Walmart to Pay Truckers $110,000, More Than Double What Average College Grad Makes

[Ray From Cleveland]

Its a hard life. I think Wal Mart (on the commercials anyway) get you home regularly. Yeah but over the road owner operators...takes a special breed of person.

Yes it does. I could never do it unless I had to. But I always bring up my former career when I read leftists complaining about low paying jobs making claim that good paying jobs are not around for blue-collar people. Right now we are short over 80,000 drivers companies can't find. It's expected to get much worse as we baby boomers retire in the next couple of years. Between being away from home or lack of interest, more and more government regulations making it harder for drivers to make a living or even be able to drive, I think we're going to have a real problem in transportation in the next ten years or so.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Even with autonomous trucks you still have to have a licensed driver in the vehicle in case something goes wrong and for an officer to discuss problems during an inspection. They can go straight but I don't think we will ever see one drive city or off the highway in our lifetime. Hell, we can't even get the autonomous cars right yet. I believe Uber is in a lawsuit now for a car that went nutso with a passenger in it that got into a serious accident. I also know that those cars would often just stop for no reason leaving the passenger to drive it to their destination.

Self-driving cars would be great because they may greatly reduce DUI accidents and deaths, trucks not so much. Since you still have to pay a driver to be on board, I simply don't see the savings there.

For now you would have to have a licensed driver in the vehicle in case something goes wrong, but it is still a technology in it infancy. Over time that need and the problems you mentioned above will get worked out.

 

[j-mac]

Yes it does. I could never do it unless I had to. But I always bring up my former career when I read leftists complaining about low paying jobs making claim that good paying jobs are not around for blue-collar people. Right now we are short over 80,000 drivers companies can't find. It's expected to get much worse as we baby boomers retire in the next couple of years. Between being away from home or lack of interest, more and more government regulations making it harder for drivers to make a living or even be able to drive, I think we're going to have a real problem in transportation in the next ten years or so.

Not to mention the quality of 'drivers' coming into the system today...I realize that some of them just need experience, but there are more than enough of them out there that have NO BUSINESS driving 80,000 lbs down the highway...

 

[j-mac]

For now you would have to have a licensed driver in the vehicle in case something goes wrong, but it is still a technology in it infancy. Over time that need and the problems you mentioned above will get worked out.

It's going to take a long time before that takes place...Just because there is tech on the horizon, doesn't mean it solves the problems of today....

 

[Cellblock2429]

Probably will have to work 110 hours a week to earn it.

/-----/ Ahhh - jealous little libtard pizzing on other's good fortune. BTW DOT forbids driving 110 hours a week, but you already knew that. Loser.

 

[Moonglow]

/-----/ Ahhh - jealous little libtard pizzing on other's good fortune. BTW DOT forbids driving 110 hours a week, but you already knew that. Loser.

I include travel time. My son is a truck driver who lives three miles from Bentonville, Arkansas and we both know how WalMart never delivers on their promises when employed with them. I have worked for WalMart in Bentonville at warehouse number four when Sam was alive and he lied to us to get us to work for him, I walked out and would never work for them again. So your analogy is as usual wrong.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

It's going to take a long time before that takes place...Just because there is tech on the horizon, doesn't mean it solves the problems of today....

Yes, it will not solve the problems of today, but the problems of today are what drive innovation.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Not to mention the quality of 'drivers' coming into the system today...I realize that some of them just need experience, but there are more than enough of them out there that have NO BUSINESS driving 80,000 lbs down the highway...

My problem are the foreigners. For whatever reason, they are out there with zero experience driving such vehicles. Granted it's been a very long time since I took the test, but I know what my former coworkers went through when my employer advanced them from a straight truck to a T/T. I also know from watching them try to back in a trailer there is no possible way they took our test to get a license.

I can only suspect that our government gives them reciprocity from their country. But in their country, whatever they have comparable to our CDL you can buy with a five dollar bill and a pack of cigarettes. So they come here, not knowing the language, not knowing how to read our signs, no experience behind the wheel and take these jobs.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

For now you would have to have a licensed driver in the vehicle in case something goes wrong, but it is still a technology in it infancy. Over time that need and the problems you mentioned above will get worked out.

Not in our lifetime it won't. You will always need a licensed driver on board to handle problems a computer can't. Also it takes thinking to drive in the city. Some of these cities are very old and their streets are not designed for semis. You need to figure out how to get that thing on a residential side street to get unloaded and how to back into a dock that was designed for straight trucks.

 

[j-mac]

Yes, it will not solve the problems of today, but the problems of today are what drive innovation.

That may be so, but the autonomous technology you speak of is decades away from being in full use anywhere...So, instead of looking at the here and now, you, as usual are muddying the waters with something that has nothing to do with the thread...

Walmart touts a $110K salary? Good for them...I hope it will drive the industry to raise wages...

First thing we have to do is look at what brought us to this point...When I started driving CMVs in 1992, after a couple of years I was making around $55K per year, and when I started driving for the company I drove for the company I recently left, that I had driven for 12 years with, I was making about $70K on average...The industry didn't keep up with making starting wage attractive enough to bring in talent...And now they are having to come into the 21st century in terms of pay...I went to a company that produces, and delivers their own freight, and due to a recent wage increase, that my boss said was due to "market research" I now am close to $100K.

