I’ve been doing this for three years and every time I turn around it’s another pile of bullshit.
As a company driver, there was always some excuse why my paycheck wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. There was always some sort of deduction or paperwork at somebody didn’t file or dispatcher that forgot to submit your reimbursements. And if you can get all that lined out, you were being micromanaged down to a minute of your fucking day.
I decided to get my own truck, and that’s been a crapshoot since it started. Last year I grossed 200 K, and only brought home about 50 of that. Customers kept changing contracts mid trip, agents and brokers constantly going down on the rate they’re offering, other drivers with your company fucking up contract availability because they can’t do their damn jobs. Madness.
this year, I’m already up to 200 K, and I’m lucky if I brought home 40 K of that. Picked up a contract a few weeks ago where the agent over it said that his guys were averaging 300 miles a day and the truck was grossing 5500 a week because of the type of freight being hauled. I’ve been here three weeks and have yet to see a paycheck over 4K. That barely covers fuel, truck note, and taxes before I’m wiped out from my personal expenses and bills. But, they are not the ones listening to complaints about pay disputes. Oh no, it’s the drivers fault and they’re being ungrateful when they quit because they don’t understand how somebody can make that much money and walk away. Same old bullshit, just a fucking bait and switch. Get them on the hook for something you know that they want, and then lay on thick with the “oh I’m sorry, there’s been some sort of change in the contract, we can’t pay as much as we used to”. “Oh, I’m sorry, I know we said we were expanding, but the way things look, you can only get one of those good paychecks every other week and the week in between, we need you sitting down so that you can be available for this contract. That’s what Dedicated means”.
i’m so glad that I have a plan to get out of this industry. I’m so glad that I am not going to be spending the rest of my life stuck behind the wheel in this godless, thankless, asinine profession full of people looking to see who can fuck you over first
I remember when I started working 15 years ago, the world was the kind of place where if you told a person that they were going to get X amount of money for doing X amount of work, that’s why fucking happened. Whether was a good deal or a bad deal, you told them upfront what was about to go down. But this industry here… I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s like that line from full metal jacket. “You look like the kind of person who would fuck a man in the ass and not even give them the courtesy of a reach around”.
how the hell do you guys put up with this and still manage to pay your bills? That’s what I want to know. Everybody’s got some magic company that’ll do them right and everybody’s got some magic formula to keep the money rolling in, but I don’t see a whole lot of truck drivers who can afford to go home regularly. I don’t see a whole lot of truck drivers who complain about anything other than debt and bills. Why the hell are we still doing this and do you have guys doing this for 30 and 40 years if this is the way the industry is?
I just needed to vent. Thank you for listening
