Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: wes34th on June 01, 2007, 10:35:48 PM
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No that's not what I mean:lol
I'm thinking about becoming a truck driver.Anybody have any advice or information?
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Yeah, think about a new career choice.
Any particular reason you are thinking about being a trucker?
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I drove 48 + Canada for 12 years. If you don't want anything resembling a normal life or relationship it's great. You will see the best and worst of America all at 60 mph out the side window.
One little fact they will neglect to tell you is that most drivers have to unload their own truck or pay someone to do it for them. Nothing like driving 500 miles overnight to get to the pleasure of unloading 40,000 lbs of freight.
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I concur, think about a different choice. But if it makes you happy, great.
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7 days on the road = 1 day off at home but most companys have a 2 or 3 week minimum that they require you to be out before coming back to your home terminal.
And with the price of fuel I'd stay away from becoming an owner/operator, so don't get suckered in by some company like Prime Movers... you'll spend your next 5 or 6 years in Hell.
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Originally posted by rpm
I drove 48 + Canada for 12 years. If you don't want anything resembling a normal life or relationship it's great. You will see the best and worst of America all at 60 mph out the side window.
One little fact they will neglect to tell you is that most drivers have to unload their own truck or pay someone to do it for them. Nothing like driving 500 miles overnight to get to the pleasure of unloading 40,000 lbs of freight.
Been there, done that, it sucked:(
Best advice, get a degree in ANYTHING. They open so many doors.....................
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Originally posted by FBBone
Been there, done that, it sucked:(
Best advice, get a degree in ANYTHING. They open so many doors.....................
Sound advice. Plus there's always a bunch of hot college chicks in college as oppossed to a bunch of lot lizards hanging out down at the Petro.
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But what about all the fun things you get to do? We have all seen Convoy and Smokey & The Bandit so i think you truckers really just want all that fun to yourselves :o
Go for it Wes, and remember to post pics of the hot young wimmin you see that are running from their wedding. :)
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Local trucking is more like a regular job.
Dump trucks, bulk liquids, garbage, cement...stuff like that.
Thing is, most of the companies I worked for wanted someone with experience and a clean driving record. It's tough for a new driver to find work at first but after you build up some experience its a piece of cake.
Be ready for weird hours, seasonal work and in the case of stuff like garbage trucks the work can be extremely hard labor.
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You only see the hot wimmin if you are driving a Trans-Am.
Now if you were a trucker, your only companion would be a dog named Fred. :D
You could go to your local farm co-op, they are usually wanting drivers here and there. All the ones around here are hardly ever gone overnight and they seem to like it (with the exception of one). He delivers our 32% liquid nitrogen and he always whines about how he hates driving the liquid around.
We put in two more 20,000 gal tanks about a month or two ago and we just started using them. He is trying to get them all filled up but lately with all the side dressing going on, be been using that stuff like crazy.
Anyways its fun to get him fired up when he thinks we are about done filling and find out we went through 15,000 gallons since the last time he was there.
Its all in fun though, makes the day more interesting
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Originally posted by Maverick
Yeah, think about a new career choice.
Any particular reason you are thinking about being a trucker?
Or, wait until you retire....:D
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I thought you were heading off to the land of cheese heads... move along, nothing to see here.
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Originally posted by Maverick
Yeah, think about a new career choice.
Any particular reason you are thinking about being a trucker?
I have heard the money is good.But, why souldn't I become a trucker? :(
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Welp some of the above posts could give you an indication.
This is not driving for fun. For OTR (over the road) drivers it's about pounding out as many miles per day as you possibly can. This is not sightseeing and after you've driven the interstate system a few times the scenery isn't all that thrilling. The best scenery is on the secondary roads anyhow.
