If the settlement checks are net of fuel, what the hell is costing $110-120k per year?

I know there are other expenses, like fuel tax, insurance, tags, plates, tolls, maintenance, etc, ....but $120k+ worth per year?

You have some "Flexibility" with paper logs but you have to be careful or you can get hemmed up.



Many times your trucks location is recorded (mainly at Weigh Stations) but there are plate readers scattered everywhere these days and guys running Prepass get recorded at every weigh in motion site.



You have to make sure your drive times and mileage don't add up to some crazy average speed for the day also don't try to claim you drove from Cheyenne to Casper in 1.5 hours.



Where you can make the most time is during "On Duty not Driving" time.



 

dont you people run more then one log book...lol i think i ran 3

I used to run 2. And back then the drugs of choice were bennies/effies and No Dozes. Now for a lot of drivers it's.....Metaformin!

I had a friend who drove a cattle truck. All his trips were within the 100 mile radius rule or whatever it is where you don't have to keep logs. He would often make trips back and forth to the sale barn for 20+ hours straight. He probably only drove  60 hrs a week but he did it in three days.

Metformin, the diabetic drug?

What's that do for drivers?

i started out with a local company driving to S.VA
m-f i switched to coca cola,and fucking hated it.
i now work for a local quarry driving tri axle
75% of the time...im also driving cement truck as well.
im being cross trained in the mine,and am on my way
to being MSHA certified.
i really like it,however its predictably boring,but i get good hours,and the pay is decent.
i miss TT driving sometimes,but its a lot less stressful and
i live 5 min from the mine....

There is driver shortage, after you pay your dues and have a year or two experience you can make a lot more than 30-50k.

I am a truck driver and do local fuel deliveries. I am home every night. I would never go on the road and live in a truck. It works for some people I guess but to me its a job not a lifestyle and I have no interest in making it one.

I am paid by the hour. I would assume most are, at least thats how it is around here and there is a lot of truck drivers in Wyoming due to all the oil and gas industry.

Keeps the blood sugar down. At one time the physicals were simple, read the chart/piss in a cup/hop up'n down on one leg. CVSA 2010 changed all that. Ran a lot of good experienced drivers out of the industry. Funny, hasn't done a damned thing about reducing the accident rate.

And as far as O/O are concerned, what the DoT didn't kill, the EPA sure has. EGR/DPF/DEF have made trucks a helluva lot more complicated than what most shops can handle.

Only an idiot wouldnt. One of our East coast divisions had a driver hit a car that was going the other direction on the interstate and  lost control,  crossed the median and collided head-on with him.   His logs were wrong and he got the fault for the wreck and went to jail. Right now one of our guys is sitting at home pending results of a DOT investigation and he was simply caught up in another persons wreck. (Lady hit another vehicle and knocked it into him.)  

Driver's, don't set yourself up for DOT make an example out of you.

ouch...

I see your point.  

Tagged it on first page and forgot about it...

I can't speak about OTR, since I have never done that type of driving. I retired from the Military in 2011, and went to SAGE Truck driving school while on terminal leave. Got hired by an Oilfield company while in school, and started driving 3 days after graduation. Money was ok I guess for a brand new driver hauling water ($18 plus time and a half overtime which was where we made our money). Did that for about 7 months. Then a guy I met at Sage, who had already graduated, asked if I wanted a job hauling fuel. He gave my number to his regional manager who gave me a call a couple days later while I was bringing a frac heater back to Cheyenne in a blizzard. He offered me a sit down interview for the next day and I jumped on it.

So that's what I have been doing for over three years, local/regional fuel hauling for one of the highest paying companies in the business. Home every night, work five days a week...45-55 hours a week, 10 days paid vacation, paid sick days, paid personal days, holiday pay (took a vacation day today and also getting holiday pay), 401k, medical/dental, nice clean equipment, good dispatchers who work with you if you have weather, road, no-fit issues. And a minimum daily pay of $200, so if you just ran one local load because the stores were full or roads shut down, and only work two hours, you still make decent pay for the day. I usually make a quite a bit more then that a day.

The only downside is having to drive down to Commerce City Colorado during rush hour traffic. My second trip down goes a lot smoother and usually takes about four hours from the time I leave Cheyenne, drive down, load, drive back up, and drop the load.

Local/regional fuel hauling is where the money is at. Hard part is getting hired on as a new driver, and finding an opening. Our drivers are steady and we have a very low turnover rate. As in zero turnover, other then a firing last year due to a preventable accident. The CO and NE guys are steady also and I can only think of a couple drivers who left in the last three years, but hired on about four new ones to keep up with the workload. All trucks are slip seated and basically run 24/7/365.

