How much do truck drivers make?

Pay in the trucking industry is pretty good.  According to Payscale.com,

“Tractor-Trailer Drivers do not generally earn higher incomes from more experience in the field. Although individuals who have less than five years’ experience earn $39K on average, people with five to 10 years benefit from a notably larger average of $42K. After working for 10 to 20 years, Tractor-Trailer Drivers make a median salary of $45K. People who have worked for more than 20 years report a median income of $47K, which is barely higher than the median for folks with 10 to 20 years of experience.”

But don’t stop there!

There is so much more to understanding how much truck drivers make.

Everyone will tell you that it is not enough, but compared to other industries, trucking is a great place to work.  Industry pay is determined by the type of trailer and type of freight you pull.  Someone driving team pulling explosives for the government is going to make more than a single driver hauling general dry freight.  Someone pulling oversized loads is going to make more than someone driving a local delivery truck.

You probably will not come straight out of trucking school and start pulling oversize loads.  That comes after many years of experience pulling flatbed. The jobs that pay the best usually require more experience.  Having no experience, you will have to start somewhere and work your way up. There are some jobs out there that pay well right from the start, but they are hard to find.  These jobs are not typically advertised, and the people who get them are just in the right place at the right time.  I’ll have an example of this later.

If you are new to trucking and you do not have a Commercial Drivers License (CDL), then you are going to have to go to school.  Once you learn how to drive a big truck, you will typically go out with another driver, also known as a Driver Trainer. This trainer will show you how to operate a big truck out on the road.  You must understand that you are taught the very basics of how to drive a truck in trucking school, but you still have a lot to learn before anyone will put you out on the road by yourself.

Let’s look at the different types of operations and determine how much truck drivers make in each.

Truckload Operations

Most truck drivers start out in the truckload industry.  Truckload is the Over-The-Road long haul operation. OTR is where you will stay out on the road for 1, 2, or 3 weeks at a time.  The trucks are equipped with sleeper, and you will live in your truck.  This type of trucking is not a job, but a lifestyle.  It is hard to get used to, but once it is in your blood, you will not want to do anything else.  Over-the-road operations have the potential for the greatest miles available to you.  The longer the miles between dispatches, the better opportunity to stay rolling.

Refrigerated carriers typically have a longer length of haul than dry van freight, but dry van freight carriers will have more opportunities for drop-and-hook since dry freight can sit on a trailer longer than perishables. But keep in mind, that the during the 2008 recession, drivers pulling refrigerated freight saw the least amount of downturn in freight or miles.  Even in a recession people have to eat.

Flatbed drivers typically get a little more per mile, and they will get accessorial pay, extra pay for tarping a load.  That extra money is well earned.  Exposure to all kinds of weather from the bitter cold, high winds, and driving rain, can make it difficult to get the job done.

The biggest advantage to pulling flatbed other than refrigerated or dry van is avoiding grocery warehouses.  Ask any truck driver, and he will tell you that the number one problem delivery in the trucking industry is a grocery warehouse.  Some are better than others, but most are a real pain.

Pulling a tanker has the same advantages of a flatbed driver, but the disadvantage is that there are no light loads in a tanker and surge.  Because a tanker is between 3000 and 5000 gallon capacity, the weight of the load can vary greatly depending on the liquid being hauled.  A gallon of water weighs 8.34lbs, but a gallon of sunflower oil weighs in at 7.6lbs per gallon. The more a product weighs, the less you can carry in a trailer.  The less volume there is in a tanker trailer, the more that product can “slosh” front to back and side to side.  Extra care must be taken when turning corners and coming to a stop.

Pay can also be different depending on where you live.  If you live in Chicago Il, you will probably do pretty good.  Chicago is a major traffic lane for almost all OTR trucking companies.  You can make good money and get home more often.  If you live in Southern Ca, a dry van operation may not be the best option for you. Flatbed carriers will be even more restrictive about where you can live and what it will pay.

Over-The-Road truck drivers can expect about $.26cpm (cents-per-mile) to $.30cpm to start.  If you run 2300 miles per week, an industry standard, you can expect to make about $30,000 to $35,000  your first year.

Less-Than-Truckload (LTL)Operations

If you see a truck going down the road that does not have a sleeper and is pulling a set of doubles, that driver is an LTL driver. LTL drivers drive a dedicated route and are home a lot more than your typical OTR driver.  Some LTL drivers do stay out on the road, but they go to a hotel every day while someone else uses their truck. But some LTL drivers are home every day.

Example:  The city drivers at my home terminal in Bowling Green Ky will go out, pick up freight all over our region, and bring it back to our terminal. The dock workers will unload these city trailers, sort all the freight on the dock, and put it on the appropriate outbound trailer. All outbound freight will go to one of three “Breakbulk” terminals in our system; St. Louis Mo, Indianapolis In, or Dayton Oh.

All the “Line-Haul” drivers will show up around 8p.m. to start our night.  We will take these trailers to one of the breakbulk terminals where they will be unloaded again, sorted, and place on a trailer to move the freight out to the next terminal. At the same time, all the freight from the other terminals around our system will bring their freight to the same breakbulk terminal to be sorted and put on MY trailer.  Once it is loaded, I will turn and head back to Bowling Green where the city drivers will start the process all again.

Since LTL operations are quite a bit more complicated, LTL companies charge more for their services. More charges to customers means a higher average truck driver salary. Starting pay for a city driver in an LTL operation is about $18 to $20 per hour and can average between $40 to $50,000 per year.  Starting pay for a line haul driver is $.45cpm to $.55cpm and can average between $55 to $65,000 per year. Seasoned drivers can make upward of $85 to $90,000 per year and be home every day.

If you do not have a CDL, a Truckload company will be your best option to get started in the trucking industry since most LTL companies will not hire someone without experience. Turnover rate among LTL companies is only about 13% as opposed to TL companies which is about 95%, again making TL a little easier to get started.

So, to determine how much truck drivers get paid, you have to figure:

• Type of freight you want to pull
• How often you want to get home
• Traffic lanes
• Where you live

If you choose to become a truck driver, there are many options available to you. Whether you pay for school yourself or go through a company that has tuition reimbursement, you will be pleased with your choice to be a truck driver. You can check out these CDL practice tests.

Check out this post about the pros and cons of the ways truck drivers are paid.