Job Resources

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Driver turnover rates spiked early in the first quarter of 2020 before they trended down in March to all-time lows, according to new research by Stay Metrics, a leading provider of driver retention tools for motor carriers. Historically, turnover has aligned with freight market conditions. When freight volumes rise and capacity tightens, drivers leave carriers at higher rates in search of new opportunities. Conversely, drivers tend to stay put during economic downturns. The new report by Stay Metrics’ Research and Analytics team, led by Bradley Fulton, Ph.D., shows a major shift in the turnover paradigm for the...

ARLINGTON, Va. — The American Trucking Associations (ATA) on May 21 released the latest version of the association’s Driver Compensation Study, which showed average driver pay, including bonuses, rose nearly $6,000 in 2019 since the last study in 2017. “These results show that fleets did exactly what we would expect them to in the face of a tightening market for drivers. They raised pay and increased benefits in order to attract talent,” said Bob Costello, chief economist for ATA. According to the survey, which was based on data from 2019, the average pay for truckload national, irregular route solo van drivers...

Our friends at the Trucking Review Channel discuss the idea that is being floated in Congress regarding hazardous pay for essential workers. Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below! Courtesy: Trucking Review Channel   Trucking Review Channel: Okay guys, I was just reading the news and I seen this. Senate Democrats propose a $25,000 Corona virus hazard pay for essential workers. I'll tell you how I feel about this after I read it and I might have to pause it and go into a little debt. I don't know. Okay. Senate Democrats are proposing giving hazard pay for up to $25,000...

Our friends at the Trucking Review Channel talk about those times when the money is really good. Courtesy: Trucking Review Channel

ARLINGTON, Va. — The annualized turnover rate at both large and small truckload carriers rose in the third quarter, according to American Trucking Associations’ Quarterly Employment Report. The turnover rate at large truckload fleets – those with more than $30 million in annual revenue – jumped nine points, the largest quarterly increase since the second quarter of 2016, to an annualized rate of 96%. The increase set the figure at its highest point since the second quarter of 2018. The churn rate at smaller carriers also rose – ticking up six...

ARLINGTON, Va. — The annualized turnover rate at both large and small truckload carriers rose in the third quarter, according to American Trucking Associations’ Quarterly Employment Report. The turnover rate at large truckload fleets – those with more than $30 million in annual revenue – jumped nine points, the largest quarterly increase since the second quarter of 2016, to an annualized rate of 96%. The increase set the figure at its highest point since the second quarter of 2018. The churn rate at smaller carriers also rose – ticking up six points to 73% from the lowest level since 2011. “Counterintuitively, we...

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added a solid 128,000 jobs in October, a figure that was held down by a now-settled strike against General Motors that caused tens of thousands of workers to be temporarily counted as unemployed. The unemployment rate ticked up from 3.5% to 3.6%, still near a five-decade low. And for a second straight month, average hourly wages rose a decent if less-than-robust 3% from a year ago. All told, the October employment report from the government pointed to a still-sturdy job market that remains a key source of...

WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Monday said that it has published a new job opportunities website to help 18-20-year-olds who possess the U.S. military equivalent of a commercial driver’s license find and apply for jobs with interstate trucking companies. Prime Inc., Werner Enterprises and UPS Freight are among the nine carriers which listed job opportunities on the site. “Our country has a shortage of truck drivers. This resource will help military service members translate their training into good-paying jobs safely operating commercial vehicles across the country,” said Transportation...

WASHINGTON  — U.S. employers added a modest 130,000 jobs in August, a sign that hiring in the United States has slowed but remains durable in the face of global economic weakness and President Donald Trump’s trade war with China. The job gain was boosted by the temporary hiring of 25,000 government workers for the 2020 Census. Excluding all government hiring, the economy added just 96,000 jobs in August, the fewest since May. Still, the Labor Department reported Friday in its monthly jobs report that the unemployment rate remained 3.7%, near the...

WASHINGTON — A fatal traffic accident in Massachusetts involving a tractor trailer has prompted the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Transportation to initiate an audit of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s review of state commercial driver’s license programs to determine whether those programs comply with CDL regulations. The OIG Tuesday notified the FMCSA of its intent. The notice said that earlier this year, a fatal crash involving a commercial driver led to an internal investigation by the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) that found that RMV had not systematically processed out-of-state paper notifications of driver convictions...

PITTSBURGH — Scott Woodrome, a professional truck driver from Middletown, Ohio, representing team FedEx Freight, has been named the Bendix Grand Champion of the 2019 National Truck Driving Championships conducted by the American Trucking Associations. This is Woodrome’s second consecutive year of winning the Bendix Grand Champion trophy. “Congratulations to Scott and his great team at FedEx Freight, as well as the entire Ohio trucking industry, for repeating as this year’s Bendix Grand Champion Award winner,” said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. “This process began with thousands of drivers competing...

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers slowed their hiring in July, adding a still-healthy 164,000 jobs to an economy that appears poised to extend its decade-plus expansion. The unemployment rate remained at 3.7% for a second straight month, the Labor Department reported Friday. Average hourly earnings increased 3.2% from a year ago, up from annual gains of 3% in June. The pace of hiring has slowed this year as a growing share of Americans already have jobs. The three-month average for job gains was 140,000, down from 237,000 a year ago.

Anyone who’s been to Disney World may have heard a saccharine song with the refrain, “It’s a small world, after all.” In trucking, however, it turns out to be true and genuinely sweet, especially if you’re a young woman who lives in western Ghana and likes a challenge. Payin Marfo is that young woman, and in addition to being managing director of the trucking company Ladybird Logistics, Ltd., which employs an all-female driving force of 21 “and counting,” she’s also Women In Trucking’s January Member of the Month.

We’ve all heard this second part of an old nursery rhyme: What are little girls made of?What are little girls made of?Sugar and spiceAnd everything nice, That’s what little girls are made of. Let’s throw out that stereotype and start fresh. Because although women make up around 50 percent of the population, they make up only just shy of 7 percent of truck drivers — 5-6 percent if we’re talking owner-operators says OOIDA — and far too few women hold board and management positions at...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The National Transportation Institute (NTI), which following compensation trends in the trucking industry, says it has noticed a significant change in the pace of pay moves by carriers and historic mileage pay rates within the findings shared in its National Survey of Driver Wages report (NSDW) for the first quarter of 2019. Featuring a process that includes proprietary research tracking more than 70 unique attributes, the NSDW is distributed exclusively to NTI subscribers. In its quarterly study of key driver compensation categories for over-the-road and regional fleets,...

LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Preliminary data based on over 3,000 tax returns indicate that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act had an overall positive impact on owner-operators in the trucking industry, according to American Truck Business Services (ATBS). ATBS has observed the following statistics related to how owner-operators fared on 2018 taxes. First, the average owner-operator’s taxable adjusted gross income (AGI) went from $43,093 in 2017 to $52,180 in 2018. This was an increase of $9,087 or 21%. The increase was predominantly related to a booming year in the...

CBS News shares their views on what they think is causing a driver shortage. What do you think?  Let us know in the comments below.