Annual earnings for professional drivers at private fleets jumped even farther ahead of those at for-hire carriers in 2025, according to data from NTI’s National Private Fleet Survey and for-hire fleet-focused National City-Centric Driver Pay Survey.
Entering 2026, the national average annual earnings for an over-the-road dry van driver at a private fleet are outpacing the same drivers in the for-hire segment by nearly 27% in the median percentile. Among regional dry van haulers, drivers at private fleets are earning a whopping 30% more than their for-hire peers in that percentile. The numbers are a little tighter at the 75th percentile level, but a prominent gap still persists.
That’s a significant gain compared to the end of 2024, when the gap for both of those comparisons was at a little over 20%. It’s also a continuation of the trend seen since 2022, as private fleets have been actively evaluating their compensation and pay models and implementing intentional and systematic pay escalations. In the same time period, for-hire fleets have been cautious with pay adjustments amid a historically tough freight environment.
Sagging freight rates, slack freight demand, elevated operational costs, and a ready availability of drivers put for-hire fleet pay in a holding pattern with pay. Wages at for-hire carriers did see more sustained momentum in 2025 compared to the year prior, though those gains were still muted, especially compared to the run-up starting in late 2020 and into 2022. There were noticeable signs of changes last year, however, which you can read more about in our 2025 recap.
During the COVID recovery years in 2021 and into 2022, for-hire fleets closed had eaten into the typical gap that historically has existed between their private fleet counterparts, with wage accelerations at for-hire fleets narrowing the spread to about 15%.
That trend, however, flipped, as the charts below show. They detail national median annual earnings and 75th percentile averages at regional and OTR dry van fleets for private fleet jobs, standard for-hire roles, and for-hire jobs with labor:
What’s happening beneath the surface? Why is this gap widening?
Private fleets have put an intense focus on growing their fleets and taking back some measure of control of their company’s logistics operations and supply chains were in upheaval in 2020 and 2021. To that end, they’ve been actively benchmarking wages in great detail, evaluating and transitioning their pay models, and implementing wage changes to bolster recruiting and retention programs.
Meanwhile, many for-hire carriers have been in survival mode, taking a wary approach to any large wage adjustments while the market remains difficult and the outlook remains murky.
Those trends show up starkly in other data, too. For example, the charts below show the trajectory of registered carrier population changes. While for-hire fleet numbers have been tumbling, private fleet numbers have been steadily growing. While there was some slight regression in the number of private fleets in the back half of 2025, the segment still saw growth year over year:
Carrier counts only tell part of the story. Looking at driver population, the number of drivers at for-hire fleets saw a big dip in 2025 — more than 150,000 drivers. Meanwhile, the number of drivers at private fleets has been consistently growing:
