Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/87831
BUSINESS bonus of up to 4 cents a mile. Melton's not the only carrier encouraging efficient performance. At Nussbaum, too, new perks delivered to high-performing drivers "better affirm a driver for his performance," says Brent Nussbaum. "A driver typically hears from a company when he's doing wrong – we want him to hear positive feedback" on fuel, safety and operational performance. The company's "Driver Excelerator" program monitors "the $0.39 $0.38 $0.37 $0.36 $0.35 $0.34 $0.33 $0.32 $0.31 $0.30 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 DRY VAN Outliers 5% 18% 90-93 cents/mile Base level: 53% Top pay carriers: $0.98-$1.02/mile Second level: 93-96 cents/mile 24% Mid-level: 94-97 cents/mile Owner-operators Outliers 2% 61% 84-89 cents/mile Base level: FLATBED 37% Top pay carriers: $0.97-$1/mile 38% 39% The most lucrative segment in recent months for owner-operator clients of ATBS, based strictly on revenue, has been the top-paying dry van fleets. Average pay among all carriers, including fuel surcharges and other accessorials, has been $1.39 per mile. Tracking pay Gordon Klemp, reporting results of the end of 2012's second quar- ter from NTI's National Survey of Driver Wages, noted a measure of growth in driver and leased owner-operator pay since the recession ended. Base per-mile rates in pay packages across the carriers he surveys are averaging slightly higher than prerecession levels in both dry van and flatbed, where they saw a significant recessionary dip. For operators pulling refrigerated units, levels are up as well – the recession had little downward pressure on those rates. Looking at the numbers for individual carriers, however, company driver "take-home pay is plus or minus 5 percent of what drivers were making in 2007," Klemp says. The owner-operator package breakdown in the chart does not include a significant group of percentage payers in the flatbed segment that offer 70-75 percent of the load's gross on average. As rates increase for carriers with owner-operators under a percentage scheme, operators see a built-in pay raise. Some carriers have been raising the percentage, too, says Klemp, who's seen "some as high as 83 percent." It could go higher because many drivers are still underpaid, and there could be "some economic recovery after the election." Second level: 90-94 cents/mile 2012 driver's improving performance in all these areas." The company then delivers a quarterly performance bonus. Driver managers with the company work with operators on increasing fuel mileage, decreasing idle time and fuel performance – likewise things like buying for discounts. "We want their productivity to be high," Nussbaum says. "We want them to be here and not out sick. And on CSA scores, we want those to be good as well – in those areas they can build points for each item. … Based on the amount of points they've built during that quarter they can get a bonus." Drivers and owner-operators, Nussbaum says, have appreciated the opportunities for more money. When the fleet started the program in early 2011, there were just 18 drivers at gold level. Today, the company has "70 drivers at gold, with another 30 percent that are silver, and a lesser amount that are at Company drivers DRY VAN Solo new hire 5 years experience FLATBED Solo new hire 3 years experience REEFER Solo new hire 3 years experience Outliers 4% REEFER 19% Top pay carriers: $0.95-$1/mile 20 | Overdrive | November 2012 Except where noted, data comes from the National Transportation Institute's National Survey of Driver Wages, based on a quarterly examination of 65 attributes of company driver and owner-operator pay packages at 350 benchmark compensation plans.