Truck Drivers

Sie interessieren sich für Showtrucks? LKWs sind Ihr Hobby? Sie verdienen mit Lastwagen Ihren Lebensunterhalt?
Dann sind Sie hier genau richtig!

Important If your going to be a professional trucker its just best to do everything within your power to have your papers and equipment in order. Trucking life is no fun when your placed out of service by the D.O.T.
(This is sometimes a challenge when many shippers and receivers have no concern about the drivers schedule. Just another ongoing issue that we deal with.It a built in part of trucking life.)

How much does a truck driver earn? - May 27, 2009

Labor has become very fast part of the international ball game of a globalization economy. At the WageIndicator national teams keep track of salaries in 45 countries worldwide. The international team is now going to compare some of these salaries in an effort to increase transparency at this international labor market. We kick off by comparing the salaries of truck drivers in nine countries on three continents. (All figures have been converted into euros).

First meet Miguel, our Spanish truck driver from Madrid. He had little experience when he joined his current company five years ago, apart from his drivers' licence. He is on a temporary contract in this logistical company with 50 colleagues, so relatively small compared to some of the big players. He earns per hour 6.42 euro including all benefits. That gives him a gross monthly salary of 1,113 euro.

Miguel is in the middle range of salaries for truck drivers with the same profile we have investigated. Best paid are the Belgians, who earn 19.30 euro per hour and 3,176 euro gross per month. Good news is that here there is no difference between the Flemish or Wallonion drivers. Dutch and British drivers are slightly cheaper, with hourly wages of 14.20 and 13.62 euro, and a monthly income of 2,336 and 2,360 euro.

Truck drivers from Germany (both East and West) go way under that income, with 10,06 euro per hour and 1,640 euro per month, followed by Miguel from Madrid. But they still cannot beat the Czech drivers with 3,20 per hour and 555,50 euro per month. The salary level of the Czech drivers seems a good indication of the wage level in Eastern-Europe. They are not as cheap as the truck drivers from Brazil, who earn 1,87 euro per hour or 250 euro gross per month. But for truck drivers competition depends on the distance trucks can cover, and Europe is still a bit too far away for the Brazilian truck drivers.

Those salaries explains perhaps why when you stop at a petrol station in Western Europe to ask a truck driver for some tape, German, Dutch, French or English do not help you anymore. One of the East-European languages or even Russian might be more helpful.

Salary truck drivers
country	p/h in euro	p/m in euro
Belgium	19.30	3176
Finland	17.62	3052
Netherlands	14.20	2336
UK (London)	13.62	2360
US (Washt.)	13.55	2359
Germany	10.06	1654
Spain	6.42	1113
Czech Rep.	3.20	555
Brazil	1.87	250

Please note that these figures were collected in May 2009 to a very specific profile of one truck driver. For your own salary, please visit the WageIndicator of your country.

First Year as a Truck Driver in the States

The ability to travel on a regular basis while making money doing something you love is a privilege and a dream for most. One of the few employment positions that have this privilege are truck drivers. Drivers deliver items from around the world throughout the U.S. and sometimes even Canada and Mexico. Truckers are an essential part of everyday life for almost every industry including, retail, manufacturing, automotive, and food and dining. First year truck drivers have the opportunity to see the country, but will also be developing their driving skills. There are both positive and negative aspects to driving a truck and in the first year of driving, each trucker is sure to become acclimated with these different situations.

Understanding the Life of a Trucker

Truck driving is a career choice like any, however trucking requires tailoring a lifestyle completely around a job. The schedule of a typical trucker is going out on the road for several weeks at time, and then having a few days home, which is called Hometime. This schedule is perhaps one of the hardest aspects for new truckers and his or her family. There are not many other jobs that require being away from family and friends on a daily basis during most weeks, aside from military or oilfield workers. So, truck driving is pretty much in a league of its own as a career choice for a family man or woman. The inability to participate in daily life and the solitude can take a toll on anyone; however, this is a part of the position as an Over-the-Road or OTR driver.

