Here is my experience. I held a CDL since I was 17 years old. Back in those days you didn't need to be 18 or 21 to drive over state lines like it is today. I have over 30 years experience driving tractor trailers. Back in 1999 my wife at the time and I looked at me buying a semi, driving over the road so we could get our house paid off in 15 years instead of 30. I bought a rig and drove over the road as an owner operator for 4 years straight. Shortly after buying the semi my wife filed for divorce. I basically LIVED in my semi for 4 years with no place to go. It isn't fun and it is costly, either way!
I drove solo, I drove anywhere from 5,200 to 5,600 miles every week, (a lot of miles for 1 person), from Monday morning to Saturday evening. Yes, I ran illegal because I was going through a divorce and I could not sleep, also I was smoking up to 5 packs of cigs a day! Luckily I never got caught on my log book and I always ran 1 book. I would figure out how many miles would be on average at 65 miles an hour and figure the distance and I would write down what town that would be in and just drive to my destination.
I made some darn good money when I was driving average about $9,000-$11,000 a month, but there was a month here and there that I didn't have any loads and forced to leave and lease on with another company, sometimes it would be 2 months with out any money or a company to lease onto between getting screwed over by these companies!
I will tell you on the Owner Operator side of the fence before I get to company drivers. ALL companies REQUIRE ALL owner operators to pay about $2,500.00 for escrow. Generally taking out so much per pay period until the $2,500 is paid. They run your butt off until they get that last $2,500 from you. Under the contract you sign with them if you stay for a year you get your escrow back plus interest. Sounds good right? But if you leave or get your lease canceled before the year end of the contract you FORFIET the escrow. Bad deal right? It gets even better!! Just wait read more!!!
Well ALL these companies lease owner operators and you figure they lease on about 100 O/O's. Generally for them to get the escrow money from you out of each pay period is about 2-3 months.
Well after they get your last nickle for the escrow, they quit giving you loads. It starts out you are running dedicated, you are driving cross country, you are not turning down loads, then once they have your money they end up giving you 3 loads for the week with 2-3 days stuck at where ever location you dropped your last load off.
Then the next week they end up giving you MAYBE 2 loads and you are again stuck at the last location you unloaded. Now being an O/O, if your truck ain't moving or hauling freight it ISN'T getting paid for and you are NOT making any money!!!
Then after the 3rd week they have no loads for you at all. Now your bills are piling up, your payment is due, your truck needs service and maybe some repairs and you are broke.
You ARE FORCED to leave the company after the 4th week of "NO LOADS" and find another company to lease on with, so these companies FORCE you to leave. Now remember the escrow? $2,500.00? Well put that into a figure of 100 O/O's and if a company FORCES the O/O to leave within a 1/4, (every 2-3 months), and they hire on another 100 O/O in that same quarter and repeat the process with the escrow, these trucking companies are MAKING a MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR just in escrow out of the O/O's by FORCING the O/O to leave the company!!!
Also MOST if NOT ALL O/O's pay for loading and unloading of freight in the companies trailers they are pulling. More added expense out of the O/O. These companies get PAID by the shipper to load or unload, but the companies also make the O/O to fork out the money to unload the consignees freight. The whole thing is a scam. Rarely and I DO MEAN RARELY do O/O's don't have to pay to get the trailer loaded or unloaded. Lumpers are the biggest thieves just like most companies in the trucking business.
Also, if the company trailer you are pulling has bad tires and you report it to them and they won't replace it you can GUARRANTY, they will ignore you, but if you have a blow out on one of their trailers, you can bet they are going to MAKE you pay for it and they will take it out of your last loads they owe you for before you see any of that money!
I will tell you this much and you better BELIEVE it!!! I have given so many company drivers rides that I can't even count because the company they worked for fired them, let them go and every case was the company driver went to deliver a load and once the truck got there to it's destination, (they will ALWAYS have you deliver to a place with a security guard at the destination), they fire or let you go and you are forced to leave the property and the truck by order of the security guard or he will call the police to have you removed with ALL your belongings and you hardly have any money for a bus ticket home!!! I have had my truck filled with ALL their personal luggage, radios, tools, everything they brought on the road with them! I have even given company drivers wife and man teams rides because they were let go fired or whatever!
COMPANY DRIVERS:
Truck driving schools are a joke and a scam, but without any experience just about all big companies will not hire you unless you go to some sort of school. They charge way too much to learn anything. If you want the experience without the schooling there are plenty of O/O's who will let you team up with with them or some construction companies that will also help train you.
It can be a good thing, DON'T expect to be on the road for months at a time. You will drive maybe 2 weeks and have 2-3 days off. They will give you loads several states away from your home so they can make sure you are close to home when you are given time off. You will be driving in a region.
