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The Taylor Swift Eras Tour is one of the wildest entertainment phenomena we have seen in a long time. Fans are spending thousands of dollars for a chance to see their Queen. Stadiums are not only selling out but doing so for astronomical prices. Taylor Swift is making stupid money on this tour, and she has decided to pass on some of the earnings to some of our ilk; the truckers

Truckers on the Taylor Swift Eras Tour got $100k bonuses truckers

When you can either buy a Land Cruiser or buy an $82k concert ticket, Swift can probably afford to scrape a little cheddar into the hands of the folks who make it all possible. That is exactly what super-mega pop star, Taylor Swift, is doing on what appears to be her world-domination tour. In fact, at a recent show in Seattle, Swift got her fans so worked up that they caused an actual seismic event measurable with earthquake instruments. 

The pop-culture juggernaut, TMZ, recently reported that Swift handed each of her truck drivers a cool $100 grand as a bonus on top of whatever else they got paid while on duty. This massive act of generosity happened right after last week’s closing show in California. 

How many truckers does Taylor Swift use on tour?

Autoblog mentioned that approximately 50 semi-trucks were on duty throughout the tour. Other sources claim the trucker staff was closer to 90. Either way, the work that went into putting this tour on was immense. This means her bonus bill was something between $5 million and $10 million. Not to take away from the generosity, but the tour is said to have generated over $1 billion gross. She also gave her backup performers and musicians bonuses, but those numbers weren’t revealed. 

Mike Scherkenbach, the CEO of Shomotion Trucking Company, told TODAY, “Her father was the one that actually presented the checks to our drivers.” I’m sure many of the truckers were bummed to see Mr. Swift instead of the pop star, but something tells me the contents of the bonus envelope made up for any disappointment. 

How much do truck drivers make? 

18-wheeler semi-truck driving down the highway.
18-wheeler semi-truck | Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Trucking is a lot like many other jobs in today’s world; pay is highly varied and is dependent on what you are hauling. The average pay range, according to Cloudtrucks, is between $52,518 to $126,882, with an average pay of $83,158 per year. If we take those numbers into consideration, a $100k bonus is damn-near life-changing. Swift basically doubled these drivers’ salaries, plus an extra pinch, for a job that didn’t even last the whole year. 

It’s easy to get jaded and grumpy about the super-rich. People love to throw in a “yeah, but she could have given them so much more blah blah blah.” The fact is, the Taylor Swift Eras Tour made enough bread to drastically change these workers’ and their families’ lives. 

We all rely on truckers. While big lumbering semi-trucks on the highway can be annoying or whatever, we really need these people. They are the lifeblood of the supply chain of this country. It’s nice to see someone with means support these folks, especially considering that we are still in a driver shortage. Maybe if we paid our teachers, grocery store workers, truckers, and other integral workers like we pay the silly people on the internet who sell us face lotion or whatever, we might find that a lot of shared problems start to dissipate. 

Here’s to the truckers.