Truck Driver questions...

For truck driving? No. I would never put up with trucker's hours for a mere $50K, personally.

My DH made $80k hauling frac sand in the oil field in North Dakota in the last year. It's low because he takes off a couple of weeks for every six. For that matter, he could make well above that, even with rotations home, if he were willing to haul crude (aka, "rolling bombs")

He went up there with many years of driving behind him, though. ...Including livestock hauling, which seems most similar to oil field driving.
It is most assuredly NOT a touch-less load.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

How many hours, did he put in, per week, to make that $80K and how were the driving conditions.? What about the cost of living up there? Just curoius.

It's very hard to find ANY job, that pays $50k any more - let alone, one that you do it in a 40 hour work week.

At the end of the year, $50k is $50k.

Precisely. And if you're going to be putting in truck driver hours/weeks, $50K isn't worth it IMO.
If you're single with no kids, it would be fine, but for a family man? I'm not seeing it. Too much time away from home!

So far as DH, cost of living is no worse than here because he lives in his truck, just like an OTR driver. But most companies require you to have housing, or they'llk provide company housing, for a fee.
Driving conditions are similar to livestock hauling. He's on dirt roads as much as he's on pavement. And winter in ND is nothing to take lightly. (But he's also made the point that hauling sand in a ND winter sure beats hauling buffalo! lol ...which he'd done in our younger years)

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

Whew reading this makes me feel better about ups. They work me like a dog but 50k a year for OTR??? That is bannanas!

Depending on what route you bid on; ups pays 70-120 with full benifits, vacation, and a pension.

If you want something where you are home everynight you might consider garbage truck and no, I am not talking about throwing garbage. My DH drove garbage truck for 12 years. He drove a front loader that picked up the dumpsters from businesses, schools, etc. He rarely had to get out of the truck (sometimes a locked gate). Truck was operated with a joystick like control, air conditioning, air ride seats, etc. he was making $17.75 an hour when he left there. He WAS working a long route so his shift was around 10 hours a day (sometimes a little longer in winter). He was making about $55K a year, had good health insurance and a 401k plan. He worked nights as it is easier to get into the areas he needed to due to less traffic. He is now driving water truck in the Marcellus natural gas well field in SW PA which is another option where you can be home everyday. He works 12 hour shifts on this job but rarely has time off - as in 7 days a week for long stratches. Because of that most weeks he is working 84 hours a week and that makes for LOTS of overtime pay. The majority of his pay is overtime pay. He has great health insurance. Just a couple other types of driving jobs to consider.

I'm going to come at this from a trucker's wife angle. My dh had already been trucking for 5 years when I married him (we were 25). It is now almost 27 years later. We teamed for the first year of our marriage, then came off the road to start a family. It was a great first year.

You may really like trucking, I did and dh is still trucking. We have done everything from OTR to local, from o/o to company. The best money we made is regional work as a company driver. This still means being gone most of the week, but he is home on the weekends. A lot of companies are not paying benefits anymore, so don't count on that. Dh drives 70 hours a week, makes $60,000 technecially, cut when you take out for his expenses on the road, it is less to us. To cut expenses, we make all his food at home and send it in meals for him to heat in a lunch box oven. It is healthier and cheaper, plus where he is driving right now, there isn't much of anywhere to stop.

It is hard work, even the sitting is very hard on your body. He had to take two years off recently to get back in shape and healthy again. He is driving double tankers and gets paid by the ton, it is the same road three times a week, but he sets his own hours and is within 8 hours of home at all times. Or one tank of fuel. With the world the way it is, that is important to us.

Because he is willing to do this, I don't have to work and am home with our five kids. We haven't found anything else he can do that pays us nearly as well and allows us to do this. Once the kids are grown, I may go back out with him part of the time. Or we may get to run that B&B we have always dreamed of.

If you have any questions, pm and I will do my best to answer them.

The very best advice I can give you is.....don't drive for Schneider National!!!!!!!!!!!! If that isn't strong enough I'll find a billboard somewhere and post it there.

I was a single female trucker and there are unique issues involved in being by yourself. I'm sending you a pm, as I don't think some of it can be posted here.

I loved it. Loved being the biggest thing on the road. Watch your health. It is very difficult to eat well on the road. Make a point of exercising every day.

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Aren't newer UPS driver jobs, basically kaput, compared to the good old union days?

It seems the newer UPS employees were considered part time "seasonal" and "temporary" and non-union.to work sorting packages, and the newer driving jobs temporary. $8-11/Hr.

Just curious.

Remember, you don't have to be "on the road" or even drive a truck for 30 years, which is one reason the major carriers have have such a huge driver turnover.

Drivers quit them, either get out of the business, or usually go to another carrier, for better pay or to driving jobs, that you can be home every day, which many companies will only hire experienced drivers (1-2 years).

Drive for a few years and if the economy improves, do something else. A CDL costs money, but it's not like you are paying, to go to medical school. It's great experience.

I only drove "on the road" for 13 months, before I got the great daily driving job, I have now, but I would have stayed out, until something better came along, if I needed to. I would for sure have demanded more money after time, which I know I would have gotten, or would have jumped ship for another company.

I am always amazed about drivers, complaining about the company they have driving for, for years, but yet have never bothered, to call the trucking Company, across the street, to see if they have a better offer.

Ups is still fully union (teamster). There are multiple contracts across the country but most of them allow the company to hire "seasonal" drivers for peak aka christmass. Somehow "peak" isn now considered june-december! So yes they hire at 18-22$ for seasonal drivers.

No seasonals in the wharehouse, but wages are aweful for part-time. In the range you mentioned. Depending on the local economy you generally have to work a season as a temporary driver, end up in the wharehouse for a few years, then get promoted to fulltime. It takes 3 years to reach toprate.

It takes a while but for 32$/48$ for OT and as many hours as you can handle it is worth the wait! Very physical though.


Another advantage of a union driving job is once i get settled in at my place i can get away with 60 days of a year (not counting weekends). I wont make as much as i do now but wont have to work mondays and fridays during the summer

I totally believe that I need to leave the state of Michigan to get a good job. I hear the Dakotas are doing well in the oil fields.....

I will re-look other avenues for schooling options, thanks for that input..... I have to say, to be honest, I am looking for the biggest buck for my effort, because I do want to retire to a homestead before I am 60.....want to get away from the rat race and work for myself on my property (that I do not have yet, lol), growing veggies and chickens and goats......

boy, i wish i knew back when I was 15 what I know now - I'd be so much better off. I wouldn't have gotten into the position I am in now....

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Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”