Living in a tractor trailer is hard, it is hard on the body as well. You will pay the same living expense for meals as the O/O. Your meals will average about $12-$14 per meal bet on it. If you eat 1 -2 meals a day that is about at least $35 out of your pocket each day. Oh, you want to buy sodas, maybe some chips to snack on while on the road. I will tell you this, truck stops are big business and they mark things up more than what many convenient stores charge. Because they KNOW truck drivers have to have it or do with out it. You will buy extra snacks on the road, drinks, chips, candy, etc!
Laundry will cost you about $10-$15 per 2 loads of clothes, each week, plus detergent, etc. Now lets get into the reality of it. Now company trucks DO NOT have tv's or movie screens, or internet for your personal computer. Now whether O/O or company driver, if you need internet and are NOT set up for wireless internet connection and many truck stops have them BTW, you will pay out the butt for the service.
Just about every truck stop has a lounge with TV, you can watch movies, news, weather, whatever. But if there is something on that you do not want to watch, you will roam around the truck stop store trying to be UNBORED, you will go back to your truck and one can only read so much of books, again you will be bored, especially if you have nothing to watch, do whatever. You WILL GET BORED and can't just pick up and drive anywhere, because you just can't unhook the trailer and just drive off the to mall or movies. Many cases though there are places close by but it may be a little walk or a cab drive to get there.
I play guitar so I always brought my acoustic guitar and entertained myself! 8-10 hours is a long time to sit at a truck stop if you are not sleeping with nothing to do!
Not only by DOT regulations, but also company policy that HAS to have their drivers MEET DOT regulations, you will be required to be at a rest period out of the drivers seat.
Here are the regulations:
Hours of service of drivers
§ 395.3 Maximum driving time for property-carrying vehicles.
Subject to the exceptions and exemptions in §395.1:
(a) No motor carrier shall permit or require any driver used by it to drive a property-carrying commercial motor vehicle, nor shall any such driver drive a property-carrying commercial motor vehicle:
(1) More than 11 cumulative hours following 10 consecutive hours off-duty;
(2) For any period after the end of the 14th hour after coming on duty following 10 consecutive hours off duty, except when a property-carrying driver complies with the provisions of §395.1(o) or §395.1(e)(2).
(b) No motor carrier shall permit or require a driver of a property-carrying commercial motor vehicle to drive, nor shall any driver drive a property-carrying commercial motor vehicle, regardless of the number of motor carriers using the driver's services, for any period after—
(1) Having been on duty 60 hours in any period of 7 consecutive days if the employing motor carrier does not operate commercial motor vehicles every day of the week; or
(2) Having been on duty 70 hours in any period of 8 consecutive days if the employing motor carrier operates commercial motor vehicles every day of the week.
(c)(1) Any period of 7 consecutive days may end with the beginning of any off-duty period of 34 or more consecutive hours; or
(2) Any period of 8 consecutive days may end with the beginning of any off-duty period of 34 or more consecutive hours.
What that also means is lets say you are on the road and your have driven 8 days. You will be stuck some where away from home, it could be a good place it could be a place with nothing around for your 1 day off before you can go back and start driving again.
It was kind of good traveling because I could take time off in any state and maybe site see a bit. But, the cost of food, laundry, the normal expenses as you would have at home are now rising because you have to BUY your meals! I am not trying to discourage you, I am just giving you facts. It isn't a bed of roses out on the road and you won't make the money as most of these trucking companies tell you. Ask some of the company drivers you meet and ask them how long they been with the company and how long they were at other companies before, you will be surprised most of them were not at companies longer than 3-6 months max. Once you get on the road and get experience you will see the whole truth come out.
You will be better off driving for a local company and being home every night, because whether you are on the road or driving locally, the pay ends up being just about the same, except a local driver is home in his bed every night with about the same amount of pay or even more, than what one would make over the road!!
Either way, good luck, but don't go into it thinking they are all that and what they promise you because the minute you believe that, the minute you end up getting screwed. I seen it happen many times over!
Like Klondike said about what he made. If you figure you are driving local job, dump truck, tanker truck, etc and making $12-$15 an hour add that up to 40 hours a week with lets say 20 hours overtime at time and a half. That is $830 at low end, $1,050 at high end each week. Depending on the company and what work is going on, in the oil field you will work 12 hours days and sometimes plus that, most of the time 7 days a week. So yes you can make over $1,200-$1,400 a week, (I can tell you that you WON'T see that as an over the road company driver), in the oil field and you won't be states away from home and your personal vehicle will be right there at the yard for you to hop in it at any given time you want to or need to leave!
Again good luck!
house, and would be affordable.
