Close to two thirds of truckload carriers had more than 60% driver turnover in 1999, and over a quarter had more than 90% turnover, according to a survey by SignPost Inc.

Although SignPost said many fleets declined to answer, or didn’t know their turnover, they were able to gather enough data to look at company driver turnover by range and fleet size.
Over half of the smallest fleets (250 trucks or less) reported turnover of less than 60% and 12% of those fleets had turnover below 30%. By contrast, only a fourth of medium sized fleets (251 to 500 trucks) had turnover below 60%, and 7% said it was below 30%. Among the largest fleets (over 500 trucks), 43% had turnover under 60% but only 3% said it was less than 30%.
Just over 39% of medium-sized fleets put themselves in the 61% to 90% turnover range, compared to 23% of smaller fleets and 31% of the largest. Approximately 32% of medium-sized fleets reported turnover in the 91% to 120% range versus 22% of small fleets and 26% of large ones. None of the large fleets had turnover of more than 120%, compared to about 4% of both the large and medium sized fleets.
SignPost did not break out owner-operator turnover by fleet size, since the majority of the reporting carriers were small. Just over 28% said owner-operator turnover was less than 30%. About a fourth put it in the 31% to 60% range, 32% in the 61% to 90% range, 12% in the 91% to 120% range, and approximately 2% said it was over 121%.
For more information on the turnover study or The National Survey of Driver Wages, contact SignPost at (715) 386-3943 or www.thenationalsurvey.com.