So yeah, it’s possible to GROSS that kind of income. But the truck’s your business, and you’re working fo rthe truck, not for yourself.
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Never been a driver but I worked for some time in a job where I had daily contact with drivers and got to know a few. The general drift I got was that it is not nearly as well paid a job as it used to be (at least on an inflation adjusted basis). One short haul company I know of was paying fifteen dollars an hour two years ago and the drivers said they did not get time and a half for overtime. Those guys didn’t care how long the wait for loading was, they got paid for waiting. Some of those who worked by the mile would have a hemorrhage if they had to wait more than an hour. I remember talking to one guy in February and he said that he had not been home since Thanksgiving. I don’t see how anybody could consider it a well-paid job unless he just loves the road. I had a cousin who would rather drive than eat but he died at forty two.
I knew a LOT of the older drivers who just had that independent streak in them - there was no other job they’d ever want, than the road.
Most company drivers when I did it, never got overtime - it was mileage and stop pay. Those kind of things were for Teamsters, and not us. And the animosity between the union drivers and the “scabs” was palpable.
The longest I was out was seven weeks, and a lot of that was sitting stranded in California with no load getting me out of there.