Southern Refrigerated Transport to Raise Driver Pay in October

Southern Refrigerated Transport will raise pay a penny per mile Oct. 1, according to a July 10 announcement, a sign that carriers are jockeying to attract drivers in anticipation of tighter truckload capacity when electronic logging mandate takes effect in December.

The Texarkana, Ark.-based carrier indicated that the wage hike will equal about $1,000 more per year for company drivers and owner-operators. Drivers with at least one year of service also will receive holiday pay on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The subsidiary of Covenant Transportation Group ranks No. 13 on the Transport Topics sector list of the largest North American refrigerated carriers.

“It’s just a nice ‘thank you,’” said Terri Lafayette, director of recruiting at SRT. “These folks work with devotion day-in-and-day-out. We know how reliant we are on them.”

Also, drivers who have been with the company for at least three years will earn two weeks of paid vacation, effective Jan. 1. Currently, paid vacation is one week.

“We want to be competitive in the marketplace with our driver pay, and we want to take care of our professional drivers,” Chief Operating Officer Billy Cartright said.