Sign-on bonuses saw their first dollar-amount increase since late 2022. Prevalence of sign-ons hasn’t wavered, hovering around 70% over the past three years. With sign-on bonus amounts bubbling again and despite their high prevalence, the question remains: Are sign-on bonuses an effective tool for your fleet to use? Particularly when it comes to retention? NTI explores those questions here.
I had the immense pleasure earlier this month of delivering the keynote address to kick off this year’s National Private Truck Council’s Annual Conference & Exhibition. Here are three takeaways from the event that have stuck with me and that I wanted to share, as I feel there are lessons we can all learn, whether we operate a private or for-hire fleet.
Beginning in the late summer and continuing through the fall and winter, though, the holding pattern broke, and data from NTI surveys of motor carriers shows driver pay has entered what appears to be a new season as capacity shakes out of the market and as both spot and contract freight markets recalibrate. Here’s what survey data from NTI’s National Survey of Driver Wages shows for driver pay movement in early spring 2025.
Interest in technician pay benchmarking has swelled at The National Transportation Institute in recent years, including survey demand doubling last year for technician pay benchmarking reports as the challenge to hire and retain diesel technicians continues to become more difficult for trucking fleets of all types.
2025 marks a significant milestone for The National Transportation Institute: Founded in 1995, NTI this year is celebrating 30 years of growth, innovation, dedication, and service to the greatest industry in America and the hard-working professionals across trucking who keep our society moving and thriving.
Building on an uptick in momentum from the back half of 2024, driver wages at for-hire fleets in the first months of 2025 show their strongest year-over-year gains since late 2023, according to NTI’s National Survey of Driver Wages.
As a host on SiriusXM’s Road Dog Trucking Radio, where NTI President & CEO Leah Shaver has had the privilege over the past five years to talk to and connect with thousands of drivers — and to connect with thousands more via social media centered around my Payday! With Leah Shaver monthly show — and had a front-row seat to dig deep into understanding drivers’ perspectives and how we as HR leaders in trucking can lead with empathy and understanding based around those connections. As she recently celebrated her fifth anniversary on air on Road Dog Trucking, Leah reflects on five lessons she’s learned from drivers that can help propel fleets’ recruiting and retention programs.
While driver compensation at for-hire motor carriers has mostly been in a holding pattern since the beginning of 2023, driver compensation data for private fleets tells a different story: they have been highly active in benchmarking and adjusting their pay packages. Here are the trends to be aware of.
In trucking, these themes are so relevant, too, not only in the annual holiday season, but throughout the year every year, and especially in this tough economic season we’ve been in over the past two years.
Per-mile wages across experience levels — 1 year, 3 years, max experience, and cap earners — rose a percentage point from the same time in 2023. Those gains build on the late summer momentum NTI reported in September.
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