Introduction
Such may come as one that is not a common ground for everybody. Something that came out of a chart. It may be unique. But what is? A truck driver? A career as a truck driver? It seems far off, something everybody thinks nobody does. It is strange and absurd to make a career over it. Let’s know ‘Is Truck Driving a Good Career?’
But it exists even if you deny it. There are truck drivers all over the United States that even cross into Canada. They are professionals, they know their job, and the perils they anticipate and pray against on the road. Hardy, crafty, and steel-willed personalities that you never care to give a glance at their passing by or across your path.
What is a Truck?
There is a tiny piece of confusion in the term. But what is a truck? We dissect this to clear the air of any doubt.
The American consumer has to contend with the expanding products in all industries. It is such that manufacturers might have already come to the stage wherein they have to find the right words to name their products.
- In transportation, the word truck, in usual American slang, has been used to name three distinct types of vehicles. The first is the pick-up of yesterday. Many now call it a truck which is a family vehicle or a small workhorse in form. Many still call these pick-ups today. Such as to avoid confusion. Examples are the Toyota Tundra, the GMC Canyon, the Ford F-150, and the Chevrolet Silverado 1500.
- The truck of yesterday is still as it is today. That would refer to the second type, the rigid trucks. These are the ones with frames where the chassis is from the front fender to the rear fender. The cabin for the driver sits at the front and the closed cargo box at the back.
It may have four, six, or ten wheels depending on the length and the weight designed for it. Under this type are articulated trucks that have a specialized function. Trucks like garbage collectors, dump trucks, and animal transport, to name a few.
- The third type of truck is semi-trucks. It is so named because the entire length of a rigid truck is in halves in two. The first half is for the engine and the driver. That is what they call the tractor head. It has a minimum of 6 wheels in its configuration.
The second half is for the cargo box which may have a variation of an x-wing or full shipping container. The cargo box does not sit on a chassis anymore. It lies onto a trailer that may have 8, 12, or 16 wheels attached to it. The cargo box is held securely with latches.
Such trailers may vary in length of 20, 40, or 45 feet. The trailer is attached to the tractor head by the fifth wheel or the hitch. That hitch is in both separations. The latches on the load and the lock on the hitch make travel safer than one might think.
The big truck manufacturers.
It is worth mentioning, albeit short, the biggest truck manufacturers in America. As a way to get a picture of the whole scene. Such is for the second and third types of the truck only. There are other manufacturers out, all the same, such a list has the most popular and the ones in demand. This comes in no particular order.
- Daimler Trucks North America LLC (Freightliner is the top-selling of all brands.)
- Isuzu Commercial Trucks of America, Inc.
- Mack Trucks, Inc.
- Ford Motor Company
- Volvo Trucks North America, Inc.
- Navistar International Transport Corporation
The big trucking service companies.
The list that we provide here is based on the revenue a company had officially disclosed from 2017 onwards. This list is in a sorted manner from biggest revenue to lowest ones. These companies also are in constant need of truck drivers.
- FedEx Freight, $7.352 Billion, in Memphis, Tennessee.
- Old Dominion Freight Line, $3.983, Congdon family, in Thomasville, North Carolina.
- XPO Logistics, $3.83 Billion, in Greenwich, Connecticut.
- YRC Freight, $3.153 Billion, at Overland Park, Kansas.
- Swift Transportation, $3.146 Billion, in Phoenix, Arizona.
The international shipping ports.
With over 95,000 miles of total coastline for the United States as determined by NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), it comes as no surprise that the country has a lot of pier and storage infrastructures dotting all over the East, West, and mid-South coastal approaches.
For obvious reasons, it is impractical to mention all of these seaports but select only the ones with strategic locations.
- Port of Los Angeles, California.
- Port of New York and New Jersey.
- Port of Miami, Florida.
- Port of Houston, Texas.
- Port of Seattle-Tacoma, Washington.
- Port of Savannah, Georgia.
- Port of Virginia, Virginia.
The organizations that run the daily operations in these ports are world-standard that adhere to International Standards set by the ISO.
Other knick-knacks of truck driving in the USA.
A. There are two options of loading cargo onto a truck for delivery.
- LTL or Less Truck Load. This is the condition when a full-sized tractor head is used to transport cargo that is below the rated capacity of the truck engine. This may be from a warehouse for delivery to another warehouse in another state. The driver is at a disadvantage in this situation. He could have earned twice or more with a full load at the same distance.
- FTL or Full Truck Load. As can be deduced, this is the opposite of LTL. A full cargo load for the full cargo rating of the truck and trailer or a “wing van” truck. The driver is all smiles all the way. The occurrence of this may also be the same as the LTL but a cherished occasion may arise when the truck picks up a shipping container from a port for an interior state within the USA or Canada.
B. For truckers, there are two most common types of cargo transport.
- Domestic Cargo. This type of cargo very much correlates to the LTL. Warehouse to warehouse, warehouse to store site. Such could also be pier to the warehouse/store site. This last one could be paying a driver better than the first two since of the extra but essential driver paperwork chores. A sample event for this would be a shipment from Hawaii, Alaska, or Puerto Rico.
- International Cargo. The intermodal system of delivery employs ships, trucks, and trains. That is the cheapest mode of transporting goods from one country to another. As part of that system, trucks and drivers play a vital role in the safe delivery of goods. It is here where drivers will earn more than usual.