Learning to control the truck and trailer that he or she will be operating may be one of the biggest physical challenges of the job. Training for a commercial driver’s license, or a CDL, takes just a month or more of courses and workshops. One great thing about the CDL training is that it is much easier than other trade schools and college courses. With a CDL, first year drivers can start driving after a few months and make a full time income similar to that of those who exit college.

Though a CDL is considerably less expensive to obtain and in much less time, there is still a learning curve that comes along with being a long haul driver. Driving for eight to ten hours a day will be much more demanding than training for a CDL. The adjustment period of being on the road alone for the majority of the day or night will require determination and a love of the job. Setting up a proper daily work schedule according to his or her current load, with rests and work breaks, will aid first year drivers in making the change to an OTR driver far less challenging.

Gaining Steam in Year One

For the first year, many drivers may find themselves being assigned loads that are less than favorable. Many trucking and freight companies allow the drivers that have worked for the company for an extended amount of time to receive first choice in driving assignments. First year drivers may have to drive to desolate locations, into New York City or Canada, and have pickups or deliveries with undesirable schedules.

This can be typical of trucking companies, as first year hires must work their way up in the company and prove his or her skills and reliability. Keeping to a delivery schedule is essential for trucking and freight companies to keep client contracts, so providing services in a timely and reliable manner will help the first year trucker build up a positive reputation, and possibly allow first years to be dispatched better assignments.

The one highlight of receiving driving assignments is taking the road less traveled, literally. Driving is the one way to view the countryside, big cities, and hundreds of American suburbs all at once. Stopping in a variety of cities throughout the country will help gain a glimpse into life in different regions around the U.S. and is an experience that is like no other. No other career, other than anthropologists, travels the world and experiences other groups and their lives on a regular manner. Truck drivers receive one of the best crash-course educations on daily life around the U.S. through his or her freight routes.

While on the road, it is easy to become detached from the daily life that he or she once knew. However, new technology makes it easier to keep in contact with family members, so having that much needed connection with them on a regular basis is entirely possible. Keeping a cellular phone is essential to the job for emergencies with the truck or delivery, contact with the dispatch room, and for contacting the shipper or consignee.

So every driver should have a cellular phone within days of becoming a full time driver. Calling family while at a rest is a small, but important method to being there for family while in a different state. Many truck stops have several amenities like showers, dining areas, and wireless internet and using it for social media or video messaging is the next best thing to actually being able to go home at night. Messaging and phone calls will allow first year drivers to ease into their heavy driving schedule and fight feelings of homesickness.

Making plans to integrate into family life during days off is also a requirement for a healthy transition into long term OTR driving. It is easy to want to rest on days off, but getting up and out with the rest of the family and re-adapting quickly will keep life running smoothly on off days while on Hometime.

Long Term Long Haul Outlook

CDL certified drivers who enter into the trucking business have the opportunity to make a full time, middle class income from the very beginning. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most heavy and tractor tailor drivers will make a median income of $37,770 or $18.16 per hour. Trucking also has a higher than average rate of growth, with twenty-one percent rate of growth and millions of available jobs on the hauling market. In fact, there continues to be a driver shortage year after year. Driver’s wages are more than twice as high as the federal minimum wage and will allow most to provide for his or her family and live a comfortable lifestyle. Trucking is physically demanding and being away from family, friends, and familiar areas can be emotionally and mentally exhausting, but once drivers settle into their new life as professional drivers, the benefits can far outweigh the negatives.

View a detailed analysis of a Class A CDL Salary below

Understanding what is expected of the long haul truck driver, then integrating personal and family time into the job will make the work environment much simpler regarding acclimating. If trucking for a living truly appeals to you, seeking out a CDL and trying out long haul loads for a year is the only fool proof method towards figuring out if trucking is a career for you long term. Again, a trucking career has its challenges; however, the positive gains towards becoming successful, getting paid to see the country, and providing a good life for your family greatly overshadow the negatives of being an OTR driver.

Class A Truck Driving CDL

Truck Driver salaries can be an extremely varied list when truck drivers have their Class A CDL after training or school. CDL A is a classification breakdown of all the different types of driving classifications. CDL Classifications in A cover vehicles with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating that is 26,001 pounds or more and also is towing anything that is greater than 10,000 pounds.

