ONLINE EXCLUSIVE. Driver pay gets big boost: Cerno Research

TORONTO, (June 22, 2005) — A nation-wide study shows that total pay for truck drivers jumped by 8 percent over the last year — one of the largest increases in any labour sector.

The 2005 Trucking Industry Compensation and Benefits study, authored by Toronto-based transportation research firm Cerno Research, states that it’s obvious carriers have stepped up their driver compensation packages. The 8 percent hike reflects pay at the 50th percentile — meaning highway truckers directly from the middle of the pay scale.

“We were not surprised to see a pay increase this year, but we were surprised at the amount,” Cerno Project Director Stephen Harrington said in an exclusive interview with TodaysTrucking.com. “Eight percent is a pretty steep change for any industry year-to-year. Even in a good market you might see that kind of change at the upper end, but usually not in the middle. That’s impressive in itself.”

Harrington acknowledges the large increase is driven in part by the capacity crunch. However, “the driver shortage has been around for years and nothing had changed,” he says, “but now you combine the capacity crunch with the freight volume increases. LTL for-hire, especially, saw more cash and found a way to funnel it to their drivers.”

However, the study — which Harrington says gives a complete industry picture by breaking report sets by region, trucking practice, company size, ownership status, and union status — points out that there was only a 4 percent increase for per-km pay.

That shows carriers are still being cautious, says Harrington. Therefore, they’ve have found other ways to pass on pay increases — namely through bonuses, fuel surcharges, and wait-time compensation. “It takes a full set of percentiles and job titles to understand that only some segments of the market are changing, while some remain stagnant.

“They’ve had a good year, but that doesn’t mean this year will be too,” Harrington continues. “As soon as they move the increases into per km pay, it would have been hard for them to claw back.

Even if freight volumes dip and the industry plateaus in 2006, Harrington doesn’t believe driver pay will recede much, if at all. “Now it will be interesting to see if some of those increases start to solidify and shift into per km pay in the next year,” he says.

With well over 400 participating locations across the country, the Cerno study remains the standard in trucking industry wage research. Above and beyond wages, Cerno also covers benefits such as total benefit package value per employee. It also addresses employment policies, including a close look at several owner-operator and company driver issues like safety bonuses and charge backs.

The study doesn’t exist to tell managers what to pay, Harrington insists. “Our study helps employees understand what’s going on in the industry, it doesn’t tell your managers what to do,” he says. “In this industry, more than any other I’ve come across, rumour is king. For drivers it’s very important you sit them down and show them the facts that have nothing to do with rumours they picked up at the truckstop.”

The complete study can be purchased directly from Cerno. Interested parties can contact Stephen Harrington, projects director, at 416-488-9661.

Purchasing the Cerno study qualifies buyers for a complimentary job posting with www.jobsintrucking.ca and www.monster.ca.