On Tuesday, U.S. Xpress announced that the company is increasing the base mileage pay for their Over the Road (OTR) solo, non-dedicated truck drivers by an average of 13 percent.
Effective August 25th, the pay increase is to ensure the company continues to recruit and attract the industry’s best, most qualified truck drivers.
In an online announcement, Eric Fuller, CEO of U.S. Xpress, spoke about the critical part truck drivers play in keeping the company and the economy running efficiently.
“The trucking industry has and will always remain the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. More important, our industry needs to celebrate professional, career drivers and better reward them for the hard work they do day in and day out to safely deliver freight on time and without incident,” Fuller said.
“Drivers are the ones who ensure that our store shelves are not empty, manufacturing does not grind to a halt and our economy does not stall.”
U.S Xpress also decided to do away with the sliding pay scale, since many drivers reported how the scale made it more difficult to calculate their base pay from week to week. In the new pay structure, all OTR solo drivers will earn the same base mileage pay regardless of the length of haul.
Fuller says this is a way to thank you to the truck drivers for their dedication and hard work.
“According to company officials, nearly every facet of our country depends upon some type of goods or services that were delivered by a professional truck driver. In fact, a recent report from the American Trucking Associations (ATA) stated that approximately 70 percent of the freight shipped annually in the United States was delivered by a truck driver,” Fueller said.
“This means more than three million professional truck drivers are transporting more than 9.2 billion tons of freight by driving approximately three million heavy-duty, Class 8 trucks,” he added.
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