C. The three different truck drivers of America.
It can not be denied that other drivers make their livelihood far from the norm that we know. Excluding that, we have three dominant types of truck drivers that ply the roads of America in these times.
I. Corporate Truck Drivers. These are the men, and women, if one has not known it yet, who get to pass the minimum of those high-end corporations such as Federal Express, United Parcel, and even Walmart. Amazon may be acquiring more vehicles as we speak, we do not know for sure. Their salaries are stable, the work is not stressful, and they have benefits and perks from the company that they do not have to struggle at each mile on the road.
2. Pay-Per-Carry Truck Drivers. Having such a strong gut in them for this type of driver, they will move one cargo forward faster in steps than known. They have to do so because they are under limitations their company has put upon them. They are those that do their duties to favor the company. There is nothing to speak of more since this genre of truck drivers still exists.
3. Self-employed Truck Drivers. Ironically, a few of the total truck drivers in America have their rig. A rig may only be a tractor head or a tractor head with one trailer or two. These are single-person companies that operate as any trucking service does. As per statistics, they sit on the whereabouts of 30% of the total number of truck drivers in America. In an ideal setting, the wife would be the dispatcher, accountant, salesman, and others.
The SALARY for truck drivers.
Many reliable sources put the figure at the median of $62,000 a year1. That is a good income with all consideration that other professions have lower medians than this job. From that, a truck driver stands to earn over $5,000 per month which is more than an entry-level nurse and an investment analyst can make.
The Forces that drive a Truck Driver.
Like many professions or livelihoods, some urges and drawbacks affect the decision of those in the job. But, as many would say, one has to give some to get some. Here is a collection of potent factors in the profession that makes truck drivers keep going.
1. Pay is higher than the norm.2, 3
It is much better than the pay of some other professions like building security, secretarial work, office administration, fishing, or construction jobs. However, it does not compare with professions that need to have years of prerequisite studies like the legal and medical professions. Such is in the median range with all professions considered.
2. An equal opportunity employment.4
That is very attractive to a good majority. In a way, this is a ticket for a better life than how it would be back home. Even a high school graduate with basic driving skills and common sense can join the pack. Hispanics and people of Asian origins are currently a regular sight among truckers.
3. An existing and growing demand for more truck drivers.5, 6
The truck driver shortage is a chronic problem within the USA and Canada. It has gone to lean on the worse side since the pandemic began. As a recourse, a few of the trucking companies are sourcing their driver candidates from other countries. That, however, within the circle of current truck drivers, has made a windfall for them. Income has significantly increased and will remain so soon.
4. The job is a long way from automation.7
Artificial intelligence is, by all accounts, still in its infancy stage today. It is years into the future that we can worry with cold sweat about the obsolescence of truck driving or the truck driver himself. The viability of remote delivery of small personal packages is in the testing stage with countless hurdles. It is safe to assume bulk cargoes will be in the status quo for decades to come.
5. Taxes are configured to ease on truck drivers.8
Nobody is exempt from taxes. After the tax reform, deductions were trimmed, and many tax-paying Americans will pay a bit more. In general, truck drivers have an almost double listing of qualified deductions from computed tax. These are self-employed truck drivers and driver employees. Also, a truck driver within a state has a lot less than an interstate truck driver in deductions. One thing to remember for you to claim deductions is to keep all sorts of receipts.
Conclusion
The job may not be shiny in its image though it pays. It is also employment where bias is slowly un-embraced upon based on the statistics. The trucker job may also experience something to their advantage with the current shortage. It is a job that will exist for decades since automation for that kind of work is yet to prove efficient. Best of all, tax deductions have almost doubled for truck drivers since after the tax reform.
Truck drivers have spectacular views outside their windows; that is without a doubt. They learn survival skills along the way, meet other people, and enjoy the peace and serenity of loneliness. They know the road ahead is hard and rough but persist to keep the family.
Three and a half percent (3.5%) of the working-age population of the USA are in the trucking industry. Half of that number are the truck drivers themselves. The general information given is meant to elicit opinion and decision, if one may, on whether a career in truck driving is of a viable passing mark, at least.
Sources:
[1] $62,000 a year; website: https://www.talent.com/salary?job=truck+driver
[2] Pay is higher than normal; website:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/05/28/america-has-a-massive-truck-driver-shortage-heres-why-few-want-an-80000-job/
[3] Pay is higher than a normal; website: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/06/america-keeps-on-trucking.html
[4] The job is an equal opportunity; website: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/06/america-keeps-on-trucking.html
[5] An existing and growing demand for more truck drivers; website:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/05/28/america-has-a-massive-truck-driver-shortage-heres-why-few-want-an-80000-job/
[6] An existing and growing demand for more truck drivers; website:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-02/a-trucking-crisis-has-the-u-s-looking-for-more-drivers-abroad
[7] The job is a long way from automation; website:
http://www.iitr.edu/blog/detail/why-trucking-is-america-s-number-one-job-today#:~:text=When%20compared%20with%20U.S.%20household,well%20over%20$70,000%20on%20average.
[8] Taxes in a configuration to ease on truck drivers; website:
https://www.jacksonhewitt.com/tax-help/tax-tips-topics/employment/job-specific-deductions/truckdriver/
