Ever turned down a higher-paying job?

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Specop 007

15 to 25 cents a mile give or take. Really depends what your driving and who your driving for.

Since fuel costs have come down it isnt so bad, for a while truckers were running at a loss.

i wouldnt touch it because you aint bad to sight see. If that truck aint movin, you aint paid. And if you aint gettin paid, the company aint gettin paid. And they dont like that.
Which means you drive. Unless you own your own rig, which is where it becomes difficult to really make good money. You'd be loking at around $4,000 a month on the loan note for the tractor + trailor. At 40 cents a mile thats ALOT of miles.

Also, long time truckers almost invariably end up with back problems even with the air ride seats and all the other fancy ******.

If you want to see the country, just take a vacation.

I don't know if your numbers are accurate there, 40 cents a mile wouldn't come close to covering your operating expenses (gas, maintenance, depreciation). If you don't own the truck and trailer, $.25 a mile would barely cover gas, and at $.15 you'd definitely be operating at a loss. If your numbers are right (and your assumptions about who's paying for the gas), nobody would be driving trucks.

envy me, you can make half-decent money driving a truck, but I'm not sure how much luck you'll have finding someone who'll pay you to do it for just a 13 day stretch at a time.

 

[Brutuskend]

Yes.

Where I work I get no health and basically NO bennies.

I have been offered a higher paying job WITH bennies, but if I left the place would probably fold, and I can;t bring myself to do it to them...


I'm a idiot, I know....

 

[Specop 007]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Specop 007

15 to 25 cents a mile give or take. Really depends what your driving and who your driving for.

Since fuel costs have come down it isnt so bad, for a while truckers were running at a loss.

i wouldnt touch it because you aint bad to sight see. If that truck aint movin, you aint paid. And if you aint gettin paid, the company aint gettin paid. And they dont like that.
Which means you drive. Unless you own your own rig, which is where it becomes difficult to really make good money. You'd be loking at around $4,000 a month on the loan note for the tractor + trailor. At 40 cents a mile thats ALOT of miles.

Also, long time truckers almost invariably end up with back problems even with the air ride seats and all the other fancy ******.

If you want to see the country, just take a vacation.

I don't know if your numbers are accurate there, 40 cents a mile wouldn't come close to covering your operating expenses (gas, maintenance, depreciation). If you don't own the truck and trailer, $.25 a mile would barely cover gas, and at $.15 you'd definitely be operating at a loss. If your numbers are right (and your assumptions about who's paying for the gas), nobody would be driving trucks.

envy me, you can make half-decent money driving a truck, but I'm not sure how much luck you'll have finding someone who'll pay you to do it for just a 13 day stretch at a time.

My numbers could be off. When I looked into, some 7 years ago or so, it was roughly .30 cents a mile, bit more for teams.

Like I said, truckers have to keep those rigs moving to make money. You can make good money, but your never home.

i dont know what the pay is today however, so dont take my word as law by any means.

 

[Ready]

Not exactly but i've done something similar
Once I went from a job with a very promising future to a job thats in horrible shape in terms of money. I now get pay less but I like what I'm doing a heck lot more. I don't regret the decision.

 

[Specop 007]

Ok, here you go. Granted it looks like this is for new drivers, I'm sure you get more with more experience.

Click

Driver Pay.

New Mileage Pay Rate

New drivers earn $.28/mile as a solo driver
After 3 months you'll earn $.29/mile
After 6 months you'll earn $.32/mile
After 1 year you'll earn $.35/mile
First-year drivers can expect to make up to and $38,000
Average 1st year weekly earnings - $600 to $700

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Specop 007

My numbers could be off. When I looked into, some 7 years ago or so, it was roughly .30 cents a mile, bit more for teams.

Like I said, truckers have to keep those rigs moving to make money. You can make good money, but your never home.

i dont know what the pay is today however, so dont take my word as law by any means.

I think you're right that it's $.30-40 a mile, but I don't think you have to pay for your own gas. That is, if you work for a company. If you're independent, I think you'd get more money than that, but of course you have a lot of costs to cover.

You're right that you have to keep the truck moving to make money, and that's not always something you can control. If you pull in to make a delivery 5 minutes after the place closes, you'll be sitting around until they open in the morning.

Yeah you're never home, but for a single guy that's not so bad.

 

[episodic]

Ok, I was a company driver. I did 6 months over the road to get my experience - the pay was crappy here.

After that I applied for a gig with a company that hauled freight to a discount chain of stores. The deal was with this chain is none (or few) of the stores had a loading dock. Which means the freight was hand off.

So you'd have a 53 foot trailer stacked floor to ceiling with freight that you had to physically pick up and hand off the back end. Not to mention most of these stores were in crappy locations and it was very difficult to approach most of these places with a rig and a 53 foot trailer. Some of the backing required a guardian angel and lots of luck.

So I'd get paid .38 per mile. I'd run 1500 miles a week or so.

I'd get paid 25$ per stop - six stops on a trailer (I could get all 6 off in one day).

Then I'd get 25$ drop and hook pay (25 dollars to get a trailer 25 dollars to drop a trailer - this would happen 4 times per week).

