It depends on experience and who you drive for and what you haul. My dad makes over $50k a year locally hauling gasoline. He could've made more if he would have researched other companies before he took the job with Racetrac.

 

You can make almost as much your 2nd year driving OTR (over the road). Local jobs don't pay as well, but your home, its a trade off.

 

There's always a demand for Drivers. My dad is Senior VP for an intermodal company in the midwest. They have a few long-haul drivers, but mostly it's short trips from suppliers to rail ramps, etc...

I worked at the Norfolk Southern Rail ramp in Cleveland for a while doing Customer service work, so I dealt alot with the drivers. Basically responsible for getting their container's picked up and filling out interchanges. Some of those guys were great, some were assholes, but I'll say that they were all down to earth. No BS.

The local short-haul city guys didn't seem to be happy about the $ they were making but I guess most aren't.