work hours per week

dont worry about screwing up, you should be fine, dont think about the bad.

far as hours it depends i run appox. 40-50 hrs but i only work m-f no sat, sun only when i have to be somewhere early monday morning.

 

If you want to include all hours that a normal job would pay you for doing ( waiting in line to fuel, fueling, waiting in line to get receipt, waiting on road closure due to accident or weather, waiting to load or unload, waiting to be dispatched on load, doing paperwork etc.) plan on over 100 hours a week. I kept track one year and it averaged out at !02 hours per week for 52 weeks.

 

What would that be in hourly pay? I would never go back to OTR once I landed my local job. I worked 60 hours a week and 20 hours were overtime at time and a half. But I spent many years in the trenches with crummy pay. I started with 12½ a mile and $20 to unload 1300 boxes by hand. I thought the slaves were freed back in the 1800's but boy was I wrong!!

 

most co's will run you to death. IF YOU LET THEM! i start around 5-6 AM and give myself 12 hrs to get in 500-550 miles. (about 8.75 hrs ON DUTY per day) that way you have 8.75 hrs every day to run. it doesn't always work that way but if you get in a rythem (that cant be spelled right LOL)
and have a good dispatcher who realizes it, it can work that way MOST OF THE TIME.

 

You will work 12-13 hours a day on average 84-91 hours a week..

(I like to know how much the guy who is only working 40 hours a week as a driver is making)


In order to make decent money (especially a new driver) you will have to put long hours in..

Hey it is a possibility.. Most companies like Schneider ext.. all give you a few mistakes long as they are not really serious. Its something you just can't worry about but must take the appropriate steps in preventing it from happening much as possible, do this by getting out and looking, taking your time, doing a good pre trip so you don't get lost ext..

 

I made $23.50 an hour before I retired. I could work 40 hours if I wanted to but anything over 10 hours a day was overtime. We worked 4-10 hour days. We could always work an extra day for overtime if we wanted to plus we could pull an extra load a day so we could work 12 hours a day. 5-12 hours days came to $1645 a week. If I went to night shift I could get an extra dollar per hour for shift differential.

 

This is why I came back to the post lol.. cause I knew somebody would post a decent hourly wage... What I should of said is as a "NEW driver working 40 hours a week".. NEW drivers have about a 0001% chance falling into a $23.5 an hour job.. Most NEW drivers have to start out as OTR and usually get paid .28-.32 a mile..

So, what I posted above is about right.. sure you can only work 40 hours a week as a mileage pay driver.. you will not make any money by doing so and have dispatch constantly trying to get you to do more...

 

i make 900-950 a week average...i dont go that far out, and im only out 2-3 nights week about 2200miles week...but i am LTL so i get paid for stops also, so yes i work right near 50 hrs

 

Id say the above estimates are correct about the hours worked per week. As far as accidents while still a newbie? Id say it depends upon the severity and how frequently they occured. Ex: I am 6 months with this company and have had one preventable already. It wasnt DOT reportable(AFAIK) as it was a small bump at a truck stop. I was written up for it, but obviously not terminated. Their only requirement was to attend a safety class.