I'd leave on a Sunday night, make a run to Chicago - unload all of Monday until late - get back early Tuesday Morning and drop. I'd take Tuesday off - report back Wed and make a run down to Texas. I'd be gone Wed come back Thursday late. I'd get Friday and Saturday off. Repeat.

The hours were great.

HOWEVER, what you won't hear is most drivers won't do this because it was an extremely phyically demanding job. I'd hand of 20,000 pounds of freight in a day. Think a wall of bleach 15 feet deep in cases of 6 gallons. Not to mention I'd be in the back of a tin trailer in South Texas in the summer or conversely in the back of a trailer in a Chicago Winter.

This place had a hard time getting drivers, because by default most drivers are lazy.

I made a choice to work very hard and be home often.

So 1300 miles that week at .38 per mile
$494

12 stops a week on average
$300


Drop hook $100

That is $894 bucks a week.

That was not too shabby for me back then. I keep my CDL current today for that very reason.


Cliffnotes - there are tons of driving jobs that are demanding that most drivers don't want cause they'd rather whine about how bad they have it.

 

[Specop 007]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Specop 007

My numbers could be off. When I looked into, some 7 years ago or so, it was roughly .30 cents a mile, bit more for teams.

Like I said, truckers have to keep those rigs moving to make money. You can make good money, but your never home.

i dont know what the pay is today however, so dont take my word as law by any means.

I think you're right that it's $.30-40 a mile, but I don't think you have to pay for your own gas. That is, if you work for a company. If you're independent, I think you'd get more money than that, but of course you have a lot of costs to cover.

You're right that you have to keep the truck moving to make money, and that's not always something you can control. If you pull in to make a delivery 5 minutes after the place closes, you'll be sitting around until they open in the morning.

Yeah you're never home, but for a single guy that's not so bad.

I think owner operators run about 80 to 90 cents a mile. But, as you said they also have fuel costs and equipment costs.

I think the more aggresive drivers will do over 10,000 miles a month. Man, thats a SH!TLOAD of driving. If you figure owner operator at a buck a mile (To make the math easy) your looking at $10,000 a month gross. Course, cut almost half that right off the top to cover the rig so your at $6,000 gross. Then you have fuel/maintenance/food....

You can make good money, but like I said earlier you gotta drive man, and drive alot.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: episodic
<snip>

One benefit of a physically demanding job is it keeps you in shape. My first job out of college was installing custom closet organization systems (like California closets)... I didn't move 20,000 pounds of material in a day, but going up and down stairs all days carrying 75 pounds of laminate at a time adds up! I could eat like crazy and not gain weight.

 

[KarenMarie]

yes, i turned down a job that paid twice what i earn now.

it would have meant my getting up early every morning, and spending 40 minutes sitting in traffic to work from 9-5:30 then sitting in 40 minutes traffic to get home again. I would have to wear office clothes and worry about gas, and parkng spots and the whole mess.

i turned it down flat. went home, had a few cocktails watch X-files marathon... woke up at 10:30 the next morning and worked in my pajamas.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: KarenMarie
yes, i turned down a job that paid twice what i earn now.

it would have meant my getting up early every morning, and spending 40 minutes sitting in traffic to work from 9-5:30 then sitting in 40 minutes traffic to get home again. I would have to wear office clothes and worry about gas, and parkng spots and the whole mess.

i turned it down flat. went home, had a few cocktails watch X-files marathon... woke up at 10:30 the next morning and worked in my pajamas.

Well I suppose that depends on how much the pay is that you'd be doubling... because what you're describing is not so terrible, it's pretty normal. But apparantly you're getting by just fine doing what you're doing, so if you don't need the extra money, you don't need the extra money.

I think if someone offered me a job in New York, they'd have to give me a heck of a lot of incentive to accept it, and doubling my current pay would probably not be enough incentive.

 

[hemiram]

Yes, I had the choice of staying where I am now, with zero pressure and kind of crappy pay, or leaving to go to another place where a friend works and the pressure/stress is 10X as bad.

Kind of a similar job in a way. Instead of doing ISP tech support, I would be trying to gat loads and part loads for truckers all over the US and Canada.

Pay was increased 50% after a year.

I stayed. I didn't need the aggivation

 

[PricklyPete]

Yes...I turned down a job where I would be making 20K a year more.

It was tough... even the experience would have been better...but I would have had to give up a lot of relationships and whatnot and live in a part of the country I not fond of. Anyway, I haven't regretted it for one minute...

 

[pontifex]

yeah, you can't just go by salary usually. you have to take other things into account, benefits, retirement, commute, etc.

 

[oddyager]

I actually landed my third position this past week after 3 years with my current job. Went from $38K to $65K. Not a debate for me besides pay.

1. No longer have to pay for water
2. No longer have to pay for restroom soap
3. No longer have to pay for my own office supplies
4. Air conditioning
5. many other reasons...

It was also a local government position but I'm heading back into the private sector. Sorry to jump your thread.

 

[wasssup]

I took a pay cut accepting my current job with Vonage. And it sucks just more than my old one, unfortunately (they don't treat their employees well).

