PPB January 2019

Who’s Behind The Wheel Here’s a closer look at driver demographics: Market Snapshot In a robust economy, good workers are often hard to come by. The transportation market especially feels the pinch as the demand for freight transportation continues to rise. As ecommerce expands, the need for truck drivers will continue to tick upwards. To attract more drivers in an increasingly competitive economy, many trucking companies are boosting pay and benefits, with some offering attractive signing bonuses. The median salary for truckload drivers climbed to more than $53,000 in 2018, according to a survey from the ATA, marking a $7,000 increase from the ATA’s last survey in 2013. Private fleet drivers experienced an 18 percent pay increase to earn more than $86,000 annually. Fuel Up Truck stops sell more coffee than convenience stores The average commercial truck driver spends MORE THAN $0.004 PER MILE on coffee, amounting to more than $600 PER YEAR PER INDUSTRY DRIVER Source: TheTruckersReport.com On The Road Again Kings of the Road A look at the trucking companies with the world’s largest fleets: DHL UPS FedEx Maersk Group Source: All4Truck.com Owner-operators own and operate their own trucking business. These individuals: Have been in the trucking business for AN AVERAGE OF 26 YEARS Became an owner-operator at AN AVERAGE AGE OF 37 90 % Are registered voters Have lived in the same area for MORE THAN A DECADE Remain educated, WITH NEARLY HALF (45%) receiving some level of college education 36 % Have served in the military Professional employee drivers work directly for a carrier. These individuals 95 % Are male 80 % Own their own home 40 % Exercise regularly 64 % Get paid by the mile and average $0.36-$0.40 per mile 54 % Spend more than 200 NIGHTS AWAY from home each year 35 % Have served in the military 75 % Own a firearm Source: Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Sources: American Trucking Associations; Trucking.org Minorities account for 40.6 % of all truck drivers The average truck driver is 50 YEARS OLD The trucking industry relies on 3.5 MILLION TRUCK DRIVERS and more than 3.6 MILLION HEAVY-DUTY TRUCKS to move 10.5 billion tons of freight each year Approximately 7.7 MILLION PEOPLE work in trucking-related jobs Professional truck drivers log MORE THAN 400 BILLION MILES each year ONLY 6.2 % of truckers are women | JANUARY 2019 | 55 GROW