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New to truck driving? Or perhaps you’re still considering if a career in trucking is right for you?
You probably have a lot of questions about pay.
How much will you earn annually? What’s a good starting salary? How can you make your pay increase faster?
You may still be wondering if working in the trucking industry is right for you. Getting a grasp on pay expectations might be what persuades you to either go into the industry or pursue something else.
I’ve been in the trucking industry for nearly two decades working in every department from the shop to operations and driver recruiting (which is where I currently sit as the vice president of driver recruiting at Anderson Trucking Service).
Pay is always changing as the market fluctuates and the trucking industry works to adapt. Despite those changes, this article will give you a good idea of what you’ll make as a new driver in the industry, strategies you can implement to increase your pay and how quickly you can increase your pay.
How Much Will I Make as a New Truck Driver?
Before I can dive into how much you’ll make as a new driver, you need to understand the different definitions of “new.”
When people in the industry refer to new truck drivers, they might be referring to a driver still in trucking school, a driver who just finished their time driving with a trainer or a driver who has under six months of experience under their belts.
I’ll talk about each of these phases as a new driver in turn and explain how much you can expect to make in that stage of your career.
Drivers in Trucking School
Once you finish trucking school, you’ll go out on the road with a trainer. Drivers may drive with a trainer at the company who put them through school, or they may go to a carrier they find on their own that has a finishing program.
Drivers will spend anywhere from eight to 12 weeks out on the road with a trainer. The reason the timeframe ranges so widely is because each company does it differently. Some companies require you to drive a certain number of hours or days and some have a certain amount of miles driven required before they can solo drive.
The amount and way you’re paid while you’re training vary widely from carrier to carrier. Some pay a flat daily rate and some pay per mile.
Typically, however, you can expect the pay to be fairly low. The first few months out of trucking school are tough because you don’t make a lot of money.
Some carriers pay a flat daily rate and it can range from $100 a day to $250 a day.
When carriers pay mileage, it usually ranges anywhere from 20 cents-per-mile (CPM) to 50 CPM.
Drivers with 3 to 6 Months of Experience
Once you’ve completed your time driving with a trainer, you’ll still have a tough few months ahead of you money-wise. Until you get to six months of experience, you’re still not considered experienced by a lot of carriers. Many carriers require six months to a year of experience, so that first six months or so limits your options.
At this point, you can still expect to receive somewhere around 35 to 50 CPM.
However, pay has gotten better for drivers with this level of experience in recent times. Pay is still on the lower end, but it’s getting better. There are even some companies that’ll pay drivers with three to six months of experience just as much as experienced drivers. In some cases, drivers will immediately get paid 50+ CPM.
Drivers with 6 to 12 Months of Experience
With six to 12 months of experience, you’re still pretty green in the industry. However, just as pay for drivers with three to six months of experience can anticipate an increase in pay as the industry changes, so can this category of drivers.
A lot of drivers with six to 12 months of experience are now in a position where they can go to top-paying companies in the industry and get paid a premium. They can expect to make at least $70,000 per year.
This is because there aren’t as many drivers in the industry now as there were a few years ago and companies need drivers now more than ever. At the same time, companies have also tightened their hiring restrictions. They’re looking for drivers without incidents and without a history of job-hopping. As long as you’ve demonstrated you can drive safely and you haven’t job-hopped, expect to start getting paid well in this phase of your career.
Drivers with this level of experience can expect to receive 60 CPM or higher.
What is a Good Starting Salary for New Drivers?
It’s tough to nail down a good starting salary for new drivers because the pay generally tends to be fairly low. The first year can be rough.
A good rule of thumb is if you take your current CPM earnings and calculate how much you’d earn in a year at that rate and it’s the equivalent of $40,000 or $50,000 per year (or higher), you’re doing well.
Once you’re past six months, you should easily be able to find a job that earns you $60,000 per year. After one year in the industry, you should be able to earn $80,000 per year and higher.
If you do your research on trucking companies, you should be able to find some companies that pay even higher than the averages listed above.
How Can I Increase My Pay? (7 Tips)
There are several notable ways you can increase your pay as a driver. When you employ the methods below, you’ll give yourself better access to companies that are willing to pay new drivers more.
Tip #1: Don’t Job-Hop When You’re New
As a new driver, you should stick with one carrier; you shouldn’t hop from carrier to carrier. It doesn’t look good if you only have six months of experience and you already have six carriers under your belt.
