There are many factors that play a part in someone’s decision to take a job across any and all industries: company culture, work-life balance, career growth, benefits and, of course, pay. For truckers, pay is the top concern when it comes to choosing whom to drive for.
That’s according to Commercial Carrier Journal’s annual “What Drivers Want” survey, which determined drivers' No. 1 reason for changing companies is pay. Based on the results, more than half of drivers surveyed may be staying put in the coming year, as 60% said they expect to make the same or more money this year than last year.
That may come as a shock to some considering the recent freight economy, but that’s not the case for J&R Schugel Trucking President and CEO Sean Clayton.
“We've actually been pushing more miles this year in a down market than we did last year. So I'm not real surprised that drivers said they haven't seen their pay move backwards,” Clayton said. “Everybody would like to get paid more, but we need customer rates and those types of things to move forward to help justify and balance the income statement when it comes to our largest cost, which is driver wages and compensation.”
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Clayton, alongside a couple of other trucking company leaders, shared insight on driver pay Thursday during CCJ’s “What Drivers Want” webinar, sponsored by Netradyne. The carriers on the call each addressed driver pay in differing ways and shed light on what works for them and why.
Paying your drivers
Pay-per-mile remains the most common driver payment method. Thirty-five percent of survey participants are primarily compensated that way, while 29% of company drivers said they are paid hourly, and 16% are paid a combination of miles and hours. Hourly pay was drivers’ preferred method of payment at 35%, followed by combination pay at 29%.
J&R Schugel is among the pay-per-mile group, calculating pay by multiplying the mileage rate by miles driven. Clayton said hourly pay would put the company at a disadvantage; pay-per-mile is the best approach given the company’s drivers run irregular routes. However, there are some hourly components the company accounts for, such as driver detention and breakdown compensation.
To help drivers maintain consistent earnings rather than pay that ebbs and flows with the economy, Clayton said the company works to ensure driver productivity by optimizing their hours from an ELD perspective.
Nussbaum Transportation, with over-the-road operations, also pays per mile but with additional activity-based pay, said Brendon Nussbaum, director of culture and development.
He said Nussbaum fears that an hourly rate would negatively impact driver productivity. Consequently, Nussbaum offers detention pay after the first hour, but also provides a guaranteed amount per week that acts as a salary.
“As long as the driver is available all week long and doesn't have to be home by any certain time at the end of the week, they do qualify for a guarantee, which has helped and provided some peace of mind,” Nussbaum said.
Some trucking companies have begun to offer minimum revenue guarantees.
Boyle Transportation provides a guaranteed minimum pay with the goal of removing volatility in driver pay. Michael Lasko, assistant general manager and vice president at Boyle, said Boyle pays its team drivers for 6,000 miles per week whether they meet those miles or not. If they go over that amount, they make extra money. The company also has an activity component and several safety and performance-based incentives.
“We want our folks to have a clear head when they're behind the wheel – focus on being safe and providing excellent customer service. We don't want them getting irritated with the customer at the location because there's a delay getting them loaded or unloaded,” Lasko said. “We try to remove that volatility and uncertainty that plagues drivers in their career and give them a lot of stability. When it's time to buy a home, or you’ve got a kid that you're putting through college, you have a very solid idea of what your compensation is going to be, and you can plan your life around that.”
Managing pay discrepancies
Several survey respondents (31%) said they experienced a pay discrepancy with their employer; of those, 43% said they gave up with no resolution. Eight percent of drivers who reported a pay discrepancy said it was a miscommunication and they were actually compensated correctly.
Lasko said Boyle’s minimum pay guarantee has helped eradicate most of those types of issues, but the company also addresses driver pay during the hiring process to ensure drivers understand how their pay works.
During the five-day orientation, which the company also pays for, pay is among the many topics covered. The director of recruiting walks applicants through the pay process, and drivers meet payroll and HR managers.
“You put all those things together, and it's a lot of links that add up to a very sturdy chain,” he said. “That’s the big reason why we don't have those pay discrepancies.”
However, sometimes they do happen, and when they do, Lasko said it’s vital to find a quick resolution. In years past, Lasko said Boyle’s process was a bit chaotic. Drivers had to submit a bunch of paperwork and fill out trip sheets that were rife with errors.
“We streamlined that with technology and made it much more transparent, much more user-friendly,” he said. “It eliminates a whole lot of headache, and it streamlines the process for the driver.”
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The company provides drivers with a proprietary app where they can plug in their activities for the pay period and see ahead of time what their pay should be.
Nussbaum also offers a preview of pay for drivers. Drivers can preview what their pay should be on the Monday prior to Friday payday, and the company waits to close out payroll until midday Wednesdays so drivers have time to call in if they have questions.
At J&R Schugel, drivers can do that directly.
Clayton said each driver is assigned a specific person in payroll based on the first initial of their last name, and they can call that person directly rather than go through the middleman, be it a dispatcher or fleet manager.
“Pay can be emotional. Drivers can be emotional. The last thing you want to do, and something I learned a heck of a long time ago, is there are a lot of things you can screw with the driver on, but pay isn't one of them,” Clayton said. “Getting pay right is important, and then when you don't get it right, owning up to it, admitting it and fixing the mistake goes a long way at keeping that driver in a good frame of mind.”
That, and changing its pay package several years ago has been a big help, he added, pointing out that some performance-based bonus opportunities made it difficult for drivers to calculate their pay.
Sign-on bonuses
Speaking of bonuses, sign-on bonuses aren’t driving turnover like they once did. According to the survey, only 1% of drivers said they would leave their current fleet for a sign-on bonus.
Clayton said the internet has changed recruiting, and he thinks sign-on bonuses are becoming less of a tool in the toolbox to try to get one driver to shift from one carrier to the next.
Nussbaum and Boyle both continue to offer sign-on bonuses, but Lasko said he thinks the reason behind that statistic is because some carriers gave sign-on bonuses a bad name.
“I think there were some bad actors out there that did a lot of damage during covid, when the market for trucking was really running hot, and there was a lot of shenanigans that occurred with inflated bonuses,” Lasko said. “As it turns out, usually when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is … I think there are a lot of drivers out there that have a bad taste in their mouth because they jumped ship and went to a different carrier. They thought they were getting a $25,000 sign on bonus, but they didn't see in the fine print that you have to pick up a zebra and deliver a giraffe in every state in the lower 48 to qualify for your bonus.”
