Opinions: Truck Driver Pay Sluggish With Economy

This week Todd Dill at Overdrive Online looked at how truck driver pay trends are still rising, but might not be enough to keep owner operators and small carriers above water during these tumultuous economic times. As usual, the devil is in the details.

Income for owner-operators showed a 7.5 percent year-over-year boost in the 12 months that ended in June 2012, said Todd Amen of owner-operator business services firm ATBS, speaking at the Truckload Carriers Association Independent Contractor Division meeting last month.

Many carriers have begun to raise pay and take other steps to improve retention, said said the National Transportation Institute’s Gordon Klemp, but “pay will have to continue to improve to keep the good people.”

However, many carriers that Dill interviewed restated that driver pay just can’t keep up with other erratic economic factors, like diesel fuel fluctuation and sudden hikes in highway tolls. Klemp went on to say of the year 2000 driver pool, “36 percent will be retired by the end of this year,” representing “a huge number to be replaced.” From 2007 to 2010, he says, the industry in aggregate “essentially replaced none of them.”

Read more about this confusing trucking industry trend at Overdrive online. The second part of this informative webinar they conducted will be available Wenesday, Oct. 17th.

More Trucking Industry Economic News at CDL Life.