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Walmart is somewhat notorious in the OTR trucking industry for having high wages, but very high barrier to entry. You need a near perfect driving record among o

Walmart is somewhat notorious in the OTR trucking industry for having high wages, but very high barrier to entry. You need a near perfect driving record among other things. OTR trucking overall pays pretty well, but it's an extremely physically and emotionally taxing job that doesn't really get the credit it deserves. How would you feel if you were "home" for a weekend every 2 weeks and living in 20sqft the rest of the time?

WalterBright 3y ago
> You need a near perfect driving record among other things. Absolutely. If a driver is at fault in an accident, Walmart will get sued for $zillions. I once knew a middle aged man laying tile. I asked him why was he laying tile for crap wages. He said he lost his trucking license because he had a DUI (not while trucking). Doing construction was the only job he could get. He was quite bitter about it.
- packetlost 3y ago
  Pretty sure a DUI bars you from holding a CDL of any kind, not specifically a trucking license. I don't see a problem with that at all.
  - throwaway2037 3y ago
    Wow, if true, that is harsh. If you made a mistake at 18 or 19 years old, then you are condemned for life to never hold a CDL (commercial driving license). That doesn't see fair.
    - stavros 3y ago
      I'm assuming that's if you get the DUI while you have a trucking license.
  - packetlost 3y ago
    In WI, you lose it for a year on first offense. Second offense is life. Source: https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/dmv/shared/cdl-disq.pdf https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/dmv/shared/cdl-disq.pdf
- beaeglebeached 3y ago
  I built my own house because almost every step was more expensive hourly labor than me writing software for an hour instead. Even the lower rate such as concrete laborers wanted 100+ an hour. I suspect the low pay of many of these trades is just a symptom of housing and construction being the number one money laundering industry and thus tradesman are always saying they're making nothing while simultaneously asking 100+ an hour cash and working full weeks. Id bet the BLS income reports are off by like 50+%.
  - bernawil 3y ago
    I think you mean tax dodging instead of money laundering there. Though, if they are really succesful dodging taxes, they might need to do some money laundering later, too.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - evilduck 3y ago
      It's a bit of both. It's not too hard to get cash-only "customers" to buy services you don't have to actually perform. It's also pretty easy to write two invoices, feign a mixup, and skim some off the top of a payment.
  - hellotomyrars 3y ago
    Where is your house? Those rates are not typical nationwide but I know a general contractor who is involved in construction on the islands near Bellingham and the rates there are like what you describe. I agree that in my experience a lot of contractors would rather deal with cash and it isn’t exactly a secret why. I got a significant all cash discount on a new roof.
jzb 3y ago
In college I had a friend whose father was an OTR trucker. Absolutely destroyed his back. He had back problems when I first met the family and a few years later he was on medical leave and unable to work, and he was maybe in his late 50s. He wasn't driving for Walmart of making that kind of money then, so I hope he was able to move into a different career that didn't do further damage. It's not a job I'd want to do. Ergonomics aside, I find driving to be very unpleasant in large doses. Having to put up with traffic, shitty drivers, weather, and everything else 8-12 hours per day is not my idea of a great time.
- packetlost 3y ago
  My mother was an OTR trucker during most of my teenage years, including driving for Walmart under contract (so not paid amazingly well, but regularly interacted with the Walmart employees at the DC in Tomah, WI). It's not always back breaking work, but access to (healthy) food is a major issue. For Walmart specifically, there's not much physical effort involved besides lowering the trailer landing gear, which is almost always done with a manual crank. The Walmart backroom staff handle unloading and the DC staff handle loading, which would be very very taxing to do constantly.
  - fuzztester 3y ago
    why is access to healthy food an issue? because truckers, being on the road, have to eat in poor quality restaurants, such as diners, maybe?
    - biggestdummy 3y ago
      First, your work day is almost completely sedentary. Second, you are not near friends, gyms, fields, or other systems which promote healthy activity outside of work. While diet is important for all of us, it is especially important in this circumstance. "Healthy foods" are going to be largely inaccessible through long sparsely-populated stretches of the country. Even where they are available - in markets, fruit stands, etc. pulling your huge truck off the road to park is expensive (in terms of time) and difficult (in terms of space). Truck stops have the infrastructure for your truck. But their food selection is mostly junk.
datavirtue 3y ago
And the isolation. Sociable people claim they just look at people and can't get words to come out after being in a truck for six months.