On a side note, I do know an O/O outside carrier who sometimes delivers to our stores, who said he grosses around $300 a year, but most of that goes back into his truck.

Lets say you do not have an EOBR device (electronic logs), no tolls. The only thing tying to a time is a fuel card.
Pre-Pass takes a court order, as the database owner is a contractor.

Weigh stations only give you a time that you cross, not how long you have been driving, therefore, they can only tie you one to the other.
States do not share that info.

I ran loose leaf logs, that way I could re-write history to suit the victor, and besides, 90% of the time I had camo equipment on my wagon.
*IF* you have a cool dispatcher,E-logs can be manipulated with some coordination over a phone call. Again, this info can only be obtained with a court order.

I have been through a few DOT audits, it is no fun when you get some POS civil servant that knows less about the regs than you do, but that is a game that must have tact and knowledge.
If a good safety guy/ compliance team does their job right, there is almost no chance of getting busted.

The court order thing *generally* only comes up in a few ways:

A death occurs
MULTIPLE flagrant violations
Other continuous violations.

So, with that said, if a company is running that bad, they will get popped pretty fast.

I have become one of those Safety/Compliance people that teaches the pitfalls of drivers cheating , and skirting the laws.
I remind them that I CMA and they should too, They should not try and beat a system that they are ignorant in the rules and strategy.
Master the rules,master the game.

The .gov knows EXACTLY what we do and why it gets done, it works out for both sides. IF they really wanted to stand with hell on neck, inflation would sure hold foot.
Besides, crashes benefit the economy like nothing you are aware of.

Lawyers, .gov employees, taxes, fines, tow trucks, body shops, repair contractors for property, etc.,etc..

You look at trucking as one industry, I see it as a group of industries.

Insurance Co. ( this is a HUGE sector for revenue)
Company owners
Sales
Operations
Compliance/regs
shippers
recievers
DOT (mobile enforcement, office workers, auditors, the vehicle maint. dept, etc.,etc..)
service trucks at scales
scale construction contractors
scale mfg.companies.

Trucking is big .biz, more than ya'll know.



Now as for the overhead of a truck.

Based on 100K miles a year

Avg. MPG....6....16, 666 gallons of fuel
Lets say $3.799 a gal = $62,650 ( I think the fed tax is around .28 a gallon)
Truck payment = $27,000 a year
Trailer payment (stepdeck) $6,300 a yr
Insurance ( one truck, not leased on, running under own auth) $1,800 a month (includes cargo) $21,600 a year (this is on the low side)
Base plates (48 states) $2500 a year
Maint for truck (a nickle a mile) $5,000 a year
Tires = Steers, $1,000 a year. Drives....with no blowouts...about $3,300 for 8, they last about 180K to 220K depending on a few factors....so we will say....$2,500 a year.
Trailer tires vary, but you can say on an AVG, 4 a year, $2,000
Some states require workers comp. $3,000 a year
HUT (2290) $550
if your IFTA is fucked up,it could run you a few dollars, to a few thousand.

Tarps, chains, bungees, straps, other misc. stuff for platform trailers, dry vans are minimal, and reefers are pretty damned expensive.
My RGN would burn up a pony motor about every 13-15 months ( exposed to the elements), that was $250
The RGN itself was close to 85K when new, it also had up to 5 axles, more tires.

As you can see, 250K does not last too long for poor minded .biz folks.


I didnt even get into the startup cost, which can avg about $40-$50K
Down payments for Ins truck, trailer, equipment, DOT Auth. Tags, FET Taxes, etc.

For me, after about 7 years as an 0/0, I looked at many factors.

One, the liability. 40K on hand for a retainer fee/downtime, etc., the .biz still needs to pay for itself if SHTF.
I could have been 15 min. off on a log entry 5 months ago, get hit by a DUI, and i would be at fault, fined, or have my Auth. revoked over an entry error,.....5 months ago.
No Auth., no income, company goes bye bye.  

ROI...It got harder and harder to have an ROI of 10-15%. I invest up to $280K,expecting to have enough built up in 5 years to replace current equipment OR add equipment.
When the returns (due to the market) were avg'ing 2-3%....it was not worth it.

I did not want to "buy a job" I wanted to build an enterprise... 30,40, 100 trucks.

