AP Photo/Tom Sampson
- Truckers are getting bigger paychecks, but it's not solving the shortage of drivers.
- A truck driver at Roehl Transport told CNN his pay had jumped $30,000 in the past few years.
- Drivers are using the pay rises to spend less time on the road and more time at home, he said.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
The massive shortage of truck drivers in the US is boosting pay – but it isn't enough to fill job vacancies in the industry.
The coronavirus pandemic triggered a surge in online shopping as people went outside less. This meant companies needed more drivers, and therefore bumped up pay to attract workers, CNN reported on Saturday.
Many drivers are moving between trucking companies for better salaries, per CNN.
Daniel Walton, a 47-year-old truck driver at Roehl Transport, a Wisconsin-based trucking company, told CNN that his salary has skyrocketed from $40,000 a year a few years ago to around $70,000 in 2021.
"You hear numbers thrown at you, there is a temptation to go elsewhere," he said.
Walton said drivers are using the pay rises to cut their driving time and spend more time at home. He drives four weeks out of every five and trains new drivers in the fifth week.
But some drivers still quit their jobs soon after joining due to stress, or being homesick, he said.
Roehl, a transport company based in Pennsylvania, announced in a press release in April that it had increased truckers' pay for the second time this year. In total, its salaries are now between about $4,000 to $6,000 a year higher.
"We have to offer that addition pay to be competitive," Tim Norlin, Roehl's vice president of driver employment, told CNN.
Trucking firm CR England in April announced its largest driver pay raise in company history, and its third pay hike in three years, increasing pay by more than 50% compared to 2018.
A combination of driver scarcity and staggering ecommerce sales has made trucking expensive. Retailers are spending about 30% more than they did in 2019 to transport their goods via truck, Insider reported in September.
"Our customers have been very understanding that it's necessary to raise rates," Norlin told CNN. "I could literally hire 500 to 1,000 more drivers. We have the business offerings from customers to keep them busy."