In its most recent Recruitment & Retention Survey, Driver iQ found that, by and large, fleets expect to raise truck driver wages and offer more bonuses while turnover continues to increase.

In a trucking environment where fleets are increasing driver pay, benefits, and sign-on bonuses, more than a third of fleets have reported that 6-10% of their seats went unfilled. Fleets are desperate to find experienced drivers and nearly 70% of fleets surveyed by Driver iQ said they were offering a sign-on bonus to attract new talent.

The average size of a sign-on bonus ranged from $1,000 to $2,499 with half of carriers paying the bonuses out in less than six months.

“Motor carrier executives continue to play a three-dimensional chess games when it comes to recruiting,” said Lana R. Batts, co-president of Driver iQ. “Managing within the context of an expanding economy, recruiters need to find drivers that are already working, attract them with wages, bonuses, and benefits, and yet still grow and maintain profitability.”

Driver iQ split up fleets surveyed by revenue size and found significant differences in how carriers viewed and dealt with turnover. For instance, the largest fleets with over $100 million in revenue expected turnover to increase while the smallest fleets with less than $30 million in revenue did not. A majority of large carriers were also finding that drivers were retiring as expected while an equal number of small carriers found that drivers weren’t retiring as expected.

One issue in which surveyed fleets were split down the middle was in the number of applicants. Half of the fleets expected to receive more applicants, while the other half expected the number to decrease or stay the same.

The Q2 Trends in Truckload Recruitment and Retention Survey from Driver iQ is the fourth in a planned series of quarterly surveys designed to better understand and measure recruiting and retention experiences and expectations in the truckload sector.

Driver iQ surveyed fleets representing 75,000 trucks and most responses came from dry van carriers with over $100 million in gross operating revenues.

Related: Driver Turnover Rises at Large Truckload Carriers