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The reports on the trucking industry’s second quarter are coming out from various agencies and they unfortunately reveal a sad truth: there has been a nationwide decline in driver compensation across the industry. Specifically, the Driver Pay Trend Tracker Report issued a report that the average weekly pay for drivers in quarter two is 7.4% lower than it was in quarter one. Furthermore, even the owner/operator pay saw a decline, with the average weekly pay being about 2.2% lower than it was in quarter one. This trend has been happening throughout the last few quarters, with a reported decline in pay going back to the third quarter of last year.

According to the report, only one exception could be found to this phenomenon: leased purchased transportation.

The vice president of client services and Fleet Intel at the Conversion Interactive Agency, Steve Sichterman, said that there is one simple, easily explainable reason behind the decline trend that we are seeing. He broke it down to simply say that “they just don’t need drivers right now. They don’t have the freight to sustain them.” ‘They’ in his statement refers to businesses in general right now. The market is currently at a point in which demand for trucking transportation has steadily declined, leaving many who work in the industry to scrounge for business. The decline is also to be expected as we reached new highs during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which transportation reached record level highs due to everyone staying home.

With this decline, experts are hopeful for an eventual increase in pay, as we say a slight increase from July to August.

If the trend we saw from July to August continues, which is a very strong possibility heading into the holiday season, truckers may not have too much reason to fear. However, if we look at more individual monthly pay rates, then the hope may dissipate a bit. In 2024, May is the only month to have had a higher average pay compared to its respective month in 2023.

Sichterman made an important distinction in his statement regarding where the pay is specifically declining. Given that the decline is based on average pay, it does not have to mean every truck driver was paid less. Instead, according to Sichterman, the pay decline is seen most prominently in starting pay. Current drivers are still being paid the same as before, but new drivers are being paid less each time new ones begin.