The American Trucking Associations opened a survey on Jan. 13 for its 2026 ATA Driver Compensation Study.
The study will detail how fleets as a whole pay workers, featuring not only pay but benefits and bonuses. Survey information will be compiled into a report to help carriers better understand the market.
“In this difficult and prolonged freight recession, the companies with the greatest edge are the ones that have the best data,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said in a statement.
The upcoming report follows a previous format used by the ATA in which compensation is broken down by hourly, per-mile, annual salary and other costs. The study will also include detailed pay estimates across carrier and trailer types and routes, a news release said.
The organization seeks to get input from a large cross-section of motor carriers providing detailed information on total compensation packages, Costello said. Individual carrier information is kept confidential and combined with other fleets’ data.
Participating fleets can later buy the survey’s report at a reduced price of $100.
The survey was last done in 2024. ATA’s research affiliate, the American Transportation Research Institute, also provided updated information on driver wages in a July 2025 report on the cost of trucking, showing wage growth weakened in 2023, 2024 and early 2025.
The new survey is online at www.surveymonkey.com/r/ATA-Driver-Comp-Survey. The deadline to participate is March 30.