This is about long hours, sleep deprivation and trying to keep 2 or more sets of log books balanced to show the nice Officer when you get stopped. If you are written up it ain't cheap. You can get deadlined for 8 hours or more depending on how many hours you drove in the last 24 or 60 hours. Once you get to your destination you have to deal with the truck and cargo both, then look for another load if they don't have one for you. You'll get home maybe once every couple weeks. You'll live in that cab, sleeping, eating and passing time (and gas :D) there instead of being at home. This is not a 8 hour day, its 10+ hours of driving then other tasks thrown in, a few hours of rest (if you stay legal) then head out onto the road again.
The above is if you work for a company that provides the truck.
If you are an independent OO (owner operator) you are responsible for all of that plus finding ALL your loads, buying and maintaining a truck, tires, road service, paying for insurance, all your tickets and also all your taxes spread out across the country not to mention trying to maintain a positive cash flow based on miles driven, time to destination and fuel prices swinging up and down like a demented elevator. Figure a fully loaded truck will get about 4.5 to as much as 6 MPG depending on speed and location (mountains) and you'll be filling a 300 gallon tank. At over $3.00 a gallon that's about a grand a fill up and it comes out of your pocket. Figure you'll be filling up every 1200 or fewer miles or about every other day. Also figure on 800 to 1000 mile days to try and make enough miles to get a decent paycheck. Every city you drive through will slow your average speed down to the point you are making an average of only 45 MPH to 50 MPH. Eastern routes will be even slower due to more towns and cities to drive through. Every day down due to maintenance or breakdown will cost you about $1500.00 out of pocket plus the cost for repairs and towing or service call.
If you get into hauling hazardous materials you'll make decent money but the regs are killers to follow. There are many more ways to get arrested doing that kind of work than straight freight.
While the act of driving isn't physically hard labor the job is very physically demanding. I invite you to spend a few hours at a large truck stop restaurant and look at the drivers. Take a good look at them and see if they really seem happy. It is a hard life and pretty lonely too since they are not home very much at all. You can figure that there won't be a home life and a retirement situation will be all on your own.
Talk to RPM and a few others that did this for a living. I just inspected the rigs and enforced the regs and that gave me an idea that I didn't want to deal with anything like that after retirement.
I've got a big rig (look at the avatar) but I drive it for private usage and am not restricted to the commercial license and requirements. Since my RV is also only about 20k lbs. I get better mileage, up to 8.5, and drive only when and where I want to. This makes it a better than break even situation for me vs a medium duty (F450 / F550 / F650) kind of RV hauler. Besides I have better breaks.
Last thing, lot lizards are not top of the line folks here, you have to be scraping the bottom of the barrel to scrounge truckers in a truck stop. EEEWWWEEEE!!!! :O
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It`s all depending on your mindset.
When it comes to trucking, some love it, some hate it.
If you are single and don`t mind being away for extending periods it`s a great way to see the country.
If you want to drive go for cross country long haul with a good, established company. Check out their equipment and ask how often they update and buy new trucks, etc. Don`t drive someone elses junk. Believe me it`s not worth it.
More and more long haul companies are hiring man/wife teams. Not a bad deal.
I drove cross country for 20 or more years and loved it. It`s like anything else..when it`s good, it`s all good. When it`s bad, it`s pure hell. :)
If you find a company you think you are interested in working for, talk to some of their drivers. That`s how you will find out the real skinny on how drivers are treated, benefits, etc.
In `79 I special ordered a a long nose Pete. One sweet truck.
Long nose/conventional is the way to go. Much better ride and handling. Cabovers will eat your knees like saltines over a period of time.
Good luck.
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peterbilt :aok
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Uno momento por favor... Do not fall into the "Pete" trap. They are highly overrated, especially if you are over 5'7". Every Pete I drove I hated because it tried to hack off my knees with the steering column. They were the most uncomfortable trucks I ever drove. Looked very cool, but uncomfortable as hell. The most comfortable trucks I drove were Volvo and Freightliner.
