University of Tennessee, Knoxville, supply chain management professor Yemisi Bolumole has contributed to a nationwide study examining the impacts of compensation methods on driver retention and safety in the trucking industry. The report, which Congress requested as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, was conducted by industry scholars and experts recruited by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
Study Objectives
In November 2022, Bolumole, the director of GSCI’s Transportation and Logistics Collaborative, was selected to serve alongside National Academies staff and faculty from Michigan State, Indiana, Oregon State, Iowa State, and other institutions on the TRB’s Committee on Impacts of Alternative Compensation Methods on Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Retention and Safety Performance. In October, the committee published the long-awaited report “Pay and Working Conditions in the Long-Distance Truck and Bus Industries: Assessing for Effects on Driver Safety and Retention.”
“The University of Tennessee’s involvement in this research underscores our commitment to contributing valuable insights to policymakers and the industries they govern,” said Bolumole.
“Our participation helps bridge the gap between academic theory and real-world application and relevance while reinforcing our role in shaping critical industry standards and policies.”
Key Insights from the Report
The study revealed several critical insights:
- Diverse Compensation Methods: Drivers are paid in various ways—per mile, per hour, or by load revenue percentage. Due to inconsistent data, these factors complicate drawing direct correlations between pay structures and safety performance.
- Driver Behavior: Concerns about livelihood affect driver behavior, potentially leading to risky actions like rushing deliveries when paid by mile or hour during traffic delays. However, no consistent data confirmed that these payment methods directly cause increased safety hazards.
- Data Collection Challenges: The report recommends that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which commissioned the study, invest in better data collection mechanisms to understand if such a correlation exists between compensation methods and safety issues. Current federally mandated safety information lacks details about individual drivers’ pay scales or tenure.
- Driver Churn vs. Shortage: Contrary to popular belief, the report showed there isn’t a significant, consistent driver shortage but relatively high turnover within companies—drivers frequently switch employers for better incentives without leaving the industry altogether.
Industry Response
The report has generated heated discussion online. While agreeing with many aspects of the report related to compensation, the American Trucking Association (ATA) disagreed with the suggestion that driver churn and not shortages is the central issue affecting the industry. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), representing smaller carriers or individual drivers, was disheartened the research did not reach more solid conclusions, according to an analysis of the report’s findings in the Commercial Carrier Journal.
“While there will always be debate about conclusions drawn in any academic study, we encourage, even welcome, these open discussions about our findings to ensure that all stakeholders—drivers, businesses, policymakers, and researchers—are informed and remain engaged,” Bolumole said. “These conversations can drive meaningful changes that will hopefully lead to improved safety standards, better working conditions for drivers, and safer roads for all of us who share this infrastructure every day.”
The report’s publication concludes this specific assignment for Bolumole with the TRB . Currently, she manages several transportation projects for the collaborative, including a large-scale driver data collection study in partnership with the University of Central Arkansas, the University of Turin in Italy, and several national truck carriers within the Alliance for Driver Safety and Security (The Trucking Alliance). This partnership aims to inform existing and upcoming policy from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration regarding hair and urine testing for truck drivers. Bolumole and UT faculty are also working with partners at the International Association of Maritime and Port Executives (IAMPE) to assess the feasibility of TN’s inland waterway system for intra- and interstate freight transportation.
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