Obviously, like any job on the market, a truck driver with experience can earn more than one with no experience or just student truck driving hours on the road. When job qualifications & questions are set for CDL Class A Truck Drivers a common question is what is your total Over The Road (OTR) Experience or Total Truck Driving experience. It’s common for people interested in truck driving to have found their passion in driving lower class types of trucks that don’t require a Class A CDL. This is where the total truck driving experience can come into play.

CDL Endorsements for Class A

Class A CDL Diagram and DescriptionAnother very big factor in different salary ranges for Class A truck drivers are the different CDL Endorsements one can get along with their official DMV Commerical Drivers License. There are four main Class A Endorsements professional truckers go for to earn more money when driving for a living, they are:

Hazardous Materials / Hazmat = H Endorsement
Tank Vehicles / Tanker = N Endorsement
Double / Triple Trailers = T Endorsement
Air Brake Restriction = K Endorsement

CDL A Endorsement Salary Comparisons

If you want to get a general idea in what types of salary increases you can expect if you have different CDL Endorsements we compared them using the Indeed Salary Comparison tool and you see a general difference of $6,000 a year in annual salary difference. While this can be a little deceiving because many CDL A drivers get paid per mile, this certainly identifies that having a Tanker Endorsement or Hazardous Materials endorsement can greatly increase your pay as a truck driver. Demand for filling jobs in the Hazard & Tanker endorsement area are typically higher as well than just a Class A due to the lower potential employee availability with these classifications. In the comparison tool above you can see the CDL Tanker Salaries actually have about an 11% higher than average job posting rate than just CDL A job postings.

Another great resource to look into when trying to decipher what salaries and career outlooks are in the trucking industry is the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The only downside to the BLS in trucking is they have very general overviews of trucking jobs and don’t provide salary rates for different CDL Classifications or Endorsements. Nonetheless we still get a good general overview of a Tractor-Trailer Truck Driver salary that is states as $37,770 per year which is around $18.16 an hour. In 2010 the BLS stated that the overall job market had 1,604,800 jobs available to truck drivers. Even better news for anyone interested in the truck driving profession is the extreme growth statistics that are predicted by the BLS for 2010 – 2020 with a 21% growth rate which is must faster than most average jobs in the market. The 21% growth rate in truck driving jobs will add an expected 330,100 truck driver jobs on America’s highways increasing the demand and need for truck drivers to fill the seats of trucks on the road.

Class A CDL Job Availability & Demand

If the BLS 21% growth rate for trucking jobs isn’t enough to convince you there is strong demand in the trucking industry, we’ll take a look at some other ways to look at overall market for trucking. A company called WANTED Analytics keeps tight tabs on the trucking industry job market and how hard is to hire truckers and how many job postings are hitting the market. On November 6th, 2013 it was released in a post titled, “Jobs for Truck Drivers Get Harder to Recruit” that a new record of truck job postings had been reached. A new 4-year high was established in April 2013 with over 226,000 trucking job ads requesting qualified truckers but then in August of 2013 the record was set again with more than 272,000 jobs becoming available. In just 5 months that gives us a 20.35% increase in the amount of truck jobs that need to be filled.

Overall CDL A Salary Growth Rates

After digging into the growth in jobs that are expected to be available in the truck driving industry by the BLS and looking at Wanted Analytics breakdown of the job market increasing at incredible rates, you have to wonder about the salaries, are they increasing?

Taking a look at the National Salary trend tool that is provided by Indeed you can see that there is a definite increase when the graph shows in October 2011 the index was sitting at a 1.00 or below and then starts to quickly rise at quite a quickpace into the 1.20+ range in their index. What this tells us is that the salaries being posted fof Class A CDL Truck Drivers are going up as the demand outpaces the qualified truck drivers out there looking for work.

Germany increases minimum wage

As of 1 January 2015 Germany will introduce a minimum wage of €8.50/hour (gross).

The law (in German) can be found here: http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bundesrecht/milog/gesamt.pdf. The minimum wage applies to every employee working in Germany. Germany has noted that the minimum wage also applies to companies without a seat in Germany but with employees being active in Germany. There are still unanswered questions which may alter the accuracy of the contents of this article.

