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themselves into. I hadn’t met a truck
driver until I got my first job out of col-
lege working for a trucking company. I “chaNge costs moNeY, aNd chaNge costs aN
didn’t understand what all it entailed. iNVestmeNt of somethiNg whether it’s time,
It doesn’t take you long to realize ‘Wow, resources or chaNgiNg of processes. it’s aN
this is a lifestyle to be respected.’ It iNVestmeNt of somethiNg.”
takes you understanding it, and decid-
ing if you are cut out for it.”
And because there are so many who —lori furNell, Vice presideNt of BusiNess deVelopmeNt
don’t live it and who don’t understand at acs adVertisiNg
the value of someone well-trained deliv-
ering freight on time, there are gaps in
respect. There is a chasm between who
the public thinks truck drivers are and pay if they get their money back from private fleets are going empty. Walmart,
“I can’t wait to receive each issue who they actually are. the shipper, and some shippers just which pays drivers in the low $70,000
of the Arkansas Trucking Report! Wages’ roLe in attracting won’t pay it,” she explains. range, has of late been advertising
extensively for drivers throughout most
These are hours on the clock, away
It’s informative and pertinent drivers from family, but for many drivers, they of 2014,” the study reports.
to what I do for a living — I The American Trucking are hours with no guaranteed pay. So The pay goes up to attract and
read it from cover to cover. I’ve Associations’ recent Driver while a driver’s salary may be the same as keep drivers as demand continues to
rise, and benefit packages become more
the average household income, that may
Compensation Study (based on 2013
enjoyed seeing the continual data), covering 130 fleets and more only be for the hours the tires are rolling. attractive, referral bonuses become
improvements to the quality than 130,000 drivers, found that the Of course, the recently (though more regular.
of the publication. It’s a classy, median pay for drivers was on par perhaps temporarily) reversed hours-of- Wages’ roLe in keePing
service regulations affected wages for
with the national median for all U.S.
first-rate magazine and one of households ($53,000), and the driv- drivers as well, cutting back hours and drivers
the best in the industry as far as ers’ benefits are competitive with other productivity. It’s inevitable that when the econo-
I’m concerned.” fields. According to the study, “Median And while driver pay comes in my picked up, the wages would need to
pay for drivers ranges from $46,000 for different forms, many are paid by follow suit. And in the last year that has
national, irregular route dry van truck- productivity. According to the driver begun, but it has been a slow climb.
Vicki Jones Stephens load drivers to more than $73,000 for compensation study, “three out of four Gordan Klempt, head of the
President & CEO private fleet van drivers.” fleets used multiple methods to pay National Transportation Institute,
CC. Jones Trucking, Inc The study confirms that driver drivers including the most frequent says that wages for a dry van driver
compensation is not bad exactly; in approach, paying some drivers by the have gone from $0.36/mile (2007) to
fact, it is comparable to the figures of mile and some by the hour.” $0.372/mile (2013). Adjusted for infla-
other careers. However, the lifestyle of ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello tion, those numbers are almost flat.
drivers is foreign to most other careers. says that the data shows, “now more “When you look at the pay over
Lifestyle and compensation really can- than ever, trucking is an excellent career time to see how it has gone up, it’s
not be divorced. Overtime doesn’t start path,” but the study also recommends remained very flat. There hasn’t been a
at 40 hours for drivers. that carriers cannot keep wages the same lot of increase. Thirty or forty years ago,
For example, detention is an incon- and expect the shortage to slow. the average truck driver made what he’s
venient part of the job that isn’t always “Given the lifestyle challenges, making now or even more than he’s
compensated. many observers have suggested pay making now. That was a great wage, but
“They aren’t necessarily getting needs to rise into at least the low the economy is not the same. We didn’t
paid for [detention]. It is kind of hurry $60,000 range for over-the-road dry van increase with it, and that certainly plays
up and wait . . . hurry-up-and-get-there, drivers to close the shortage, and some a huge factor in the retention in the
and then it takes six hours to unload. say it needs to go even higher.” industry for sure,” Furnell says.
It’s like sitting in an airport for hours. In the last 12 months, more than According to the American
It’s a waste of time,” Furnell says. a handful of companies have raised Trucking Associations, large fleet turn-
“There are two different policies for wages for drivers including U.S. Xpress over in 2014’s Q2 reached an annual
For advertising information, contact detention pay. Some companies pay no in August, Con-way in September and rate of 103 percent, 4 percent over the
same time in 2013 and the highest rate
as recently as January 2015, Maverick
matter what. Some companies pay but
Jennifer Matthews, publisher, at jennifer@matthewspublishing.com only if they get reimbursed because they Transportation.
bill the shipper. Some companies only “Even very attractive driver jobs in 
arkansas trucking rePort | issue 1 2015 39