I work on average about 60 hrs a week, home every other night, and off on weekends...I am glad to see that our industry is now bringing itself into reality with wage...

Now the downside...I am approaching 60, and so if my plans pan out, I only have about 5 or 6 years left to drive. And God help you when we veterans of trucking leave for retirement...

 

[Cellblock2429]

I include travel time. My son is a truck driver who lives three miles from Bentonville, Arkansas and we both know how WalMart never delivers on their promises when employed with them. I have worked for WalMart in Bentonville at warehouse number four when Sam was alive and he lied to us to get us to work for him, I walked out and would never work for them again. So your analogy is as usual wrong.

/-----/ Point taken.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Walmart touts a $110K salary? Good for them...I hope it will drive the industry to raise wages...

I agree, I have said this like 19 times now yet you all pretend I am against this or against the drivers.

Now the downside...I am approaching 60, and so if my plans pan out, I only have about 5 or 6 years left to drive. And God help you when we veterans of trucking leave for retirement...

Yes, it is a huge problem, one of the reasons for my comments about the future which triggered you so.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Not in our lifetime it won't. You will always need a licensed driver on board to handle problems a computer can't. Also it takes thinking to drive in the city. Some of these cities are very old and their streets are not designed for semis. You need to figure out how to get that thing on a residential side street to get unloaded and how to back into a dock that was designed for straight trucks.

I agree with the city driving, but those are also the jobs it seems easier to fill.

As for 'not in our lifetime", I guess that depends on how old you are. I am in my mid 50s so I might not see it, but I suspect my children will. As was pointed out above, a lot of drivers are getting to retirement age. Something will have to give one way or the other.

I still remember those that said the V22 Osprey would never work, that it was too dangerous and too advanced and all that jazz. Heck it was less than 25 years or so ago I was talking to people on local BBS ran by 4800 BPS modems. Back then nobody would have thought it would be possible to watch an entire movie on phone.

 

[airplanemechanic]

I read where they're averaging in the upper 80 thousands for drivers. Perhaps not six figures but still pretty good money.

More realistic but that means as many drivers are under 80 as above so that would mean most don't even make that. And they are stuck wearing uniforms, driving 65mph governed trucks, etc. Wal Mart is not the bastion of awesomeness it used to be.

 

[marvin martian]

Finally, you’re admitting Trump’s a deadbeat!

I'm referring to you, not your boyfriend.

 

[konradv]

I'm referring to you, not your boyfriend.

Just because you have a boyfriend, doesn’t mean everyone does.

 

[marvin martian]

Just because you have a boyfriend, doesn’t mean everyone does.

Ah, so you're an incel. I knew it.

LOL

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

I agree with the city driving, but those are also the jobs it seems easier to fill.

As for 'not in our lifetime", I guess that depends on how old you are. I am in my mid 50s so I might not see it, but I suspect my children will. As was pointed out above, a lot of drivers are getting to retirement age. Something will have to give one way or the other.

I still remember those that said the V22 Osprey would never work, that it was too dangerous and too advanced and all that jazz. Heck it was less than 25 years or so ago I was talking to people on local BBS ran by 4800 BPS modems. Back then nobody would have thought it would be possible to watch an entire movie on phone.

I'm just speaking from experience as a local driver. I've been to places a human driver refused to back into because they felt it was just too difficult; usually those foreigners I spoke of.

I live around the corner from a small industrial area. People in my city complain all the time in our Facebook group about trucks driving down their side street. I explain to them the driver is only following what the GPS tells them to do. Mind you there are GPS and programs specifically for trucks. They're not supposed to take you under low bridges or no truck zones, but they do. If we can't even get that right, I see it as many years before a truck will be able to calculate turns, assholes coming their way, or detect when a brake chamber is busted. Or for instance one time I was going through a school zone and stopped at a stop light. Kids walking down the sidewalk were playing chicken by crossing under my trailer back and forth for fun. If I wasn't watching my mirrors, I may have accelerated when the light turned green hitting or killing one of those kids.

At least for now and near future, there are too many things that can go wrong that a computer will not be able to recognize. As for those GPS units, I never used one. If the delivery or pickup was some place I was unfamiliar with, I'd always call the place first to get their instructions how to legally get in there. It saved me a lot of time and aggravation than depending on that faulty truck GPS.

 

[whitehall]

"Peter built a truck for a man to drive" It's a pretty good living but it ain't no life" ....David Lynn Jones

 

[Canon Shooter]

Truckers make nice livings on the pay side. Not seeing your family for 6 days at a time though?

I've got four friends who are OTR drivers. All four of them are single and their kids are grown.

One of them used to work in a bacon factory (Daily's Premium Meats) in Missoula, Montana, one used to be the guitar player in a very popular rock band, one has been driving since being discharged from the Army, and the fourth has been a truck driver for as far back as anyone can remember.

My buddy from Missoula just turned 60, and has just started this new career. His two boys are grown with families of their own. He called me this morning from Miami, saying he was on his way to San Diego. He didn't mention any specifics, but he says he's making far more than he did at the bacon factory, and I know he was making $26 an hour there.

My Dad was a truck driver for over 30 years, but he was local, driving a tanker for Exxon. He drove over 1,000,000 incident-free miles. We weren't rich growing up, but Dad made enough for us to be pretty comfortable...