Although money's important, since I recently (1.5 years ago) graduated college I need a job where I can learn and grow more than anything else. Unfortunately every job i've had since then was either not even remotely IT related or didn't give you the opportunity to learn and grow.

When I applied at Vonage, I told them I was interested in a NOC Engineer position. They said sorry, you don't have enough experience, but you can do Tier 2 technical support for 6 months and then move up.

Problems with Vonage:
(1) Pay is garbage (which was secondary to me, I actually wanted to learn and grow)
(2) Job content is stupid (phone support)
(3) They're even FORCING technical support to "sell" Virtual Numbers. We're not salesman dammit, and there are no incentives anyway.
(4) We can ONLY get up out of our seats only at times specified by Vonage...even for using the bathroom.
(5) Think you can move up with how much you know? Sorry, doesn't work that way! It's all about kissing ass. But I guess it's like any other job in that case.
(6) The hours suck, hell they're forcing me to work on christmas. I requested a few days off because I haven't met my dad in a few months, he'll only be here for 3 days, they blatantly said they don't care.
(7) If we call out (no matter for what reason, even if we're sick) we get reprimanded: 2 points. 9 points and you're fired, no questions asked.
(8) There's definitely some illegal crap going on here regarding how they treat their employees, but I don't want to get into it.

<-- goes back to sending resumes out.

 

[Cheetah8799]

Ya, I turned down a pretty good amount of money this past summer. Basically the job I chose had better paid education opportunities and also a LOT less overtime and crazy work to do. The higher paying job would have resulted in like zero vacation time due to huge work load, and probably way more than 40 hours per week of work...

The difference in pay would have been about $10k...

 

[jread]

Originally posted by: wasssup
I took a pay cut accepting my current job with Vonage. And it sucks just more than my old one, unfortunately (they don't treat their employees well).

Although money's important, since I recently (1.5 years ago) graduated college I need a job where I can learn and grow more than anything else. Unfortunately every job i've had since then was either not even remotely IT related or didn't give you the opportunity to learn and grow.

When I applied at Vonage, I told them I was interested in a NOC Engineer position. They said sorry, you don't have enough experience, but you can do Tier 2 technical support for 6 months and then move up.

Problems with Vonage:
(1) Pay is garbage (which was secondary to me, I actually wanted to learn and grow)
(2) Job content is stupid (phone support)
(3) They're even FORCING technical support to "sell" Virtual Numbers. We're not salesman dammit, and there are no incentives anyway.
(4) We can ONLY get up out of our seats only at times specified by Vonage...even for using the bathroom.
(5) Think you can move up with how much you know? Sorry, doesn't work that way! It's all about kissing ass. But I guess it's like any other job in that case.
(6) The hours suck, hell they're forcing me to work on christmas. I requested a few days off because I haven't met my dad in a few months, he'll only be here for 3 days, they blatantly said they don't care.
(7) If we call out (no matter for what reason, even if we're sick) we get reprimanded: 2 points. 9 points and you're fired, no questions asked.
(8) There's definitely some illegal crap going on here regarding how they treat their employees, but I don't want to get into it.

<-- goes back to sending resumes out.

This is why I work for the government. We're public servants and there is less pressure to "make money, make money, make money!" I could never work in the private sector where everything is sacrificed to make more money for the shareholders. I don't care if it pays more.

 

[puffff]

Originally posted by: Specop 007

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Specop 007

My numbers could be off. When I looked into, some 7 years ago or so, it was roughly .30 cents a mile, bit more for teams.

Like I said, truckers have to keep those rigs moving to make money. You can make good money, but your never home.

i dont know what the pay is today however, so dont take my word as law by any means.

I think you're right that it's $.30-40 a mile, but I don't think you have to pay for your own gas. That is, if you work for a company. If you're independent, I think you'd get more money than that, but of course you have a lot of costs to cover.

You're right that you have to keep the truck moving to make money, and that's not always something you can control. If you pull in to make a delivery 5 minutes after the place closes, you'll be sitting around until they open in the morning.

Yeah you're never home, but for a single guy that's not so bad.

I think owner operators run about 80 to 90 cents a mile. But, as you said they also have fuel costs and equipment costs.

I think the more aggresive drivers will do over 10,000 miles a month. Man, thats a SH!TLOAD of driving. If you figure owner operator at a buck a mile (To make the math easy) your looking at $10,000 a month gross. Course, cut almost half that right off the top to cover the rig so your at $6,000 gross. Then you have fuel/maintenance/food....

You can make good money, but like I said earlier you gotta drive man, and drive alot.

I spent half a year doing consulting work at an intermodal company, primarly in their trucking operations. i dont remember the exact figures, but it looked like a lot of drivers were pulling in a lotta money. It's hard to go by dollars per mile, they got paid differently for driving with a load, driving with an empty container, driving bobtail, etc. But as other people have pointed out, it's a tough job, and there are lots of expenses.

back to the original question, i've never turned down a higher paying job, but i went from one netted me about 60k a year to 40k. At the time, money wasnt a big concern to me, and I was tired of all the business travel the first required.