Carrier Nussbaum sets driver pay increase; others popping up more quietly

It’s likely there have been other driver pay increases implemented before Illinois-based Nussbaum Transportation announced one this week.

But it does appear Nussbaum is the first one to talk about it so publicly.

The announcement this week by Nussbaum brought back memories of when Schneider National (NYSE: SNDR) in September 2020 said it was increasing the pay of its drivers. At the time, it wasn’t certain that it was the first one to increase compensation. But the giant carrier was the one who first did it publicly, and a wave of announced driver pay increases followed, a cascade of them that went on for months.

Joseph Anderson, the recruiting director at privately-held Nussbaum, told FreightWaves in an interview that the higher pay package announced this week was actually the second one the company had implemented in the past two months. But the April increase was not publicly disclosed, he added.

Nussbaum is not claiming to be the only carrier that has increased pay. Anderson said when it made the disclosure of its higher pay package, he received at least one call from someone he knows at another carrier who said that her company also had recently set higher pay levels for its drivers.

But from all indications, Nussbaum is the first one out there telling the world what it did.

Leading the pack

“We do think we are a little bit ahead of the pack,” Anderson said.

That driver pay is starting to increase beyond any announcements was affirmed by Leah Shaver, the president of the National Transportation Institute, one of the leading companies surveying driver compensation.

“We have received a conservative number of reported pay increases from fleets in the last four weeks, focused on base pay increases and ease of transitioning for over the road drivers,” Shaver said in an email to FreightWaves. “Based on the complaints from fleets about challenges hiring drivers beginning in Q1 and surging in Q2 and the data supporting the lack of driver hiring in the previous quarter, the pay increases are expected.”

Nussbaum has fluctuated between about 540 to 550 drivers in recent years, Anderson said. It also has a flatbed operation that a year ago was about 11 drivers, Anderson said, and is now up to about 50.

“We’ve got a large orientation group that is coming next week, and hopefully that will put us over the 550 mark,” Anderson said. “That’s basically as high as we’ve ever been.”

Nussbaum was founded in 1945, Anderson said. It largely operated out of one terminal in central Illinois. Anderson said about 30% of the company’s business is for dedicated customers.

Cuts were made at the end of 2024

The change in pay policy at Nussbaum is coming at a head-spinning speed. Anderson said the level of pay for new hires was cut as recently as December 2024. That move also came with reducing supplemental pay levels for what Nussbaum called its “key locations” where it had been paying extra to put drivers into those regions: the area between Chicago and Kenosha/Racine, Wisconsin, the Quad Cities area, Indianapolis and Columbus.

Most of the cuts came off a level that was lifted during the height of the post-pandemic freight surge, that period when the aforementioned Schneider National had kicked off the run of announced increases.

Some of those reductions were reversed in the April 2026 increases. With the new policies announced this week, the specifics are now public.

What they’re going to get

Current over the road drivers will get a 3-cent per mile raise and a $50 increase in their weekly minimum guarantee. For new drivers, the starting pay will be up 5 cents per mile with a $100 increase in the minimum.

One change is that Nussbaum has brought back its enhanced pay package for what it has dubbed its “key locations.” Anderson said between the two increases, April and May, drivers hired in those locations will see a base rate that is 10 cents per mile more than before the change in pay policy.

“Basically, the driver from Chicago who called us two months ago, what we would tell them now is that their pay is 10 cents higher per mile, and there’s an extra $200 in the weekly guarantee, and a sign on bonus of $3,000,” Anderson said.

For a driver “transitioning” from a prior employer to Nussbaum, the sign-on bonus is $3,000, paid out in steps over six months. But the offer only runs through the end of June.

For flatbed drivers, it’s a $5,000 bonus, also paid out in steps and also ending after the end of June.

Nussbaum is also offering an increased “early exit option.” If a driver moves to Nussbaum and then decides it isn’t the place to be, the company previously offered $1,000 as they departed. That will now be up to $2,000.

According to Nussbaum’s announcement, the various increases will add up to what it calls “irregular route” dry van drivers earning an additional $5,000 to $6,000 per year, “and can expect $81,000 to $92,000 their first year depending on experience.

For drivers in the key locations, it’s another $12,000 per year and $86,000 to $95,000 in their first year, “climbing to $91,000 to $100,000 by year two to grow from there,” the company said.

“Before these increases, the top 30% of Nussbaum OTR drivers were already earning an average of $100,000 per year. Nussbaum expects that number to rise significantly once the new pay takes effect,” according to the company’s statement.

Profit sharing a first

One of the biggest changes in compensation will be the implementation of Nussbaum’s first profit sharing plan with drivers.

Anderson said the profit sharing plan rolled out in this latest offering is new; there’s no comparison to what existed previously. It isn’t a fixed number. But as Nussbaum said in its prepared statement on its pay policies, it is likely to average 2 cents per mile per year, “while strong years could see 4 cents/mile.”

Driver pay increases are coming as the movement of drivers from one company to another has slowed, according to a recent blog posting by Shaver.

In a recent update, Shaver said private and for-hire fleets are finding it challenging to snag “quality drivers.”

“Fleets across the industry are finding that drivers are less willing to move, not because pay has collapsed, but because they feel their current position is on par with anything else they’d find,” Shaver wrote.

She said even during the weak freight market of most of 2025, driver pay was stable. That continued into 2026, she said.

In a recent question and answer session at an investors’ conference, Ryder (NYSE: R) CEO John Diez said the ground is being laid for higher driver pay levels.

Ryder’s Dedicated segment services the transportation needs of companies that outsource their requirements to Ryder.

Speaking at the Bank of America Industrials, Transportation and Airlines Key Leaders Conference earlier this month, Diez said the “improving freight market” will start to hit driver pay.

“You’re going to see it on the driver side with turnover and activity moving up,” he said, according to a transcript of the interview. “We have seen some of that as we exited Q1. You’ll then see sign-on bonuses to attract drivers in the marketplace. Sign-on bonuses are not broadly spread, but in select markets, we are seeing sign-on bonuses. And then later on, you’re going to see wage inflation, which will be the next part of the market dynamic.”

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