A lot has changed, especially in the last 5 years. Electronic logs and wireless "tattle-tales" that let dispatch (and the DOT) know where you are and what you're doing 24/7 (no more speeding, sightseeing or side trips to hookup with that gal you know in _____ ). You also have to think about the liability factors. If you get in a wreck 99.9% of the time you will be blamed for the wreck and sued.
Don't get me wrong, trucking can be a lucrative job. You'll just never have the time off to spend it. Go to school, get a degree.
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A friend who was an O-O (got out last year) swore by a Pete. He is 6'4" and 250lb. Never heard him complain about hacking his knees off.
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Ask him. I still have the dents in my kneecaps.
Petes are kinda like Harleys to truckers. They have a rabid fanbase. The first truck I drove solo in was a butterfly hood '67 Pete with a 238. It was a very sweet truck. I feel the same about old Kenworths.
That doesn't change the fact they aren't the most comfortable. I haven't been inside a unicab model so I really can't speak for what they are like today, only what they were like for the 40 years prior.
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The trick with a Pete is go with the longnose...like I said. No Roman Nose, no cabover.
A Pete Longnose is the roomiest, most comfortable irde there is out there, bar none.
Quality in a Pete is unsurpassed also.
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I have heard the money is good.But, why souldn't I become a trucker?
average pay for OTR truckers is only $32,000 a yr. Not really that good when your only home 1 day a month.
NOT
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Originally posted by Jackal1
The trick with a Pete is go with the longnose...like I said. No Roman Nose, no cabover.
A Pete Longnose is the roomiest, most comfortable irde there is out there, bar none.
Quality in a Pete is unsurpassed also.
I'll put my Volvo 660 up against a long nose Pete for driver comfort and room. The pete has a narrower cab in the driving area and much reduced windshield area compared to the Volvo.
The drivers using the long nose rigs are the ones that like being "billy big rig", putting up lots of lights and extra airhorns to go with all the extra chrome. :p They pay for it in mileage as the long nose isn't as aerodynamic as the shorter nosed curved front rigs.
The ones who have the absolute largest sleepers are some long nose trucks that have a huge box on the back for a "studio" sleeper berth complete with shower and kitchenette. It makes for a heck of a long truck. The ones I see most are hauling Mayflower vans.
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Originally posted by wes34th
I have heard the money is good.But, why souldn't I become a trucker? :(
hey man, i work at a warehouse where we load trucks all day, i got lucky and now im in the office, most these truckers seem very unhappy and i have to deal with some dispatchers 2, dispatchers forceing these guys to rush to a place where they just have to sit for 6 hours or more before they are loaded and then get yelled at cuz they are late to the next stop, its no party.
if u want a job with good money become a pilot and fly cargo. im a pilot and a student at SIUC as an aviation major, Now they make good money.
cargo pilots get to see alot, have a reliable schedual, and depending where u end up, you may be home everynight. and the best part is they can end up getting 200+ thousand dollars yearly. trust me this is the way to go. and the best part is if u get a degree u can always go into the bisness end of things and still get good money. :aok
personally this is the way to go. cargo pilots got pretty much the same job except u get to fly and its less demanding and you get more perks! :aok
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Originally posted by Meatwad
You only see the hot wimmin if you are driving a Trans-Am.
Now if you were a trucker, your only companion would be a dog named Fred. :D
You could go to your local farm co-op, they are usually wanting drivers here and there. All the ones around here are hardly ever gone overnight and they seem to like it (with the exception of one). He delivers our 32% liquid nitrogen and he always whines about how he hates driving the liquid around.
We put in two more 20,000 gal tanks about a month or two ago and we just started using them. He is trying to get them all filled up but lately with all the side dressing going on, be been using that stuff like crazy.
Anyways its fun to get him fired up when he thinks we are about done filling and find out we went through 15,000 gallons since the last time he was there.
Its all in fun though, makes the day more interesting
You with Linde or Airgas? I get deliveries from Linde, but now with the Buyout.
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If you heard the pay was good..... you were mislead, which is a common problem in trucking.....
