Once a year we pause in our busy lives to take notice of and show our appreciation for the everyday heroes who move our freight, the 3.4 million professional truck drivers who deliver the goods. Everyone knows how important trucks are to our daily lives and to our nation’s economy. If you carry it or push it, live in it, lay on it, or look at it on your wall; if you throw it or catch it or feed it to your dog; if it mows your grass, entertains your family, tells you stories or mops your floor — a truck brought it.
And each of those trucks, making deliveries large and small to factory, home or mall, has a driver. A driver piloted that big truck across mountains and plains, nursed it along in mysterious freeway backups and wrestled it through city congestion that turns lesser people into babbling fools.
American Trucking Associations recognized the vital role drivers play in our industry and our economy. Bill Graves, ATA president and chief executive officer, wrote in Transport Topics that nearly 70% of all U.S. freight tonnage moves in trucks and that more than 80% of our nation’s communities are served exclusively by trucks. He pointed out that “virtually every consumer good that we enjoy — from food to clothing, to much-needed medicine — is delivered by a professional truck driver.” These professionals are doing a tough, dangerous job safely. A few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Transportation released statistics that show trucking is the safest it’s been since DOT started keeping records in 1975, with a 20% drop in fatalities involving a large truck.
With these drivers working on highways that are more and more crowded, more and more outdated and inadequate in so many ways, the downward trend in fatal accidents “is a testament to the skills and commitment to safety demonstrated by our nation’s professional truck drivers.”
Lets take a look at the median expected salary for a typical Truck Driver - Heavy in the United States. This basic market pricing report was prepared using our Certified Compensation Professionals' analysis of survey data collected from thousands of HR departments at employers of all sizes, industries and geographies. (Source: HR Reported data as of September 2010) http://www1.salary.com/Truck-Driver-salary.html
Benefit Median Amount % of Total
Base Salary $37,877 68.1%
Bonuses $290 0.5%
Social Security $2,920 5.2%
401k / 403b $1,450 2.6%
Disability $382 0.7%
Healthcare $6,103 11.0%
Pension $1,908 3.4%
Time Off $4,697 8.4%
Total $55,628 100%
In recent polls, truck drivers indicated that the main factor in choosing a company to work for was high pay. Not even weekly home time topped salary as the best reason truckers chose to drive for a particular company. Consider the psychological factors:
Pay/Self-concept factor
The more money I earn the better I feel about myself. How I feel about myself is greatly influenced by how much I earned in the week. When my earnings are low for the week I feel disappointed in myself. I would be much more worried about the future if I wasn’t earning money now. The pay I earn makes me feel more secure about things. I worry less about life when I am earning money.
Pay/social factor
I think people respect me more if I earn more that most other people. I like earning more money because it helps gain some respect from others. When I earn more my supervisor respects me more. For some reason, I seem to get along better with friends when I have earned more that week. The more I earn the more fun I can have with my friends after work.
Pay/necessities factor
Most of the money that I earn is spent on bills and necessities before I get it. The pay I earn is absolutely essential for my household. I could save my paycheck if I felt like it. Much of what I earn is spent on activates with friends.
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