Drivers Most Fret About Wages Not Keeping Up With Inflation
Truck Parking Slips to No. 2 Spot in Annual ATRI Survey
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Adequate compensation is the top concern among professional drivers in 2025, according to the American Transportation Research Institute’s annual survey of trucking industry participants.
Driver compensation replaced truck parking atop the list of worries for drivers who responded to the 21st critical issues survey, ATRI said Oct. 26.
Truck parking was the No. 2 concern in 2025 for drivers. English-language deficiency for drivers, broker issues and detention/delay at customer facilities rounded out the top five among the 27 topics to choose from.
Wages are up 2.4% for drivers, according to ATRI research, but that is 0.5% below the rate of inflation.
A study commissioned by FinditParts on truck driver job satisfaction saw predictable pay cited by 81% of drivers as the reason for seeking alternative employment.
During the unveiling of the study’s results at American Trucking Associations’ 2025 Management Conference & Exhibition, Prime Inc. over-the-road driver and America’s Road Team captain Emily Plummer bemoaned the state of the economy and its impact on drivers.
“Drivers don’t want to live paycheck to paycheck,” said Plummer, a driver for 24 years who has accumulated more than 3.5 million safe driving miles.
Drivers want to be able to feed their families, pay their mortgage or rent, the basics every American desires, said Plummer, who was named the ’s 2023 Professional Driver of the Year.
Plummer warned MCE attendees that drivers are taking money from their nest eggs to get by when they want to be saving, putting money away for retirement or major life events.
Prime Inc. ranks No. 19 on Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America.
“Every carrier in here would love to pay their drivers more. It is just not on the cards at the moment,” says A&M Transport CEO Andy Owens. (John Sommers II for Transport Topics)
Speaking on the same panel as Plummer unveiling the study’s results, A&M Transport CEO Andy Owens said it had been difficult as a carrier to raise driver wages because of the freight rate recession.
Glendale, Ore.-based truckload carrier operates in five Western states. Owens also is chairman of the ATRI Research Advisory Committee.
“Every carrier in here would love to pay their drivers more. It is just not on the cards at the moment,” said Owens.
McLeod Software CEO Tom McLeod discusses how the company is incorporating AI into trucking software in ways that work for carriers and brokers navigating a challenging freight market.Tune in above or by going to .
The top overall concern among survey respondents, the economy, did not make the Top 10 for drivers despite the correlation between that and drivers’ No. 1 issue.
There were more than 4,200 respondents to the survey. Of those, 47% were from motor carriers and 30% were drivers.
Respondents’ top-ranked strategies for dealing with drivers’ biggest concern in 2025 were quantifying the economic impact of paying drivers for all their hours worked, including detention time and congestion delays; analyzing driver compensation models and the correlation to job satisfaction; and researching the effectiveness of carrier programs that financially incentivize drivers, including regarding fuel economy.
ATRI research has shown driver productivity — and therefore compensation — is hurt by 135.9 million hours annually for detention and 1.2 billion hours annually for congestion.
Meanwhile, truck parking slipped to No. 2 in the rankings for driver concerns, perhaps reflecting progress made over the past year. Truck parking also slipped two places to the No. 4 spot in the overall results of the study.
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Ohio and Pennsylvania, for instance, announced expansion of truck parking capacity, with 1,400 spots to be added in Ohio and 1,200 in Pennsylvania.
And at a federal level, the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, which would provide grants for building and improving parking, was unveiled in February, while the Department of Transportation unveiled more than $200 million in grants during the summer.
It is not just the amount of parking that concerns drivers, however, Plummer told MCE attendees. There’s a big difference between parking and safe parking, said Plummer, adding: “I can park my truck anywhere, but am I safe there?”
In addition, safe truck parking is key to attracting and retaining new drivers, especially female drivers, said Plummer.
Oftentimes, drivers may not have a choice outside of on- and off-ramps, said Plummer, which isn’t good enough — a position her peers agree with.
