The second half of 2014 brought the largest number of driver pay raise announcements Gordon Klemp has ever seen.

Klemp has been tracking data on driver pay packages since 1995 as the head of the National Transportation Institute. He says a cycle of pay increases began in the second half of last year, with Tennessee-based U.S. Xpress kicking things off with a 13% pay raise. Major truckload carriers such as Heartland Express, Crete Carrier, Barr Nunn and others followed. Some increases were as high as 20%, Klemp says. The highest were for teams that haul time-sensitive long-haul freight. Continue reading “Driver Dilemma: How Important is Pay?” →

Half of truckload carriers are now offering sign-on bonuses as a way to attract new drivers, according to the American Trucking Associations’ recently released 2014 Driver Compensation Study. The average sign-on bonus was $2,300.

Gordon Klemp with the National Transportation Institute says their pay package data tracking has shown bonuses as high as $15,000 for teams and $4,000 or more for solo drivers. Continue reading “Do Sign-On Bonuses Work?” →

Winning at CSA – Better safety strategies mean better scores.

Amidst all the minutiae that make up the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability enforcement program, it’s easy to lose sight of the goal of your fleet’s safety program. Continue reading “Strategies For Staying On Top of CSA” →