Posts Tagged “Driver Pay”
The American Transportation Research Institute, the trucking industry’s not-for-profit research organization, released its 17th annual Top Industry Issues report, identifying a number of the industry’s key concerns including the driver shortage, driver retention, driver compensation, lawsuit abuse reform, truck parking and for the first time, the shortage of diesel technicians.
Nearly 25 percent of the survey respondents were professional truck drivers and among driver respondents, Driver Compensation and Truck Parking tied for the number one industry concern. Detention / Delay at Customer Facilities was ranked by drivers as their second most pressing concern.
“The ATRI list of top industry issues provides a critical snapshot of the challenges impacting our industry at any given moment,” said ATA Chair Sherri Garner Brumbaugh, president and CEO of Garner Trucking, “and this year is no exception as supply chain constraints dominate the nation’s headlines. ATRI’s annual analysis not only captures the industry’s sentiment on the criticality of each of these issues but also maps out a course for addressing each through the stakeholder-ranked strategies.”
For the fifth year in a row, the Driver Shortage topped the list of industry concerns, garnering more than four times as many first-place votes as the number two issue, Driver Retention. Further reflecting the industry’s workforce challenges, Driver Compensation was ranked third overall. Lawsuit Abuse Reform rose three spots this year to take the number four spot and the lack of available Truck Parking rounded out the top five industry concerns. The Diesel Technician Shortage made the top-10 list for the first time this year, as the 10th ranked most critical issue in the industry.
More than 2,500 trucking industry stakeholders participated in this year’s survey, including motor carriers, drivers, industry suppliers, driver trainers, law enforcement, and others.
“This year’s large response shows just how serious our industry is about identifying the most critical concerns and more importantly, figuring out how we collectively deal with each issue,” said ATRI President and COO Rebecca Brewster.
“It really is no surprise that truck driver-related issues – notably the driver shortage and driver retention – ranked so high on the survey. Coming out of the pandemic, with the increased demand for goods and other pressures on the supply chain, getting and keeping drivers has been a real challenge industrywide,” Brewster said. “We also see the impacts of the current supply chain crunch in how highly issues like driver compensation, truck parking, infrastructure and driver detention ranked on the list.”
The complete results of the annual survey were released as part of 2021 American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference and Exhibition. The full report can be found at ATRI’s website.
Few things in the trucking industry are frowned upon more than lease-purchase plans. Go to work for a trucking company, lease a truck from that carrier with the idea of one day owning it. Failure for the deal to work out is blamed on everything from low driver pay to high interest rates and the carrier not providing the driver with enough miles The truck eventually goes back to the carrier, when the driver can’t make the payments. Then the process is just repeated.
Shaun Smith of Sanford, FL has been with KLLM Transport Services, Jackson, MS since last January. The 12-year trucking veteran has entered into a lease-purchase plan with the large carrier and says it is working out fine. He is making good money, logging a lot of miles and is making a living for his wife and four kids, who ages range from two to 14 years old.
The 34-year-old driver says he is averaging 3,000 miles a week, or about 150,000 miles a year. He drives a 2008 Freightliner with a Detroit DD15, pulling a 53-foot trailer with a Carrier Ultama XTO X Series reefer unit.
Shaun enjoys trucking because he gets to see a lot of the country, plus make a decent living while doing so. His primary complaint is with heavy traffic, especially in large cities such as New York and in California.
He started trucking after finishing high school, got married, and then went into water well drilling in Mississippi. He then moved to Florida, working in a warehouse for a fast food company. But trucking remains his first love.
“KLLM is a good company. I’ve got one more year before this truck is paid for,” Shaun says. “I got it on a lease-purchase plan. If you have the money to buy a truck right off the lot, then that’s a good way to do it. Under a lease-purchase plant you had better have a good carrier.”
Shaun had just delivered a load of soda pop from California to Oklahoma. He was waiting to pick up a load of muffins in Tulsa for delivery to Concord, NC.
He also hauls a lot of produce loads.
“I have no problem with hauling fresh fruits and vegetables. You have to keep a close eye on the temperature. But I like hauling it as well as anything,” he says.
As far as being the road so much, Shaun observes, “You have to have a strong mind and be able to be away from your family. It can be hard. But it is a good career.”
By MindShare Strategies
Wilder, Ky.– RWI Transportation, an asset-based logistics 
company providing regional and national truckload, LTL, expedited, and refrigerated warehousing services, announces a driver pay increase of two cents per loaded mile, with one cent linked to a new safety bonus program. The increase is effective April 1, 2012.
“Throughout our 56-year history, RWI has been committed to driver safety while serving our customers. The driver safety bonus program, along with our other behavior-based safety programs, is an extension of that safety focus,” said Richard Bauer, executive vice president and general manager of RWI Transportation. “Innovative programs like these ensure we are able to remain focused on safe, efficient operations while offering our customers the truck capacity they need.”
RWI’s Safety Bonus Program is based on a driver qualifying the last day of each calendar month. Qualified drivers receive the one-cent safety payment on all dispatched loaded miles for completed trips. Disqualifying events include roadside inspections resulting in a point assessment under CSA guidelines, not having company-required paperwork current and certain types of vehicular collisions. Drivers not qualifying in one month are eligible to qualify the next month.
Managing in excess of 100,000 shipments annually, RWI handles temperature-controlled and dry freight, and also has specialized expertise in handling fresh produce and other perishable food commodities. RWI is an affiliate of the Castellini Group of Companies, which combines to form one of the largest distributors of fresh produce in the United States. For further information on RWI, visit www.RWItrans.com.