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First truck I bought was a 1994 377 Pete with a Cummins N-14 425, the truck was narrow and you had to crawl through a cubby hole to get to the stacked sleeper, I'm 6'5" and it was a tight fit. While the engine wouldn't pull a drunk sleeper leaper off a greased bar stool that engine has the best MPG I ever saw and when it came to the bottom line that's what counted. I ran that truck just over 500,000 miles in 3 years initially thinking I'd be able to get 4 years out of it before trade in, thought it was paid off without warrenty I traded it in for a 1996 Freightliner FLD 12064ST 'condo' which was a stacked bunk sleeper that was integrated with the cab.(think mini RV) I could stand on the bed and still not touch the top of the interior of the truck. Funny thing was, this truck optioned with a Cat 3406 425 and Alcoa alluminum 24.5 all around was about 10k cheaper than the Pete. In the trucking world everything is inter changeable. Engines, transmissions, differentials, gear ratios, suspentions, brakes... really the only thing different is the look that each manufacture has. I got out of trucking at the end of '98, a time when fuel only cost about a dollar a gallon. I'd say I averaged 150,000 to 170,000 miles a year and spent about 30 to 35k a year on fuel. With todays prices 3 times that I cannot imagine how you could make a living as an owner/operator.
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Long nose rigs are great for the highway, but I found them difficult in the city.
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from what i hear, the pay was good, back in the 70's during the smokey and the bandit times, but thats before they deregulated trucking, and from what i hear it all went down hill from there, there are a lot of truckers working over time because they need to feed their family's at home, especially on the west coast.
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The pay is still good. New drivers make .28 to .35 cents a mile solo including bonuses. Teams split up to .60 cents a mile including bonus. You have to be careful to read the fine print of any "guaranteed" milage.
It's the cost of living on the road that will eat you up. Unless you set up a kitchen in the truck meals will kill you. It's like trying to live out of Denny's and a 7/11.
It's a lot easier to do now with the big sleepers and all the improvements they have made. There's plenty of appliances made for trucks now including refridgerators, microwaves, broadband connections and satelite tv. There's a reason they call them them "condos".
The job you want to look for is driving regional. It's pretty easy to find if you live east of the Mississippi river. The midwest isn't bad, but try to avoid the "Devil's Triangle" of running Chicago, Atlanta, New York. It will beat you down very quickly.
My favorite was driving the West Coast. I love the mountains and the scenery. The East Coast was more of a grind. Toll roads, toll bridges, bad highway, traffic, bad drivers, tight spaces, low bridges, rude locals, more cops, you name it, the East Coast is a PITA driving a truck unless you live there.
Out west the roads are somewhat better overall and the cops are a bit easier to deal with because the weigh stations are farther apart. There's more space to park and it's friendlier overall to truckers. Don't get me wrong, you can still get your tail in a crack very easy. The mountains are not as steep at those back east, but the grade runs much further. It's a LONG way to the bottom of Cabbage Patch, Truckee, Tehachepe, The Grapevine and Cajone. That's not even including the steep ones off the Interstate if you have to dodge the scales.
If you have any doubt about the dedication of the cops out west, just roll into a California scalehouse with a leaky truck and bad logs. It's an experience you will not soon forget.
As far as comfort and glamour go, watch a few episodes of "Trick My Truck" on CMT. There are far more trucks running down the road in "before" condition than "after".
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Tolls, yeah they stink... the GW going north in NY. is 5 bucks an axle... I used to make sure I was in the far right lane and gave em a $100.
They'd have to write down your plate number, run across six lanes of traffic to veryify it was legal, then run back across those 6 lanes to give you your change... oh, don't get me started on tolls...
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Oklahoma has their best roads all with tolls on them. I get charged the same rate as commercial trucks since I have 5 axles on the ground with the house in tow. They also have toll booths in the middle of nofreakingwhere!!! You'll stop for toll booths 3 to 5 times just cruising through the state. :mad:
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Originally posted by Maverick
You'll stop for toll booths 3 to 5 times just cruising through the state. :mad:
Ever drive around Chicago? I swear they are every 2 miles.