Content

Companies that fall under the legislation are obliged to give a written notification prior to the work being performed to the appropriate authorities (customs office of Cologne). The employer needs to notify

who is in charge of the work,
the type of work concerned and
the duration in time of the work, etc.

What a foreigner needs to do is under debate, but we understand from DSLV (the German Forwarders Association) that there is no need to have a representative in Germany to submit the necessary papers. Instead you need to send the papers to the customs office and need to keep them in your records for two years (§ 16 MiLOG) and be able to present them when required. How this works and where documentation needs to be sent to is part of another Regulation that was published only last week. This law is very relevant for foreigners, because it acknowledges the impracticality of submitting information for each trip to Germany. Therefore, the Mindestlohn Meldeverordnung is very important: http://www.gesetze-internet.de/aentgmeldv_2010/BJNR130400010.html

If you transport goods for short period of times and close to the border on a regular basis, you do not have to transmit documentation for every trip, but it is sufficient to combine trips into one transmission for a period of up to 6 months. If you have the necessary documentation only in your home country (let's say France), you only need to add a letter ensuring that the documents can be made available on request in German and in Germany. You can give the relevant documentation to the driver, when he goes to Germany to carry in his truck. This is seen as very critical by BGL, the German association that is representing road hauliers, as it might discriminate Germans, because it is much easier to control them than to order documentation from a foreign office.

The employer and also the party giving instructions/consignor (e.g. a freight forwarder) are co-responsible for respecting the law. Both can be penalised with a maximum penalty of €500.000 for non-compliance. We understand that the freight forwarder or consignor are only liable in cases where he knows or is negligent in not knowing that the employer does not pay minimum wages. German customs is responsible for control and enforcement, although the way of how this is being controlled in practice is still under discussion.

DSLV has drawn up some general conditions for its members to cover potential liability claims (and willing to translate this in English but this may take some time). It is likely that this is already practice by some larger companies.

Implications for the transport sector

For the transport sector this means that all transport instructions in, to and in transit in Germany, including cabotage, needs to be applied in accordance to this regulation.

At this moment in time there are still questions with regards to the implementation of the law. Via our EU representative body CLECAT , it is felt that the following questions need to be asked:-

what are the European framework conditions under which the German minimum wages can be applied to international road transport and the companies that are not established in Germany?
International transport companies that are not established in Germany, but have an obligation to comply with minimum wages, need to comply with a condition to notify this to German authorities. Does the Commission agree with the requirement to have the documentation kept on German territory with a German sister company or with someone that it authorized to keep the information , living in Germany. And in case the Commission considers this reasonable, can it explain for what reason?

It would be useful if members to share any information or concerns they have with BIFA. Due to tight deadlines we only have up to the end of this week to provide a reply to CLECAT>

Stress in Trucking

There is a lot of opportunity for stress in trucking. You might as well count on it at some point. The good news about that is since you now know this, you can think in advance how you will deal with stressful situations so as not to let it have so much of a negative effect on you.

"Where does all of this stress in trucking come from?", you might ask.

Stress in trucking comes from many sources.

Dispatchers, truck breakdowns, traffic jams, traffic drama, shippers, receivers, you name it. Oh I almost forgot, family and the problems that presents themselves back home that you attempt to manage from 2000 miles away. Usually unsuccessfully.

Then there is the miscellaneous incidents that will show up over the road just as in life in general. Knowing this, the question is how will you allow these things to affect you. This will determine the level of stress that you will experience.

Develop habits that prevent stressful situations before hand

There are many ways to cope with stress, some of them will be discussed on another page linked at the bottom. On this page we will talk about developing certain habits which will help limit the degree and instances of stress that you would otherwise experience.

It's smart to do what is possible to avoid stress and learn about skills useful for coping with it before hand.

Here are a few tips for preventing stress in trucking...

Manage Your Time - Challenging as it may be as a trucker, there are things that we CAN do and those are what we must focus on. But also, we must realize that this is trucking.
Plans don't always work out. Facing that reality alone will also help you not get stressed when plans fall through.

