Independent Drivers Earn 29% More, Study Shows
Independent owner-operators earned nearly 29% more net income than employee drivers in 2013 according to a study released Oct. 14 by the California Trucking Association and the Inland Empire Economic Partnership.
Veteran supply chain economist John E. Husing conducted the CTA-commissioned study of 2,648 independent owner-operators representing port drayage, over-the-road and refrigeration drivers throughout California.
According to the study, independent owner-operators earned $17,400 more than the median pay for employee drivers in California with a 2013 median net income (gross earnings minus fuel, maintenance and insurance costs) of $59,478. In comparison, the California Employment Development Department found that in the first quarter of 2015, company drivers earned a projected median net income of $42,078.
The study found the 2013 median net earnings of the highest 25% of independent owner-operators to be $102,087.The next 25% earned $68,936, the third 25% earned $47,005 and the last 25% earned $28,297.
“That shows that owner-operators are not a monolith,” CTA Policy Director Chris Shimoda said of the study, which Husing said was the first of such magnitude of net earnings.
Husing was surprised not only by the range of net earnings but also by the overall disparity between independent owner-operators, who represent fewer than 20% of truckers, and company drivers.
“I certainly didn’t expect to have such a large difference between three quarters of the drivers and the median for [the employee drivers],” Husing, who has studied the economy of California’s Inland Empire for 51 years, said during a conference call with reporters.
Husing called the trucking and logistics industries the most important job producers in the region, whose poverty rate soared more than 60% from 1990 to 2012, and “the best route to the middle class for marginally educated poorer families.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national median annual wages of employed drivers was $39,520.
Shawn Yadon, CEO of CTA, was encouraged by the study’s results.
“Some of the largest and most successful carriers started as independent owner-operators with a single truck,” Yadon said. “CTA will continue to support our professional drivers who choose to utilize the incredible entrepreneurial opportunity that comes from being a part of the trucking industry.”
