>The article cites $40k average pay per driver. That's fast-food wages

Not really. That's basically $20/hour full-time.

HN tends to be ludicrously out of touch when it comes to wages/salaries.

Out of touch is right! Even in Manhattan you can easily live fine on $40k with savings left over, at least if you have no dependents or health financing problems (eg expensive health condition coupled with bad insurance). In most of the USA, a $20/hr job with benefits counts as a good job.

In many of the places where these truckers live, that's solidly middle-class wages, also. Costs are significantly, significantly cheaper when a good single-family home costs 80-100k.

Sure. But you can ship a truckload of boxes across the country. The driver part of the cost is a buck a box? Which is something sure but not a deal breaker.

The typical fast food employee makes around 20K/yr, and most cooks can only command up to 30-40K without certifications. The constant supply and ease of training cooks (not chefs) keeps these wages depressed.

Trucking wages are not the greatest, but it feeds your family and pays the bills. The cost savings may be small but coming from a small town where 1/4 of the working population has class 3 and class 1 licenses operating these machines. It's a middle class lifestyle for these communities.

Fuel and drivers are a close 1 & 2 in motor carrier operating costs, with drivers taking the top spot when diesel is cheap.

[1] http://trucker.com/trucker-jobs/equipment-driver-pay-push-op...