I’m sharing this mostly for people looking into truck driving. It’s so hard to get salary info from people. First some basic background on me…
- At the conclusion of 2010, I had a total of 21 months experience from the date of hire (I already had my CDL coming in, but I’m still with the company I started my career at).
- I am a solo company driver for a major refrigerated carrier.
- For the first half of the year, I made 34cpm, then increased to 35cpm the second half.
- I go home about every 4-5 weeks and take 4 days off at a time, not including my arrival or departure days.
- My truck is governed at 62mph, but I normally only drive 58mph to meet our strict fuel mileage requirements.
- I’m on electronic logs (in other words, I always drive legal).
- I am forced dispatched so I take every load including HazMat (extra $50 per HazMat load).
- My company gives me extra money for shorter loads or loads with a lot of time on them, but I don’t receive detention pay.
I think that covers all the major stuff. I make a few extra dollars here and there or lose money here and there, but it all seems to even out over time. Any questions, just ask. I don’t mind.
Drum roll please!
My 2010 Salary was: $41,137.22
That’s gross income of course. Actually slightly lower than I thought it would be, but not by much. In addition to my salary, I also earned 7 days of vacation time at $500. I also continue to put money into 401k which my employer matches 40 cents on the dollar. I also get the usual benefits of company employees….Life, “discounted” Health (not very good), Dental, Vision, blah blah blah….
Each year I stay with this company, I’ll receive a 1cpm raise. That’s pretty much negligible due to fluctuations in mileage, etc. But if my miles in 2011 stay exactly the same as 2010, a 1cpm raise will equal about a 1k / year increase. In other words, one of the negatives about trucking is I’m pretty much already capped out. Sure, I could move into other areas of the industry. I could drive locally, I could team, I could train, I could get a regional gig, find a dedicated account, etc. But I like what I do now and don’t have any intention of leaving my current position anytime soon. So if I continue to do exactly what I’m doing now with the same company I’m with, I’ll probably never break $45,000 / year. Maybe 2011 will surprise me though. I’m off to a good start, that’s for sure!
Anyway, I’m fairly happy with the money I’m making, and more importantly, I like my job. Just like all other jobs, I have my bad days and wonder why the heck I’m doing this. But on most days, I wake up and I’m ready to get to work. It’s kind of hard to explain, but it doesn’t really feel like a “job” to me most days. It just feels like life. A far cry from my last job where I’d wake up every morning depressed that I had to go into the dang office again. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it many more times….trucking is a lifestyle. Don’t do this for the money. Not only will you never get rich driving a truck, but if you don’t enjoy the lifestyle trucking offers, it’ll drive you mad.
And there you have it.