I work for Schneider National, and what you just described simply isn't true. Truckers start at least $35,000 a year, and if they're able to get a dedicated route, they can easily make more and be home every weekend.
Eating garbage for weeks? Truckers have full access to area truck stops and Road America places which offer full dine-in services and public facilities. Also when you're young and just want to make some quick cash, who cares what your eating? I've hired drivers fresh out of high school who signed up for team loads with their girlfriends and the two of them made over $100,000 cash each year. If you do this for a few years that's a house & a car payment squared away.
What's hurting the trucking industry is the DOT rules and regulations. A lof of applicants have at least one or two speeding tickets which can kill an application. You have to have a near spotless driving record in order to be a truck driver. But there's a lot of money in trucking though, it's probably the most recession-proof job out there.
Oh really, what does the orange pumkin pay while the truck is not moving or held up at the dock?
My mother works for Schneider National too (about 20 years). She was making about $65,000 per year and is down to the $40,000 range now. All that time without a serious accident and she’s being pushed out before retirement.
Sorry Dude, but that's complete B.S. I signed on with Werner 2 years ago, and when the training was complete, they paid me $150 a week - take home. I told them to stick it you-know-where.
And what I've read here from Piper is all true, I'm sorry to say.
That's crap wage. Illegal aliens in Cal earn more than that. That's early 1990s wages man. lol
Oh, so haul around your wife or girlfriend and make 100k while driving on icy roads, at night, in traffic, at sleazy truck stops, and LIVING in a freaky truck?
Like I said, to live in a truck, and drive in all that nasty, dangerous weather, with all the clowns on the road, they'd have to pay me 200k per year.
And let me tell ya, truck stops are low life and criminal hangouts. That's why the cops/feds have them under surveillance half the time. Drugs, prostitutes, interstate commerce fraud, theft, bums, transients, those on the run... etc, etc.
I've known a few truckers...The one's still in it, hate it and want out bad....It just don't pay enough for no life, headache, not to mention the dangers involved.
DOT regulations prohibit driving for more than 11 hours per day. You cannot legally work for more than 14 hours in a day (including your driving time) and you must show 1/2 hour (on-duty) for DOT mandated truck inspections (15 minutes prior to starting the day and 15 minutes after ending the day). You must show 10 hours of off duty time and you cannot log more than 70 hours of on-duty time in 8 days. To start the logs over, you must show 34 consecutive hours of off-duty time.
$35,000 per year is crap, but it is probably the average wage for most truckers. Few companies pay much more than that - and in most cases you’ll be gone from home for weeks at a time.
Schneider is one of the least desirable companies to pull for - I know of no serious driver who would even begin to consider them (the same goes for JB Hunt and most of the other big companies). Their trucks are governed and Qualcomm monitors your every movement.
Lastly - most truck stops are dumps; they’re usually full and a good place to have your fuel siphoned (if you don’t have locking caps). I avoid them like the plague. The food is better than it was in previous years, but it still leaves a lot to be desired - and it’s generally expensive (they’ve got a captive audience).
Topping it all off, most companies do not pay actual miles; they normally pay mapped miles and some pay what I call “crow miles” - where the miles paid appear to be as the crow would fly.
From what I’ve seen over the years, Schneider National has some of the best drivers on the road.
What a bunch of BS. You know better than that or you live in a bubble.
Bingo! I’m not a class A trucker, but I’m a Schwan’s guy and the DOT regulations really make it tough on us.