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Originally posted by rpm
Ever drive around Chicago? I swear they are every 2 miles.
You ain't lyin. And the roads still suck. But they have pretty glass encased things with crap in them over the road.
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Originally posted by oy1crazyace
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if u want a job with good money become a pilot and fly cargo. im a pilot and a student at SIUC as an aviation major, Now they make good money.
cargo pilots get to see alot, have a reliable schedual, and depending where u end up, you may be home everynight. and the best part is they can end up getting 200+ thousand dollars yearly. trust me this is the way to go.
:huh ... you are high as a freacking kite!
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Originally posted by rpm
Ever drive around Chicago? I swear they are every 2 miles.
Heck no!! We drive 100 miles out of our way to avoid the chicago metro area. I drove a car into chicago once in the 70's and it was a bloody nightmare then.
The trucker term I heard for chicago and it's traffic is a scatological term that takes the place of the letters chi and wouldn't be allowed on this bbs.
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Never did the Owner Operator bit but spent five years driving for a couple of outfits on the east coast. Still had the paper logs and if you wanted to make a decent living you had to run two sets to stay legal.
I'll never forget the day I got pulled around back and accidently gave the inspector the wrong log book. He was cool about it (lucky me) and gave me until they were done the brake inspection to set things right.
Complained to my dispatcher once about running out of hours when I first started driving, I found myself south of Chicago for two days, unable to find a load. Learned my lesson real quick.
But if you're single with no strong attachments at home, hook up with a good company and make the coast to coast runs.
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Originally posted by SFRT - Frenchy
:huh ... you are high as a freacking kite!
what makes you say that and what do you have to back it up?
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To back it up, I happen to be one of those
(http://www.airlinepilotcentral.info/images/stories/freight_dawg.jpg)
Althrough the $200K cargo pilot is technically true, your carreer advice is along the lines of: "You want to be Justin Timberlake, take a few singing lessons and win American Idol."
Granteed you will be making 200K+ after 12 years in a cargo company such as UPS, FedEx, the seats are very few. Only 2,800 pilots total for UPS, 5,000 for FedEx. Plus the minimums to enter UPS, are 1,000h turbine PIC and they are quite big on the transoceanic crossing experience. The interview process is a week long, and they are quite picking, even more since the pilot industry is opening up again. A friend of mine with 5000h DC10 captain time got rejected.
Cargo is usually your first real job, the 135 IFR gig where you learn the trade shiny out of your CFI.
You painfully accumulated your 1,200TT, barely cleared the 500h Xcountry and 70ish actual IFR, and you find yourself at the controls of a Cessna 210/Cessna 402/Seneca/Navaro braving the elements at night. After a year ... or a couple of years, you might move to a Beech 99/ Metro and get your career going the right way accumulating those turbine PIC hours.
In my airline, Western Air, you start on the right seat of a Metroliner (twin turbine) at 1,600/month, after 6 months to a year you move to Cessna 402 captain at 2,000/month. You stay there between 6 months to two years before a Captain job opens on the Metro where you get bumped to a woopeedoo 2,500/month after you get your type ride. Then depending on merit, you get $500 bump every 6 months, and you will top out at $4,000/month, usually after 4-5 years since you started. Personally, I got lucky, I got right seat for 2 months, C402 for 2 weeks, and after 6 months Metro captain I'm already at 4K.
Ameriflight, you'll start in a Piper Lance or Navaro at 2,000ish, 2,400ish when u reach Beech99 captain, and 3,500ish Metro captain.
Thank god, since last year, the industry is changing and you can get hired by Mesa as a F/O with a wooping 400TT/100ME:O ... (hope no one flies Mesa around here hehehe), and spend 3 to 5 years on the right seat before you start building turb PIC. But starting pay is 18,000/year.
