J.B. Hunt is attempting to stave off the looming “truck driver shortage” by upping their wages 10% – and they say it’s working.
J.B. Hunt announced Monday, October 15th that over the last 18 months, their contract-services unit has raised wages by around 10%, a large spike as compared to the 4.3% increase in average hourly earnings in the private sector across the US in the last 18 months.
This raise was an attempt to keep the company from losing employees in the “truck driver shortage” being so heavily reported in the media, and company executives say that the method is working, reported Bloomberg.
“We have been recruiting drivers very well in this difficult market because of the pay that we’ve been able to price into our deals for our drivers,” said president of the contract-services business, Nicholas Hobbs.
Though the Labor Department is yet to reflect the recent spikes in truck driver pay, both independent drivers and trucking companies alike are reporting raised wages despite the lowest unemployment rate in the trucking industry since the 1960s.