As they struggle to survive in a tough economy, many companies are reversing the trend of recent years and are cutting driver pay and benefits.
Among the fleet pay packages tracked by the National Survey of Driver Wages, the fourth quarter of 2001 saw decreases for average company driver pay in two of the three trailer segments tracked.

Overall, 16 percent of the fleets made changes of some sort in their pay packages, for an average decrease of .3 percent. In addition, this was the second time in the last four quarters to show a negative annualized rate, a decrease of .2 percent. A large number of those changes involved health insurance, with more than three-quarters of the companies making changes increasing the health insurance co-pays paid by drivers.
Nearly a quarter of the dry van fleets adjusted wages in the fourth quarter, with the average change being a drop of half a percent. Just over 9 percent of flatbed companies made wage changes, for an average drop of .6 percent. Among reefer fleets, 15.4 percent made changes, for an average increase of .2 percent.