Generally speaking....eliminate procrastination. Which is almost a universal fault of most people, lol. Those who decide to work on and eliminate it will not only experience less stress but also will experience more success and happiness in life.

So in new driver tips, I tell you about allowing yourself extra time for pick up and delivers. This will help you to be able to deal with unexpected issues if they come up and still make it on on time.

Even if you have a long trip to do over the weekend. It may be tempting to drag along a few hundred miles each day. If you are planning to stop somewhere in route, say to see family or something, that's cool.

However, if you have no plans to visit....you will relax much better on Sunday if you only have a few miles to left to drive and the rest of the day to kick back and read, write or to do whatever you like to do in leisure time.

If you have to drive all day 600 miles and at 125 miles you break down or the highway is shut down for an accident for 4 hours, you will not be too happy. In fact the first thing you will probably say is, "I wish I had of drove further yesterday or left earlier this morning."

Here is another time to check yourself...

Some times when you go home, you might have things you want to get done. Or there might be a list that has built up which you promised your wife to attend to.

It could be tempting to kick back all day and plan on doing things the day before you leave or worse the morning before you leave. If you know like I know, expecting things to go that smoothly is just asking for trouble.

Here is the other no no attitude. "I will do it the next time I make it home in 2 weeks."

Problem is, you might not make it home in two weeks. Your wife will already be disappointed. In two weeks she will be twice as disappointed if you don't make it back. Relationships are delicate already especially for a new couple in the trucking lifestyle. Do you want to take go this route?

It's always best to go ahead and handle that business, pay that bill, visit your family, do that thing (whatever that thing is) because it is very possible that you won't make it back when you think you will make it back.

With home time by the way, tell your dispatch early and then remind him/her 2 weeks and 1 week prior to the scheduled home time. These guys handle many drivers, they may not have a good system for keeping up with your request for home time. Don't leave it to chance. By the way, there will be times it won't work out, don't let it stress you. It's the nature of trucking.

Can you see how powerful this thought process could be? It will not only minimize stress in trucking, but also in the rest of your life.
Listen to motivational material - This will help you to develop a different way of thinking.
A positive mindset will prepare you for the worst days in a trucker's life. As you listen to this type of material over and over it becomes more and more of your subconscious until its just part of the foundation of your thought process.

I suggest Zig Ziglar or Rev Bishop T.D. Jakes or your boy the crazy trucker
Develop your faith - For me, I am no religious fanatic and far from a saint but I am constantly improving my character and personality. I don't worry about death because I know my relationship with God is good. If I die tomorrow I am not concerned about going to hell.
If you have that level of faith then you know what I am talking about. When it comes to dealing with challenges in trucking or lif, this relationship absorbs much of the negativity and allows you to see the glass half full to extract the lessons instead of experiencing great deals of stress. This makes an incredible and solid foundation for peace.

(and also accomplishing goals, and so many other things)

Whatever you believe in (for the purpose developing faith) will help you cope if you spend time learning information derived from that belief system. There are great sermons on AFR or Bot Radio network all across the country to help nurture your belief system.
Get your proper rest and nutrition - Essential to help your body operate efficiently. With out rest and nutrition your functioning will be sub par. Even if you don't notice. This could cause you to make poor choices, or be forgetful, or just too tired to perform. Poor health will definitely cause all types of stress or situations that will cause stress.
If you are eating doughnuts and drinking soda everyday watching the lbs add up or staying up all night watching TV only to wake up early in the morning you are running yourself in the ground. Guaranteed road bumps ahead.
Don't Sweat the Little Things - There will be too much going on in life and over the road to try and create the perfect world or expect everyone you deal with to behave the way you want them to. Decide now that you will overlook the little things.
I have seen people get upset at the counter at the truck stop because the lady wants to see ID. That's just stupid really.

...What about if the DOT pulls you over to check you out and you did nothing. You accomplish nothing sitting there getting upset at the man for pulling you over. In fact you might end up with something serious to be upset about.

Life is full of inconveniences and such.

...Wife forgot to do something for you which is not going to cause the world to come to an end. It's OK if there is no harm done. Relax.

...ar cut you off. You will never figure out why. Chill out, just relax. It's going to be Ok.

That's just life as a trucker.