Dive Brief:
- While driver pay increases are slowing, fleets honed in on a 50-to-55 cent per mile pay band for those with one and three years of experience, The National Transportation Institute noted in a survey released last month.
- For drivers with one and three years of experience, there was a 1.4 percentage point increase in that pay band compared to a year ago.
- That sweet spot has now become popular. These drivers account for more than one in five pay packages, compared to the spring of 2022, when about one in 10 fleets paid for those experience levels, the institute said.
Dive Insight:
Employer needs have risen compared to the start of the year, even as trucking indices suggest a meandering search for the next cycle.
Fleets report on a daily basis to The National Transportation Institute that they continue to struggle with retention, particularly for-hire motor carriers, NTI President and CEO Leah Shaver told Trucking Dive in an email.
“Private fleets have also reported that turnover remains higher than they would like, particularly within a new hire's first weeks and months on the job,” she said.
Replacement needs have meant busy hiring activity. The monthly average of driver hires this year through April was more than in 2021, 2022 and 2023, per NTI data.
While seasonally adjusted truck transportation employment gained nearly some 3,800 workers from January to March, surpassing a total of 1,556,000 workers. That gain largely held in April before dipping to its lowest monthly level of the year in May: 1,550,100.
Meanwhile, inflation rose above 3% year over year in Q1, peaking at 3.5% in March and falling slightly to 3.4% in April.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics plans to release its May figures on June 12.
Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified a driver experience level and also didn't describe the change as a percentage point increase. The story has been corrected.