One of the last factors was "reputation". I prided myself on being a "knight of the road" as the old timers who taught me, made clear that is what I was. My fellow drivers had strayed much far from that idea.
I kept myself clean, the truck clean, my  boos in order, etc. After time, I avoided truckstops and most drivers, in essence, I became a snob.

The very last factor was the DOT, not on an agency level, but on a more simple scale....the officers and enforcement  themselves.

When I first started, I would have DOT officers at a certain scale, get in my ass about sleep, or, rather,the lack of. They would just tell me to pull over and have a nap. No tickets, no $2500 fines.
IF a light was out, they would inform me and sometimes hold the light while I replaced it, then send me on my way. Again, no fines, no tickets.
It is NOT like that now, it appears to be about money, rather than safety. Common sense and decency has disappeared.....from both sides.

I miss being out there, visiting places never seen, meeting all sorts of people, hauling things kids stare at amazement from back seats.......I really miss those times.I dearly miss them.

I paid a HEAVY price to roam the USA, doing my part to better it. I missed out on a wife, kids, roots. My love for traveling kept me from having a functional relationship....but its OK, I would NOT go back and change it.

I am now 46.....ummmm......well in two weeks anyways .
Now way in hell will I raise a child, be greeted by a 20 year loving wife.....I cannot fathom that idea.

I go to work and I help other drivers become better, smarter and more aware of what they are doing. I bust my ass to make sure those who own a company, keep the doors open... and make  better profit at teh expense of my experience and knowledge......that is a reward all in its self.

Trucking is NOT for sissies, the weak, or the timid.
 

here's my situation on truckin.

i am a trucker  

couple years ago, got a grant to go to truck driving school --central tech in drumright, ok.  was hired on with a company basically as soon as i graduated.  got my tanker, hazmat, doubles/triples endorsements and started hauling crude oil.  stayed with them for 6 months until i got tired of the poor management.  took a few months off and then got hired on with another crude oil company (big, big one) back in november.

i get paid by the mile and barrel hauled.  excellent benefits, home every night, work 5 ten hour shifts a week. at the current rate, i am looking at $60,000.  if i want to work my full 14 hours a day, and work an extra day a week, i could pull in close to $100,000.  but i don't want to work that hard  

the thing about hauling crude oil is that its a lot more work out of the truck.  runs are typically short, but we have a few that can rack up some miles.  but, there are some that are only a few miles from the well to the station.

you might look into crude oil haulin if you want to truck, but not drive for 11 hours straight.  and the best part that i like about working for a company...i get in the truck in the morning, do my shift, and then go home.  i don't have to worry about a damn thing about work when i am off.  as soon as i get out of that truck, work is over.

TruckinAR, I couldn't have said it any better. Especially the reputation part.

Well, for me, it kept my blood sugar in check

Gotcha.

So diabetes is a problem for drivers.

no its a problem for DOT. lol.

I loves me some tranny lot lizards!

yeah!    






 

I had GPS and a " no rip out " log book, yet ran 18-20 hours a day.

Craziest run I ever made was as a single driver hauling what was supposed to be a Team Load ( a truck with two drivers) from Black Hills Idaho to Hershey Penn. in 3-1/2 days through snow all the way.  
I  made it by only napping for 4 hours once during the whole trip while waiting for the pass over the Continental Divide to re-open.

I've done a few odd things.   Bought a truck (and got my CDL) and used it for my business, just hauling my equipment.

IME (and the numbers back me up) it[s $1.25 to $1.50 per mile JUST TO RUN THE TRUCK.   Look at average freight rates at under $2 and it's mighty hard to make a penny.

Another obama success story and I closed that biz and now I"m in food service.  (put a sleeper plus a 48' into a fast food parking lot, then unload it).  I never did the OTR thing.  Thank god for that. how boring, i could never do that.  Sure, i do 2000 miles a week but I get to talk to people every few hours as i unload.  

it pays bank.   You earn every damn penny of it, but i'm on track to make 90k.  I don't actually work all that long, guys at my terminal who work harder are going to clear well over 100k.  

But it's very different.  I read something somewhere that if you want to be a truck driver, you better make sure you like yourself first, because you are going to really get to know yourself.  It's LONG hours.  A minimum day is 11 hours just driving.  If you aren't turning you aren't making money.  

OTR sucks.  But there is money in trucking, you just need to specialize.  Either you are doing something specific, you have hazmat (bank!) or you are willing to unload the truck (food service or LTL).  If you want to just bump a dock, no it doesn't pay very well.  

