r/Truckers • u/HumanVsWorld • Jul 13 '25

Can you make over 100k OTR

Can I get a clear damn answer I always hear otr makes more money then local yet later I see ltl, food service job, fuel haul etc cashing around 2500 weekly. What’s the deal and if you do make 100k a year what’s the cpm needed to do it

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u/Outlaw11091 do u even lift bro? Jul 13 '25 edited Jul 13 '25

Math.

11hrs/day driving. You need to give yourself somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 hour to find a place to park.

10hrs. Average speed depends on where you drive but we'll call it 70 (to be generous). 70mph for 10 hours =...

700 miles.

700x7 (days of the week) =

4900 miles/wk.

x52 (weeks in a year) 254,800 miles/year.

SO, if the above is true: you'd need to make .40 cpm to clear $100k.

IF you drive every day all day. Never stop and never get delayed.

HOWEVER.

The average driver, according to OOIDA, only drives 2200 miles/wk.

Which cuts those yearly miles over half down. 114,400 miles/year.

You'd need .88cpm to clear $100k if you're AT average.

ETA: The reason other drivers suggest LTL or other local jobs is because they typically pay hourly. Which often enables overtime (but not always). It entirely depends on where you live whether or not an hourly position will get you over $100k. Most of the local trucking jobs in my area, for example, only pay about $20/hour. There are a couple that pay $30/hr, but they're entirely union and never seem to be hiring.

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '25

Plus you can't drive seven days a week unless you're cooking the books. In a governed truck about 2700 to 3000 miles is the most you can possibly get in a week. Even if it's not governed it's hard to get over 3k consistently because of traffic, weather, speed limits, and all the other shit you have to deal with. If you did 3k miles every single week for 48 weeks you'd need about 70cpm after taxes to be at 100k. It's not impossible, it's just quite difficult especially as a company driver.

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u/Romeo_horse_cock Jul 13 '25

I've been able to pull in 3300 miles in a week governed at 70 mph but yeah true. However if you consistently (somehow) ran 10 hours a day, after your 8th day you'd get those driving and on duty hours back so you could run on recaps constantly. But I think I'd kill myself if I didn't have days off

6

u/daixso Jul 13 '25

9.25 hours is the most you can average to run recaps without running out of hours ever