This week the American Transportation Research Institute released an annual study into operating costs for carriers. In what might be a surprise to some truckers, right at the top of the list as the highest cost item was driver pay, significantly surpassing even the cost of fuel.
ATRI’s annual cost study is called “An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking” and it’s been released every year since 2008. This year it relied on data from a mixture of large, mid-sized, and small carriers with a total of 89,664 power units.
In the past four years, driver pay and benefits have risen fairly significantly as fuel costs have dropped. In 2013, carriers paid $0.645 per mile for fuel, which dropped to $0.336 in 2016. Driver wages increased from $0.440 to $0.523 per mile and the cost of driver benefits increased from $0.129 to $0.155 per mile in the same time period.
The cost of paying driver’s wages and benefits isn’t just rising, it’s rising faster every year. In the past three years, the cost to carriers increased 3.9%, 6.6%, and 7.6% respectively.
This could indicate that – at least for the carriers used in the study – some companies may be feeling the squeeze of the so-called “driver shortage,” and are responding by paying drivers higher wages.
But even with driver costs rising, the total average marginal costs of operating for carriers is actually decreasing, and is even lower than it was in 2008 on both a per-mile and a per-hour basis. Total costs per mile for carriers in 2008 came in at $1.653, and in 2016 at $1.592.
While seeing driver pay increase is a good thing, when inflation is taken into account, a driver’s buying power has only increased marginally – and only returned to higher than its 2008 levels in 2015.
You can see the report in its entirety here.
Source: atri, gobytrucknews, overdrive, joc, todaystrucking, businessinsider
Between the mandatory 30 minute lunch, ten hours off duty, 34 hour resets, 2 hour grace on the docks, traffic, weather, paperwork, fueling, pre/post trips, and breakdowns all unpaid in a cab smaller then a jail cell. Drivers have never had it better, and the Millennials are beating down the doors to get in to the industry.
52 cents a mile is still under minimum wage for mileage and percentage drivers. Why drivers continue to accept this nonsense I will never understand.
Base pay for drivers may be up. But The total number of miles per week fell to 1600 to 1800 miles per week. So where’s the raise?
Exactly!
It is caused from the Law of Supply and Demand. Drivers are in great demand, and I know companies that had their trucks sitting because they couldn’t find drivers. Even worse, good drivers are even harder to find because the majority of them have either retired or found better work with a whole less stress.
If their trucks are sitting, it’s because they are either paying less than the big companies, which is pretty pathetic, or because they have a reputation for treating their drivers even worse than the big companies, which is even more pathetic.
I don’t know who writes this stuff but as a driver who constantly researches pay, I can tell you that the pay quoted is the high end pay after many years with the same company. Why not quote starting pay. And better yet quote pay minus per diem!! I know one company who pays .24 cents per mile per diem and .14 per mile taxable. Guess what happens when you retire!
They include Unionized LTL, Specialized carriers e.g. Heavy Haul, Military Movers, etc.
My carrier said to expect a raise this year, for the third straight year. I guess we’re still waiting for the rest of the industry to catch up. Lmao. Yeah, right. Cheap sumsabiches.
I should really learn to proofread my comments. Third year without a raise.
I got it.
More excuses to bring self driving trucks. I’m finally working for a great company who pays me by an hour. I do local deliveries Home everyday. I usually work 10h a day Mom-Thur with option to work Friday OT. I started with $20h Friday since it’s OT $30 $1100 a week plus benefits and great retirement is nothing crazy but I’m home daily, love it! God bless you all, stay safe!
Well thank Yawey for your good fortune! But brother all you did was rub salt in an open wound. Is that what you meant to do? I hope that the good that you do with this new found fortune will glorify the Most High.
God bless you and God speed in all your endevours.
What?!! Where?!!!
Lol
Guys, in the early 1970s, the average pay for a truck driver was $26,000 per year according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). When you take into account inflation (the loss of the the dollars buying power) from 1970 to 2017, in order for a driver to make the same amount of money that a driver in 1970 made, a driver in 2017 would have to make $149,000 per year. This not just another driver’s opinion, it is based on easily verified information from US government records. How many of you are making $149,000 or more now?
So, guys, let me ask you to think about the headline of this entry “driver pay up for 4th straight year.” Is the writer and/or the entity (publication) he or she writes for ( ie. trucker’s report) unaware of what we all know … the impact of inflation on our earnings and what those earnings allow us to buy? Or do they have another agenda completely? Clearly our earnings (in terms of buying power) have declined over the past 37 years, and therefore, over the past 4 years. So if the writer was truthful, the headline should have read “driver pay ‘down’ for 4th straight year.” We get enough lies already, don’t need any more.
Stop stealing sugar and creamers from truckstops. That’s why we pay high prices, so go to Wal-Mart
Florida
Yeah, ok.
Companies make it look like Pay is up. But you can’t get the miles. Government will have us on the clock ELD. So I think We Demand Hourly Pay When That Clock Starts Till it Ends. Sorry but a Take home check of 600.00 to 700.00 an living in a Truck Don’t makr it!
Don’t forget those sign on bonuses that take 2 years to payout.