I’ve got a friend currently living in the Wake Forest, NC area who is moving to St. George, UT. (No, I have no idea why he would do this!)
Anyway, he has asked me to drive his truck and trailer to Utah and back for pay. He’ll take care of gas, lodging, repairs, etc. I have no idea what this is worth and neither does he. Any Dopers have experience in getting paid to drive?
Sounds like a vacation to me. A nice road trip, all expenses paid. But if you need cash flow, be easy on the customer. If it doesn’t work out, have him PM me.
There is a lot of beautiful places near St. George. Spend some time there.
Plus, there is all those places in between.
I’m not sure what you’re asking. Do you want to know what the approximate expenses will be? Or are you asking what’s a reasonable rate just to pay you for the job of driving?
If it’s expenses, the best way to handle it is to just collect receipts along the way and then collect your money when you’re done. If you don’t want to pay all the money up front, figure a hundred dollars a day is a reasonable estimate and you can straighten it out to the exact figure when you’re done.
If you’re looking for how much you should get paid to drive, that’s really up to what you and your friend agree to. But if you want a ball park figure, Google Maps says that it’s thirty three hours driving time for that trip. Federal minimum wage if $7.25 an hour. So call it $240.
The IRS reimbursement rate for moving is 23 cents per mile. Google Maps gives the distance as 2,299 miles, so $528.77 would be a reasonable amount of money.
But that’s for all costs! What would you charge, on top of meals and expenses, to drive a friend’s car a couple thousand miles. (And bus fare or a cheap flight home again.)
I’d do it for free. I love the open road! I’d ask to take a few days, so I can stop at dumb tourist traps and eat at places called “EAT.” But I’m cheap; I stay at off-brand no-name places. (“Bates Motel. Looks good to me!”)
A friend gets paid to move cars between dealerships when it’s not quite far enough or enough volume to make a truck worth it.
When she’s driving her own car, she gets paid mileage @20 cents/mile, wear and tear @ 5 cents/mile. She mostly drives the cars that are being transferred tho.
Regardless, she gets $10/hour for the time actually spent driving (she has a dash-cam and keeps a log). She can spend up to $60/day on foods, and 200/night for lodging if it's more than 8 hours drive total, but she has to spend the and submit receipts to get refunded.
When I was driving I got paid by the mile plus a 10% per diem for meals and such. Fuel, oil, etc was on the company, and $60 a night for motels (if needed). 33 hours each way? Don’t be a hero, that’s 4 days driving each way. Fatigue is cumulative. And if you’re dragging a trailer, you won’t be driving as fast as you usually do.
Also remember a trucks seat isnt as comfortable as a cars.
One of my friends used to drive dealer deliveries in the UK (the distances are short, but the roads and traffic are slow). After he’d had that job most of a year, he actually had a dream that he was driving along a motorway!
When he woke up, he pulled over and had a rest.
This. Come by and pick me up, I’ll help drive. 
I guess it depends on whether you will be missing work and if you’re strapped for cash. If you’re giving up work, they I think getting reimbursed for what you’d make during that time might be fair.
If I wasn’t strapped for cash, I’d do it for the expenses and then a nice dinner out when I got there.
Are you on dope? The seats on Freightliners are great! Much better than a car seat.
If I had the time, I’d do it for just expenses 
Well, plus a bit to reimburse for lost wages if I didn’t have the vacation time to spare.
Seriously: if you have the time, come up with an estimate for costs and get at least a partial advance to cover that (gasoline, meals, 6 nights in a hotel). Bear in mind the car’s mileage won’t be anything like the usual, because it’s hauling a trailer. And some of the driving near St. George, UT is not the easiest so you’d want to make that part of the trip have shorter driving days. I mean, it’s all interstate but I don’t know what I-15 is like north of there, and it is pretty mountainous.
Anyway: at about 2300 miles, assuming you can do 500 miles a day (I’ve done 700 solo but only when the next day was a shorter one of 300 miles), that’s 5 days of driving. A truck + trailer is going to be more fatiguing, so 500 miles is probably about the limit I’d think safe; with stops for meals etc. that’s a solid 9-10 hours of driving.
Just noticed “there and back”??? Why would you be bringing the truck/trailer back afterward?
Oooh - if it’s one-way, you’re less than 2 hours from Las Vegas at the end of the trip. Reasonably-priced flights back, a day or so seeing the sights / shows when there…
Looks like we’ve got us a convoy!
So far, with the three of us, we might arrive sometime around August. 
Make that four! I am thinking a mid-September ETA. We have to stop by my place for a few days of resting up time. I have some extra fishing poles.
Seriously, I usually get $10.00 / hour for driving in situations like this. Meals & room paid for. I am cheap, as I love to travel in this fine country of ours.