Dive Brief:
- Referral and sign-on bonuses were slightly down in Q4 compared to a year earlier, according to The National Transportation Institute’s driver pay survey update last month.
- The current sign-on bonus averaged $3,777, down from $3,819 one year earlier, and the current referral bonus was $1,926 on average, versus $1,955 a year ago, the organization told Trucking Dive last week.
- “Sign-on bonuses have been slowly falling quarter-to-quarter throughout the year after cresting in 2023’s first three months,” NTI said in its update. “Referral bonuses, meanwhile, have been flat through the year.”
Dive Insight:
Sign-on bonuses can frequently dishearten new workers because the change in compensation can feel like a pay decrease after their initial boost wears off, the NTI said.
“At NTI, we are not necessarily proponents of sign-on bonuses, as they're not a driver favorite,” NTI President and CEO Leah Shaver said in a statement, noting the organization advocates for other incentives geared more toward long-term retention such as transition pay and built-in tenure pay incentives and robust referral programs.
While referral and sign-on bonuses decreased slightly, driver pay is still rising, even though increases have moderated in 2023.
Bonuses can range from retention to safety and vary based on factors such as changing economic conditions, labor demands and company performance, the American Transportation Research Institute has noted.
For Q4 2023, the decreased average bonus in referrals year over year marked the “first dip for referrals since the third quarter of 2020,” and the dip in sign-on bonuses was the first downward shift since Q2 2022, NTI reported.
But more fleets are offering such incentives than in Q4 of last year: Nearly 89% of all fleets now offer referral bonuses, and nearly 72% offer sign-on bonuses.