But yeah, you have to pay your dues somehow.  Either suck it up for a year and do OTR (and keep a clean record) or do something dumb like me.

But a CDL and a clean record you can be employed tomorrow.  

why go over the road. Stay local and drive this

 

That's cute.

It certainly is an attention getter.  

The figures I'm looking at would indicate otherwise.   You're running cost are more like .25-.30 per mile for fuel, add another .05-.10 for tires, maintenance and repairs.  Of course these are highly variable depending on the truck and driver.  

There are fixed cost, which are associated with owning and moving trucks, various plates, tags, licence fees, gas tax, insurance etc, com cost and technology, and tolls. If a truck is financed obviously you have that cost.  You also have deductible depreciation to consider.  

Everything I've read indicates that on average an owner operator should expect to earn $1.5 plus fuel surcharge per mile.  Some truckers say they focus on speciality loads and say their average is $3 per mile or more.  But I imagine those gigs are more rare.  

Being an owner operator really does seem to have much (if not more) to do with business skills then driving skills.  

It's why I have to take a DOT physical every year instead of bi-yearly.

Soim glad those of of us were/are owner operators don't know as much about costs as you do. Lol. The insurance charge backs, deadhead miles, unpaid miles (averaged about 10% for my trucks), maintance, repairs for stupid stuff, upgrade money, the list goes on and on. I laugh every time I see someone new to trucking tell experienced guys how much they are going to make.

I'm not trying to tell anyone what they will make.  Obviously with every business there are a lot of variables.  A lot of businesses fail because the owners can't manage those variables.  That's true for any business, not just trucking.  

I'm just going on the averages reported by successful O/O's.  They're not my numbers, but they seem reasonable.  

If the average bill is $1.5 plus fuel surcharge per mile, are you saying your running cost are $1.25- $1.50?  

I'm enjoying this thread.



I've been a truck mechanic for years and now I'm looking at becoming a driver, since my body is going into defiance mode.



I appreciate you bringing this topic up, OP.

In 1980 the basic cost to run a truck was $1.00 per mile; a new tractor was 70,000 and fuel about a $1.00 gal.
So today that number is \appx. 2.00 mile.

 
Where did you find a semi that gets fuel milage like that? Diesel around here is in the $3/gal range, and at 5-6mpg loaded in a truck with good fuel economy that's more like 50 cents a mile for fuel minimum. And of course it gets much more expensive if you have a truck that only gets 3-4mpg... I think empty or with a very light load I could ALMOST hit 7mpg with a Freightliner Century. And lights loads or empty is not very often. Average fuel economy according to the computer was typically 5.8-6.2mpg.

I have absolutely no experience with this industry - I am retired LEO. In 23 yrs I never had a bad interaction with a trucker.

Gave a ride to a former driver for I think it was Arrow trucking when they shut down and left their drivers stranded. Gave him a ride to the bus station .

On the subject of hookers at truck stops. I got moved into a new area one time - on midnights - stopped in at a truck stop for some coffee. Place was loaded with some decent looking working girls. Waitress brought my coffee and I guess it was a mgr came over - sat down and asked me if this was just a stop for coffee or a 'professional' visit. Didn't know what he was asking me but the man was honest. If I ran his hookers off the truckers would complain and go elsewhere. Told him I didn't care as long as I didn't start getting complaints. He said they handle their own. I never got a complaint about the hookers and the place was always busy. Really surprising cause this was a national chain truck stop - but this was 15 yrs or so ago.

Years ago again there used to be a truck stop on I-20 west of Shreveport called Kelly's Million Dollar Truck Stop or something like that. Never been there but heard it had a pretty good/bad reputation depending on how you look at it.

For those of you thinking about getting on with Wal-Mart I'd strongly recommend you give it a shot now.  We're looking to hire more now than we've hired in the previous 3 years combined and they loosed the requirements to make it easier for LTL and local guys to get on.  We no longer have a hard mileage requirement.  If you've got over 3 years driving (I think) then I'd suggest you got to Wal-Mart Trucking and apply.  Make sure you fill out everything and don't lie.  Although if the accident or damage isn't recorded then I'd suggest you use your best judgement.  If there's multiple DCs hiring around you then I'd apply to all of them.  After 1 year you can request to transfer to another DC and the key is getting hired in the first place.  If you have any specific questions about driving for Wal-Mart I'd be happy to answer them in PMs.  If you get rejected or have been rejected just keep reapplying when the time is up, it's well worth it.