If you’ve worked at a handful of carriers before you’ve even been in the industry for a year, it calls into question if being a truck driver is right for you. Evaluate if you’re making the right career move or if you need to pursue something else. Conversely, take a closer look at the carriers you’re choosing to work for.
After you finish your drive time with a trainer, it’s ideal for you to stay with the first carrier you drive with for at least six months to a year — even if you don’t love the carrier.
Staying with one carrier sets you on a good career path. If you start moving around before your first six months are over, you hurt yourself and your options. You make it more likely that carriers won’t hire you or you won’t be paid well.
This leads me to my next tip.
Tip #2: Pick a Good First Carrier
You need to be very intentional about the first carriers you decide to drive with. Not only should you carefully choose where you go to trucking school, but you should also be mindful about the first carrier you drive for. Because it’s ideal for you to stay with that carrier for at least a year, you want it to be a good company that pays you well and treats you well.
You also want to work for a stable carrier with some longevity. If you get your driving experience with a tiny, unstable carrier that closes down within its first year of business, future trucking companies can’t verify your experience. If that’s the only experience you have, you may have to start back at square one and get a few months of lower-paying experience.
Making a mistake in choosing your first carrier can set you backward in a big way and you can end up jumping from unstable carrier to unstable carrier.
Tip #3: Stay Accident-Free
If you can keep yourself accident-free in your first six months as a driver, you increase your chances of being hired by a carrier that’ll pay you a premium rate. You have the opportunity to double your pay because you’ve proved to companies you’re safety-minded.
It goes without saying that you should try to remain accident-free your entire career.
Tip #4: Get Endorsements Immediately
It’s beneficial to get endorsements right away in trucking school. Getting endorsements as an experienced driver isn’t nearly as beneficial as it is to get them early in your career. Earning endorsements early on allows you to start hauling specialized loads immediately.
For instance, if you have six months of experience and a hazmat endorsement, you open your opportunities up quite a bit.
Learn how to earn your endorsements here.
Tip #5: Start Out OTR
Take the opportunity to start driving over-the-road (OTR) as soon as you can. A lot of companies won’t hire OTR drivers unless they have at least six months of experience driving OTR. When you’re a new driver working with a training company, you’ll have the chance to get your OTR experience; take advantage.
You’ll increase your earning potential if you’re willing to drive OTR.
Tip #6: Do More Physical Trucking Jobs
If you’re really looking for a way to boost your income quickly, start out with some of the more physically demanding trucking jobs, like less-than-truckload (LTL) or dedicated routes. Companies will pay you more for these jobs because you’ll be doing more stops or unloading freight.
Tip #7: Set Goals
Ultimately, the best way to increase your salary is by setting goals from the very start of your career.
We talk to hundreds of drivers each year that have been disqualified from a job because of decisions they made in the past. They unintentionally made a choice that disqualified them because they didn’t do the research to find out what it took to work at the company of their choice.
Set goals for where you want to be one, three and five years down the road in your trucking career. Each decision you make should help you get one step closer to reaching your goal.
Maybe you want to work at a specific company that requires two years of hazmat experience with no accidents; working there is part of your three-year plan. Based on this goal, while you’re in trucking school, you should decide to get your hazmat endorsement right away. Then, when you’re deciding between two companies early in your career and one offers hazmat freight but the other doesn’t, you should choose the hazmat carrier.
Every decision you make should take your long-term goals into consideration.
Figure out what it takes to work at your dream carrier, take notes and determine how you can reach your goal of working there by taking small steps.
How Long Will it Take to Increase My Salary?
Your first few months — if not a year — can be tough in the trucking industry, but you should expect to get a good boost in pay after six months in the industry.
After a year in the industry, you should be getting paid a premium rate — as long as you have a great record. If you follow the tips I mentioned above, you can substantially increase your pay after one year as a truck driver.
Best Companies For New Truck Drivers
Getting into the trucking industry can be difficult. There are tons of pathways to get there, but getting your footing can be tough — especially when the payment for the first year isn’t typically substantial.
The industry is always changing and pay is increasing in some cases, so it may be a totally different story a few years down the road.
Until you have the experience you need to get hired at top-paying carriers, find a good carrier and stay with them, avoid getting into accidents, get your endorsements early on, set goals and be willing to do the hard work it takes to succeed.
If you’re looking for the best trucking companies for new drivers, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve put together a list of great training companies for new drivers to pursue. As long as you do well at one of these companies, you increase your chances of getting hired by a top-paying carrier once you have enough verifiable experience.