last full year as a team with the wife put about 230,000 on the truck which was less than 2 years old. This was in 10 months. You will be paid according to Houshold Miles. Rand McNallys mileage guide the entire industry agrees to use. Forget everything you know about how far it is from scraptown USA to Bumtown USA. According to the Household Guilde.. these two "Fantasy" destinations are 1000 miles apart. Actual travel from the truckstop empty to the customer might get paid. Very little if any. The customer is 30 miles north of Scraptown. You dont get paid the mileage inside and around scraptown. You may find yourself running 1200 miles to get to Bumtown. "Hey! You show me 1000 pay miles on my payroll check!! My truck shows 1500 miles on this trip!? You owe me 500 miles worth of PAY!!" Sorry. You will be paid 1000 miles for the trip. If you have to unload boxes out of the truck on that delievery, you probably will be paid 40 dollars. 45,000 pounds require a good man with a strong back several hours to unload. (5-9 hours) You could hire two people called lumpers to do it. Better keep them down as close to 60.00 as you can. Companies pay out "Lumper rates" at about .05 cents a case. If you have 1200 cases total weighing 45,000 pounds then the lumpers should accept a rate of about 60.00 Lumpers know these rates. They know what your company will pay. They have gotten more money than that out of your company before. Pffth. Hire the darn lumpers and MAKE SURE dispatch says "OK" AND... get a Purchase ORDER number for that money. So they can make a comcheck, pay the lumpers and keep your pay safe. If YOU cannot get OK for that money from dispatch and YOU hire the lumpers at 80.00 or whatever they ask for YOU will pay them. Not the company. You could try to redeem the lumper fee but the company probably will not reimburse you. The best companies hire lumper companies on contract. You find the lumper office and say here is my load, unload me please. And it gots done. No money involved on the driver's part. Dont get me started on walmarts. That is worth a whole another thread. Food. MMM...MMM..MMM nice eggs, bacon, omlette, sauage gravy, buscit, coffee, pretty waitress and everything is right with the mawning. 12.00 please. WHAT!? For BREAKFAST!? (20 years ago it was 2 bucks with bigger portions) You drive 4 hours or so, get hungry. Stop for lunch. Salad, Cheeseburger and fries in gravy. (That stuff is nasty but soo good) and soda. 6.00 please. Now you have 6 hours to go and need a nap to sleep this off.. getting a tad tired are we? You struggle thru your tired afternoon thru two cities worth of rush hour and fighting cut thorat commuters who dont give a *** about your big slow, smokey rig that is in thier way. Tired and shaking from exhausting you stagger into the truckstop restruant for a evening of food, coffee and fellow ship. One pound steak, salad, taters, greens and ice cream as well as finger food and 3 hours later you stumble to your truck fat, happy and 15.00 short. Total for the day in food: 33.00 You will be allowed to deduct your expense at a flat rate come tax day. But need to show your time away from home. That 33.00 in food is = to about 66 miles at .25 cents per mile. But since you drove 600 miles today, you did pretty good. 7 days later you have spent about 225.00 in food. Your 600 miles a day comes out to $150/day or $1050 gross pay. Taxes will take about 40 cents of every dollar you make. Then your benefits will take away even more. so. Net pay approx 600.00 Food bill 225.00 remaining $375.00 You will need 225.00 for next week's 7 days of food. Take home $150 for 60+ hours **no.. make that 90 hours of work. If you dont make the mileage then you will probably get a comcheck for next week's food placing you at the mercy of the company which just became your friendly short term lender and will recoup thier money from your paycheck the following friday. It is quite possible to go negative and see your debt climb weekly until they cut you loose as a liablitiy. That food aint so good now is it? Reality sets in. Breakfast.. coffee, biscuts sausage gravy and some coffee. Hardly any green, meat or real protein 4.00 Skip lunch. maybe eat a candy bar or a bag of chips and a soda. Dinner you eat a bowl of chili. Perhaps a Mc donalds. That mcdonald's food will last you an hour if you are working hard. Total maybe 12.00 a day. But you are shorting yourself on calories a day. When you are at work you need about 3,000 calories a day. In Winter storms throwing chain and fighting man killing cold your calorie requirement will top 8,000 per day. That driver pay has improved somewhat. But it is far better to stop at walmart, buy 2 week's food at once store it in a cooler and a rack. Cook it yourself. You need a pots and pan situation just like home and time to cook the meals. You will learn to use the waiting time that is soooo long and tiring in doing house work tasks about your rig and resting. You will spend less, be free from the truck stop and if a team show dispatch the ability to be ready to go 24/7 at a moment's notice. No need to stop to eat breakfast for a couple hours. Your spouse can cook as you drive. That is the best of trucking. You better do the dishes when it is your spouses's turn to drive. I kept things very simple with this post on pay. There is many ways to get paid in trucking and there is a great deal of money involvoed in this business. I am talking as if you are a company driver who is unmarried. If you have a house, cars, kids and other things to pay on like maybe child support etc... that pay check may be insufficient to cover it all. In the mean time your body get tired and weak from lack of nutrition. Be careful out there.
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