Trucking carrier introduces safety-based pay incentives

Effective March 1, 2016, truckload carrier U.S. Xpress will increase base mileage pay by an average of 13.5 percent for solo drivers with clean driving records for the previous 12 months.    Truckload carrier U.S. Xpress is launching a safety-based incentive pay program that would increase base mileage pay for solo over the road (OTR) drivers by an average of 13.5 percent, effective March 1, 2016.
   To qualify for the program, drivers must remain accident and ticket free, with no CSA violations, for 12 months. The purpose of the incentive increase is to help the U.S. Xpress “recruit and retain the industry’s most elite and safe drivers,” and continue to establish it as a “top-paying carrier in the industry,” the company said in a statement.
   U.S. Xpress estimates that with this safety-based bump, a safe driver with 5 years of experience could make over $70,000 total compensation, and the same driver could make over $110,000 as a training advisor for Xpress Academy.
   “At U.S. Xpress, we recognize the value of safe drivers. The safety of both our drivers and the general public is of the utmost importance, and we feel that tying driver pay to safety performance is the best way to reward and incent safe driving,” Eric Fuller, president and COO of U.S. Xpress, said of the program.
   “This increase not only rewards our current drivers for their efforts, but establishes us as the carrier of choice for safe, career-minded professional truck drivers in the industry,” he added. “And while rewarding these safe drivers is extremely important, even more impactful is the inspiration this provides to new drivers entering the industry.”
   Trucking carriers have been trying for the last few years to attract younger truckers to stem a growing shortage of qualified drivers across the industry caused by an aging and retiring work force that hasn’t been replenished by the new generations.
   American Trucking Associations published a report last October estimating the shortage of drivers in the trucking industry would reach 48,000 by the end of 2015 and could grow to as many as 175,000 by 2024.