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Companies Raising Wages as Driver Shortage Worsens - Loadsmart

Written by loadsmart | Oct 16, 2014

The driver shortage has gotten worse with the shortage averaging out to over 214,000 truck drivers. With long haul making up 38% of the $840 billion of the U.S Frieght Market, drivers are crucial. The turnover rate of a truck driver is high for multiple reasons but a fundamental issue is the pay. With trucking companies like Xpress turning down 5,000 to 8,000 orders a week from lack of truck drivers, they finally figured out supply and demand and have raised their driver wages. A truck driver of theirs, who had worked for 17 years is finally getting a raise, planning to make over $60,000 when he would have prior to the raise made $48,000-$55,000. Xpress is not the only trucking company raising driver wages, others include Con-way (who had said they’d be the only ones to raise their wages *cough cough wrong), Celadon group and more. America’s Commercial Transportation Research Co expects a 6% increase in average driver wages this year. For more info go to IBJ>>