Walmart has announced that truckers in their first year with the company can now earn up to $110,000 annually. And that is just the beginning. Drivers who have worked for Walmart for longer can earn even more based on tenure and geography.
According to a Walmart spokesman, the business is raising beginning salaries for truck drivers from $87,000 to $95,000 per year.
The attempt by Walmart is to help address supply chain shortages and the lack of available truck drivers, which is a significant problem across the trucking industry. In addition to the financial incentive offered, the company is looking to expand a 12-week program for current employees to become certified drivers.
Associates will graduate with their CDL through Live Better U (LBU). Graduates will also receive months of real-world experience under professional instructors and a dedicated mentor to help them easily transition into their new careers after the classroom portion of the training. Students will receive a Walmart Private Fleet shirt and trucker cap instead of a graduation cap.
Walmart currently has approximately 12,000 truckers working for the company. However, over the past two years, rapid turnover has led to the company hiring 7,000 drivers.
“We want to make sure we continue to attract drivers but also retain [existing drivers],” said Karisa Sprague, a senior vice president in Walmart’s human resources department.
“You can pull up job postings, and there are lots of sign-on bonuses and shiny objects out there, and we want to make sure our associates are taken care of,” she added.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual pay for heavy-truck and tractor-trailer drivers in the United States was $47,130 in 2020, the most recent year for which data is available, and has climbed by roughly 3% to 4% annually since 2016. Truckers transporting complex goods such as wind turbines or hazardous commodities are frequently paid more than the industry average.
