Truck Driver Pay

So how much money are drivers really subsidizing the industry?

According to truckinfo.net there are around 3.75 million truck drivers in North America. It was rather difficult to find accurate statistics with a breakdown of hourly/local, line haul drivers, and long haul drivers. I had to do some improvising with my stats to be fair making this a conservative estimate.




Let’s work with some numbers here. Let’s take 2,000,000 drivers (just over half of the CDL drivers in North America), and an average wage of $16/hr. If every driver gave 1.25 hours/day of their own time for 25 days/month, that’s pretty handy to a billion dollars. Anyone that currently drives in the industry knows this is a conservative estimate.

Don’t forget:

• Most hourly drivers punch in/punch out, and are covered for almost all their time.
• Line haul drivers are mixed in the equation being paid almost every which way, salaried, by the mile, hourly, etc..
• From my research, the number of long haul drivers in North America is roughly 1.5 million and they’re economically exploited more than any other group. They’re usually paid by the mile for driving time and by the hour for delivery/pickup.

Advice for new drivers

It’s up to you to find out all the things regarding truck driver pay before you take the job. Take the time to research the company as they’ll do the same to you. The cleaner your driving record, criminal background, and more experience you have, the more likely you are to avoid truck driver pay issues. The best paying truck driving jobs usually go to the most qualified candidates.

Make sure you work for someone that deserves your 110%. Put the company on probation as they do with you. It’s completely acceptable to leave a company that didn’t come through on what they advertised. You’re usually better off to leave than try to “make a go of it”. If they aren’t upfront and honest at the beginning, you can expect that to continue.

On the flip side, It’s OK to give a little in your life too. There’s nothing wrong with “going the extra mile”, or doing something for the benefit of a good employer. Just be aware of when you’re being taken advantage of. This is my personal quote of the progression of good will abuse.

“A favor becomes an expectation, which becomes a demand.”

Most of the exploitation happens within companies with lower hiring standards. It’s much easier to take advantage of “victims of circumstance”. Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of these companies that exist. It’s easy to say “get a better job” or “work somewhere else”, but some truck drivers have limited choices due to other factors in their life.

Expose companies that exploit drivers to make it more difficult for them to operate, but do it in a professional way. Bashing a company makes you no better than they are.

It would be nice if we could make the companies stand up to the plate. If there’s truly a driver shortage, than the wages should be reflecting that. It’s the companies responsibility to sell their services, and negotiate rates that allow you to be paid fairly. No company should exploit their drivers to subsidize their operating costs.

Have a fair and balanced understanding between “Entitlement” and “Sense of Entitlement”.

I’m sure we all know someone that has an unwarranted “sense of entitlement”. These are people that feel they should have this “new truck”, “best run” or position within the company. They believe they are entitled to beneficial treatment from their employers. Remember that no one ever starts a business or company to make employees rich, or owe them things.

In other words, an employee should never have an unwarranted “sense of entitlement” for anything more than fair treatment and pay, in exchange for the work they perform.

At the same time, the business or company has to pay fair wages in accordance with the law, supply and demand, and market conditions. There should never be an expectation of an employee to do anything for free on behalf of the company (exploitation).

Recognize the best employers for what they are. Volunteer to pull together on behalf of a company when you’re treated, paid and respected exceptionally well. There’s a large number of good employers out there that deserve your all and will pay it back to you. It doesn’t take long to recognize who they are.

Corporate greed in relation to trucking

Corporations are growing bigger and stronger every day which also increases their level of arrogance in the way they do business. Once they reach a certain level in the marketplace, they become dictatorships in their own realms. They dictate they way they do business, what they’ll pay and set all the rules of engagement. If you don’t like it, you don’t work with them.

If you can afford to shop fair, do it. If more people would make a statement with their buying power, we wouldn’t have the corporate greed we have today. Consumers should be the ones deciding the fate of companies or corporations that exploit workers.

For those of you that don’t understand what corporate greed is, watch this 5 minute youtube video. It’s not meant to pick on CAT, but it did have some relevance to this article. You can apply this to many corporations today.

How do you feel about this video? Do you feel these employees have an unwarranted sense of entitlement? Do you feel this is corporate greed on behalf of the company? Do you feel companies should have a responsibility to contribute to a more balanced distribution of wealth?

I don’t have the answers to the issue regarding truck driver pay. I’m just a driver with my own personal opinions that I express on my site. You don’t have to agree with anything I’ve said and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject whether you do or don’t.

You can read comments by others in the driver pay discussion forum. You can also have your say, ask questions, or start your own topics by registering as a user.

Thanks for reading Truck Driver Pay

Truckerswheel Team