Paycheck checkup: The real spread between driver and contractor pay

Trucking income figures released in a survey related to California port haulers vary from income data tracked by other sources.

If you’ve noticed some of the truck driver income numbers in the news lately, you might be scratching your head. Especially if you’re a struggling owner-operator, wondering if you’d earn more and stress less by going back to the company driver ranks.

The California Trucking Association and another group with an interest in maintaining the independent contractor status of port owner-operators released a survey this month that says in California, owner-operators earn $17,400 more than company drivers. That spread grows to $20,000, based on the U.S. Department of Labor’s nationwide company driver median wage of $39,520 for 2014, cited in the report.

In California, the study listed a median $59,478 income for owner-operators in 2013 and a $42,078 median for company drivers in 2015.

Study: California owner-operators outearn company drivers

Among California truckers, average owner-operator net income exceeds that of company drivers by more than $17,000, according to a study released today.

Enter the Oct. 14 Wall Street Journal story, “Truckers Haul Home Big Increases in Pay.” It says company drivers this year are earning $57,000. That’s based on the respected survey of medium and large fleets done for two decades by the National Transportation Institute.

NTI Principal Gordon Klemp told me the federal median pay relies on survey results translated to hourly earnings over a 40-hour week, which doesn’t reflect the way long-haul trucking compensation works. The numbers also don’t account for accessorial pay.

The reality: “aggressive changes” in pay over the last 18 months, he says. Many fleets have been reporting year-over-year increases as high as 12 cents per mile. “We’ve never seen a 12-cent change before,” Klemp says. “We’re used to seeing 2-cent changes.”

As for owner-operator earnings in 2013, the California groups’ $59,478 is notably higher than the $52,406 reported by financial services provider ATBS for that year, though the first is the median (mid-point of the group) and the second is an average. ATBS clients are on track to earn an average $60,000 this year.

It’s hard to argue with the ATBS numbers. The company processes thousands of owner-operator tax forms, so there’s no derivation of earnings from gross revenue, as in the California report, and no error from incorrect survey responses.

The bottom line: It looks like the California spread of $17,400 between company driver and owner-operator earnings is way overstated, at least as applied on the national scale. Instead, the $50,000-$60,000 range is now commonplace for many employed and leased long-haul truckers. Klemp’s take is that owner-operator earnings have enjoyed three strong years of increase, and more recently company driver compensation has been playing catch-up, narrowing the gap between drivers and owner-operators.

Most owner-operators probably don’t care if company driver earnings are on par with theirs. You love being more in control of your equipment and your career. You’re willing to bet your hard work and smarts will get you through the bad times and pay off handsomely in good times.

How has your pay trended in recent years? Sound off below.

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