What does driver turnover cost a trucking fleet each year?
Annual turnover cost equals the number of drivers lost in a year (fleet size times turnover percent) multiplied by the cost of each loss, where cost per driver lost is recruiting and advertising cost per hire plus orientation and training cost per hire plus the revenue a truck does not earn while its seat is empty. Every 10 point reduction in turnover saves fleet size times 0.10 times that cost per driver lost.
Founded in 2008 by Scott Elliott in Minnesota, Strong Tower Consulting, LLC (Minnesota File No. 2948628-2) has advised carriers for more than 18 years on the dispatch, driver, and settlement data that show where turnover starts.
Every default below is an example value, not an industry benchmark. Replace each one with the figure from your own recruiting, payroll, and dispatch records. Strong Tower Consulting does not quote an industry turnover rate on this page.
Drivers who left in the year divided by average seated drivers, times 100. Use your own records.
Drivers lost per year: 60
Job boards, lead vendors, recruiter time, signing bonus, screening.
Orientation pay, travel, lodging, trainer time, road test.
Days the truck sits between the departing driver's last load and the replacement driver's first load.
Annual revenue per seated truck divided by operating days. Fixed costs on the parked truck continue, so lost revenue is the opportunity cost.
Results from your inputs
| Scenario | Turnover percent | Drivers lost | Annual turnover cost | Savings vs current |
|---|
Show the math
How the model works
Every figure above comes from the six inputs on this page. Nothing is pulled from another fleet or an industry table.
- Count the departures. Fleet size times turnover percent gives drivers lost per year.
- Price one departure. Recruiting and advertising cost per hire, plus orientation and training cost per hire, plus unseated truck days times revenue per truck per day.
- Multiply. Drivers lost times cost per driver lost is the annual turnover cost.
- Value a 10 point improvement. Fleet size times 0.10 times cost per driver lost. Each 10 points of turnover on a 100 driver fleet is 10 departures.
- Run the scenarios. The table repeats the annual cost at turnover minus 10, 20, and 30 points, never below zero.
drivers_lost = fleet_size x turnover% / 100
cost_per_driver_lost = recruiting_per_hire + training_per_hire + unseated_days x revenue_per_truck_day
annual_turnover_cost = drivers_lost x cost_per_driver_lost
savings_per_10_points = fleet_size x 0.10 x cost_per_driver_lost
scenario_cost(n points) = fleet_size x max(0, turnover% - n) / 100 x cost_per_driver_lost
Open "Show the math" above to see these lines filled in with your current numbers.
What belongs in each cost bucket
Recruiting and advertising
Job board postings, lead generation vendors, recruiter salaries spread across hires, referral and signing bonuses, DOT physicals, drug screens, MVR and PSP pulls, and background checks. If your recruiting department has an annual budget, dividing it by annual hires is a fair starting point for this field.
Orientation and training
Orientation pay for the days before the first dispatch, travel and lodging to get the driver to the terminal, trainer and finisher pay, road test time, and the cost of the equipment and fuel used during training. Carriers with a finishing program for new entrants should include the finisher's lost productivity as well.
Unseated truck days
The truck does not stop costing money when the driver leaves. The payment, insurance, plates, and permits run on. This model values the empty seat by the revenue the truck did not earn, which is the figure an owner usually feels first. If your fleet tracks seated and unseated truck counts in dispatch, the average gap between a departure and the replacement's first load is the number to use. A SQL reporting layer over the TMS driver and tractor tables can produce that average directly rather than relying on a recruiter's memory.
Where to look for industry context
This calculator does not quote a turnover percentage as fact. If you want to compare your figure to published research, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) publishes recurring studies on operational costs and driver issues, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) publishes registration and safety statistics that describe the driver pool. Use them as places to look. The number that matters for this model is your own.
Why turnover is a systems problem as well as a people problem
Drivers leave for pay, home time, and respect. A good share of the frustration behind those three words shows up first in the data: loads that run late because the plan was wrong, settlements that are short because a detention line was missed, dispatch that does not know where the driver wants to be on Friday. Strong Tower's predictive dispatch optimization practice works on the planning side so the driver's week holds together. The business process optimization practice works on the settlement and communication side so the driver is paid what the load earned. A fractional freight CIO engagement ties the two together with the recruiting and retention reporting that lets an owner see the cost on this page in the monthly numbers. Use the savings per 10 point figure above as the budget ceiling for that kind of work.
Frequently asked questions
How is annual driver turnover percent defined in this calculator?
Turnover percent is the number of drivers who left during the year divided by the average number of seated drivers, times 100. A fleet of 100 drivers that loses 60 in a year has 60 percent turnover. A figure above 100 percent is possible when the same seat turns more than once in a year. Enter the figure your own HR or safety records produce. This page does not supply an industry rate.
What costs belong in cost per driver lost?
This model counts three buckets. Recruiting and advertising cost per hire covers job boards, lead vendors, recruiter time, signing bonuses, and drug and background screening. Orientation and training cost per hire covers the pay, travel, lodging, and trainer time for onboarding. Unseated truck days times revenue per truck day values the revenue the parked truck did not earn while the seat was open. Fixed costs on that truck continue whether or not it moves, so lost revenue is used as the opportunity cost.
How is the savings per 10 point reduction calculated?
Savings per 10 point reduction equals fleet size times 0.10 times cost per driver lost. A 10 point drop in turnover on a 100 driver fleet means 10 fewer departures a year, and each departure avoided saves the full cost per driver lost. The scenario table applies the same logic at 10, 20, and 30 points below your current turnover, floored at zero so the model never shows negative departures.
Where can a carrier find industry context on driver turnover?
The American Transportation Research Institute publishes annual research on operational costs and driver issues, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration publishes registration and safety data that bears on the driver pool. Both are places to look for context. This calculator does not quote a turnover percentage from either source. Every number on this page comes from the inputs you enter, and the defaults are example values only.
This calculator is a planning estimate, not tax, legal, or accounting advice. It values an empty seat by lost revenue, which is one reasonable convention among several. Your accountant may prefer a contribution margin or a fully loaded cost basis.
Find the turnover cost hiding in your dispatch and settlement data.
Strong Tower Consulting provides independent systems architecture, feasibility audits, and engineering roadmaps for motor carriers and freight brokers. Contact our advisory team or call 763-244-1373 to walk through where your driver data lives and what it can tell you about retention.
Strong Tower Consulting, LLC and Exspeedite LLC are separately organized sister companies under common ownership.