Dive Brief:
- J.B. Transport Services and Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings are implementing selective hiring bonuses and other compensation changes to retain workforces, the megacarriers said in Q2 earnings calls.
- The measures are distinctively not broad based but being deployed in key markets, reflecting labor constraints and wage pressures, according to executives.
- “The truckload market is most affected, and we are making thoughtful targeted investments to aid our efforts starting in the third quarter, generally in the form of hiring and productivity incentives,” Knight-Swift CEO Adam Miller said on an earnings call Wednesday.
Dive Insight:
Citing safety concerns, trucking leaders have welcomed Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration CDL actions from last year and this year that are affecting the driver supply. Meanwhile, the labor market is tightening, executives note.
“With the tightening in market conditions, recruiting and retaining quality drivers have become more challenging,” Miller said.
Knight-Swift is making increased investments, though not as significantly as was done in recent years, executives said. Strategic changes across key markets could later be harmonized to maximize return on investment, Miller said.
To meet the industry’s workforce needs, drivers who left the market could return, and military members could also help fill the ranks, J.B. Hunt COO and President of Highway and Final Mile Services Nicholas Hobbs said on a July 15 earnings call.
President Donald Trump also announced that same day at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit that military members who have driven a heavy-duty truck could soon be automatically eligible for a CDL. Trump said his administration seeks to address safety issues with truck driving, connecting the matter to certain foreign drivers, and he promised his administration would take historic action.