WalterBright 3y ago

> You need a near perfect driving record among other things. Absolutely. If a driver is at fault in an accident, Walmart will get sued for $zillions. I once knew a middle aged man laying tile. I asked him why was he laying tile for crap wages. He said he lost his trucking license because he had a DUI (not while trucking). Doing construction was the only job he could get. He was quite bitter about it.

packetlost 3y ago
Pretty sure a DUI bars you from holding a CDL of any kind, not specifically a trucking license. I don't see a problem with that at all.
- throwaway2037 3y ago
  Wow, if true, that is harsh. If you made a mistake at 18 or 19 years old, then you are condemned for life to never hold a CDL (commercial driving license). That doesn't see fair.
  - stavros 3y ago
    I'm assuming that's if you get the DUI while you have a trucking license.
- packetlost 3y ago
  In WI, you lose it for a year on first offense. Second offense is life. Source: https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/dmv/shared/cdl-disq.pdf https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/dmv/shared/cdl-disq.pdf
beaeglebeached 3y ago
I built my own house because almost every step was more expensive hourly labor than me writing software for an hour instead. Even the lower rate such as concrete laborers wanted 100+ an hour. I suspect the low pay of many of these trades is just a symptom of housing and construction being the number one money laundering industry and thus tradesman are always saying they're making nothing while simultaneously asking 100+ an hour cash and working full weeks. Id bet the BLS income reports are off by like 50+%.
- bernawil 3y ago
  I think you mean tax dodging instead of money laundering there. Though, if they are really succesful dodging taxes, they might need to do some money laundering later, too.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - evilduck 3y ago
    It's a bit of both. It's not too hard to get cash-only "customers" to buy services you don't have to actually perform. It's also pretty easy to write two invoices, feign a mixup, and skim some off the top of a payment.
- hellotomyrars 3y ago
  Where is your house? Those rates are not typical nationwide but I know a general contractor who is involved in construction on the islands near Bellingham and the rates there are like what you describe. I agree that in my experience a lot of contractors would rather deal with cash and it isn’t exactly a secret why. I got a significant all cash discount on a new roof.

jzb 3y ago

In college I had a friend whose father was an OTR trucker. Absolutely destroyed his back. He had back problems when I first met the family and a few years later he was on medical leave and unable to work, and he was maybe in his late 50s. He wasn't driving for Walmart of making that kind of money then, so I hope he was able to move into a different career that didn't do further damage. It's not a job I'd want to do. Ergonomics aside, I find driving to be very unpleasant in large doses. Having to put up with traffic, shitty drivers, weather, and everything else 8-12 hours per day is not my idea of a great time.

packetlost 3y ago
My mother was an OTR trucker during most of my teenage years, including driving for Walmart under contract (so not paid amazingly well, but regularly interacted with the Walmart employees at the DC in Tomah, WI). It's not always back breaking work, but access to (healthy) food is a major issue. For Walmart specifically, there's not much physical effort involved besides lowering the trailer landing gear, which is almost always done with a manual crank. The Walmart backroom staff handle unloading and the DC staff handle loading, which would be very very taxing to do constantly.
- fuzztester 3y ago
  why is access to healthy food an issue? because truckers, being on the road, have to eat in poor quality restaurants, such as diners, maybe?
  - biggestdummy 3y ago
    First, your work day is almost completely sedentary. Second, you are not near friends, gyms, fields, or other systems which promote healthy activity outside of work. While diet is important for all of us, it is especially important in this circumstance. "Healthy foods" are going to be largely inaccessible through long sparsely-populated stretches of the country. Even where they are available - in markets, fruit stands, etc. pulling your huge truck off the road to park is expensive (in terms of time) and difficult (in terms of space). Truck stops have the infrastructure for your truck. But their food selection is mostly junk.

datavirtue 3y ago

And the isolation. Sociable people claim they just look at people and can't get words to come out after being in a truck for six months.