Anyway, like you said, you can be a cargo pilot at 200K+, but that's after at best 8 years+ trying to get hired by UPS, and 12 years+ inside UPS ... emanwhile you try to survive extremely low pay while paying back your student pilot ratings period of $40K. No offence, but not a good "change of career" choice advice to me.Check out this Airline Central link (http://www.airlinepilotcentral.info/airlines/cargo.html)
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Accounting firms are DESPERATE for CPAs right now.
Hell, if you guarentee them that you will work for them many of the big companies will pay for your education.
Good money, great opportunity to make alot more and you don't get hemeroids as badly as truckers do.
It is a bit of a slog at first trying to understand what it is all about, but once you are able to talk the talk it isn't all that hard to walk the walk.
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Originally posted by SFRT - Frenchy
To back it up, I happen to be one of those
(http://www.airlinepilotcentral.info/images/stories/freight_dawg.jpg)
Althrough the $200K cargo pilot is technically true, your carreer advice is along the lines of: "You want to be Justin Timberlake, take a few singing lessons and win American Idol."
Granteed you will be making 200K+ after 12 years in a cargo company such as UPS, FedEx, the seats are very few. Only 2,800 pilots total for UPS, 5,000 for FedEx. Plus the minimums to enter UPS, are 1,000h turbine PIC and they are quite big on the transoceanic crossing experience. The interview process is a week long, and they are quite picking, even more since the pilot industry is opening up again. A friend of mine with 5000h DC10 captain time got rejected.
Cargo is usually your first real job, the 135 IFR gig where you learn the trade shiny out of your CFI.
You painfully accumulated your 1,200TT, barely cleared the 500h Xcountry and 70ish actual IFR, and you find yourself at the controls of a Cessna 210/Cessna 402/Seneca/Navaro braving the elements at night. After a year ... or a couple of years, you might move to a Beech 99/ Metro and get your career going the right way accumulating those turbine PIC hours.
In my airline, Western Air, you start on the right seat of a Metroliner (twin turbine) at 1,600/month, after 6 months to a year you move to Cessna 402 captain at 2,000/month. You stay there between 6 months to two years before a Captain job opens on the Metro where you get bumped to a woopeedoo 2,500/month after you get your type ride. Then depending on merit, you get $500 bump every 6 months, and you will top out at $4,000/month, usually after 4-5 years since you started. Personally, I got lucky, I got right seat for 2 months, C402 for 2 weeks, and after 6 months Metro captain I'm already at 4K.
Ameriflight, you'll start in a Piper Lance or Navaro at 2,000ish, 2,400ish when u reach Beech99 captain, and 3,500ish Metro captain.
Thank god, since last year, the industry is changing and you can get hired by Mesa as a F/O with a wooping 400TT/100ME:O ... (hope no one flies Mesa around here hehehe), and spend 3 to 5 years on the right seat before you start building turb PIC. But starting pay is 18,000/year.
Anyway, like you said, you can be a cargo pilot at 200K+, but that's after at best 8 years+ trying to get hired by UPS, and 12 years+ inside UPS ... emanwhile you try to survive extremely low pay while paying back your student pilot ratings period of $40K. No offence, but not a good "change of career" choice advice to me.Check out this Airline Central link (http://www.airlinepilotcentral.info/airlines/cargo.html)
yes you are very right about all that but then again u have to really love what your doing when u hop into it, and i wouldnt recomend it as a career change its more like what u wanna do originally. personally its what im looking for and ive been working my a** of in flight school to try and come out as the best, and im already networking to get in with some other ppl when im done. your right u can spend 20 some years getting to that 200k and i know im gonna be broke for a long time but its what i wanna do. my fight instructor just got on with air net, hes willing to help get me in over there and it should be about 1 year in a cessna caravan flying nights and then 6 months in the right seat of a lear. then they assign you your own lear over there. and from there who knows, maybe if im lucky fedex or ups, unless of course i end up wanting to stay where im at with them.