Question:
Would an average "new" driver's yearly salary be between $32,000.00 and $40,000.00 after all deductions?
I'm thinking a company driver maybe with benefits like medical, dental, vision and pension plan all covered by the company.
When I ask these questions to truck companies, I get an interesting first reaction. Nobody works for free, very poor wages nor bad working conditions.
I'm new to the trucking and transportation industry not to the workforce.
Have a good day and week. Keep safe on the roads.............
Answer:
Agotheatre, if you have not already, try doing a search of the forums using wages and school as your search words, you will come up with quite a few threads of discussion on this topic. Here are a couple to get you started:
http://roundtable.truck.net/viiewt.php?p=587175...hool+wages#587175
http://roundtable.truck.net/viiewt.php?p=551038...hool+wages#551038
Hope this helps.

Answer:

It depends when you start the clock counting for that 1st year for a new driver.
Do you start it the minute they enter trucking school?
Do you start it when they start orientation with a company?
Do you start it when they go out with a trainer?
...or do you wait and start it once they have been assigned their own truck and go out solo?
Keep in mind you are not paid during trucking school, nor orientation. You will get paid a small amount when out with a trainer that varies from company to company. All this time will amount to perhaps 2 - 4 months before you are in your own truck.
If you count this from the time you are in your own truck, then lets assume a .30 cpm pay rate. Lets split your pay range down the middle at $36,000/yr.
$36,000/.30 = 120,000 miles you have to drive in 12 months to achieve this yearly rate of pay.
Some questions:
1) You, as a new driver, will you be able to safely drive that kind of mileage in your first year?
120,000/52 = ~2300 miles/week
As a new driver you may not be able to achieve that at the start. You will be struggling with trip planning, driving the truck and getting used to the new life. It takes some time to settle into a groove.
2) And, assuming you can drive that mileage, will the company provide you with the loads so you can achieve that mileage if you could and wanted to?
The recruiters all make promises, some of the companies deliver on them and others don't. One thing to keep in mind, if they don't put it in writing you have nothing. With the rate of driver turnover being so high, the pressure is on the recruiters to attract new drivers... they often outright lie to accomplish this.
Don't set unreasonable expectations in terms of the income you can expect to achieve in the first year. I know you have to earn a living, but the first year should be focused primarily on learning the job and doing it safely... not trying to achieve a certain level of income. If you add that sort of pressure to the mix things may not go well. Best to have a few dollars stashed away to cover any lean times during your first year... starting from the minute you go to trucking school.
As a new driver, you are basically unproven in the trucking industry. They don't know if you will be a good driver and get the job done much less if you will stick with it beyond the first year when most of the new drivers drop out.
But, if you do stick with it for the first year... have a clean record... and have a reputation of getting the job done and not being a trouble-maker... you are as good as gold. You will have a lot more options available to you.
Once you have that first year under your belt with a clean record and some experience, you have more options.
This isn't related to driver pay, but still important... I hope while you are researching that you look into the reasons for the high driver turnover in trucking and ask yourself if you can successfully deal with those issues that were the reasons other drivers have left the industry. This isn't meant to be negative or discouraging, but high driver turnover is a real issue in trucking.

Answer:
"salary be between $32,000.00 and $40,000.00 after all deductions?" You're being paid a "piece rate", mileage. The range is a reasonable gross before taxes and benefits.
"I'm thinking a company driver maybe with benefits like medical, dental, vision and pension plan all covered by the company". In most cases you'll pay for insurance at a weekly rate, compare the co-pays. You forgot disability insurance. If your spouse works, family insurance may be cheaper thru her work. Put the max (16%) into the 401K, no matter how much the company matches. BOL

Answer:
i went to an independant driving school last spring and werner came by to recruit new graduates. i did the math and it came out to around $12 an hour while training with a trainer and around $16-$17 an hour after you go on your own. i opted to find a local route job, my brother helped me get in with a local anheiser bush distibuter that pays $20 an hour on an hourly wage but the work is very physical. i deliver between 350 and 600 cases daily and i really dont know how much more of it i can take.

Answer:

Maybe. If you don't go home very much.
Keep in mind that almost no blue collar worker gets any decent dental, vision, or pension benefits any more (in or out of trucking) unless you are in a union job. Your pension will be a 401K that will mostly be funded by yourself, so that deduction can be controlled by yourself (I agree with the other's sentiment, sock away as much as you can).
Medical insurance among trucking companies is feast or famine; some offer good coverage (Blue Cross / Blue Shield) for example, others offer no-name junk (but at about the same cost). If you have to insure anyone other than yourself, it will cost a fortune (the same can be said if you go out and buy the coverage on your own).
Actually, come to think of it, a good measure of a company may be the quality of the major medical provider that they offer, and the amount of the premium that they cover.