Walmart raises pay for truck drivers to as much as $110,000
Yahoo Finance's Dani Romero breaks down Walmart's wage increase for long-haul truck drivers, the retailer opening up a training program, and the state of supply chain disruptions.
Video Transcript
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- Welcome back. A big issue in this country and the economy right now took center stage at the White House earlier this week. The US is now short more than 80,000 truck drivers in this country, due in large part to poor pay and working conditions. But the largest employer in the country is stepping in and doing their part to solve that problem-- Walmart with a pay raise for truck drivers. Dani Romero here with the latest on this, as well as their training initiative they are launching. Dani, what do we need to know?
DANI ROMERO: Yeah, Dave. That's right. Walmart is making big moves today. The retailer announced that it will be increasing its wages for long-haul truck drivers, as well as expanding its program to train the next generation of truck drivers. Walmart said that truck drivers will now be making between $95,000 to $110,000. They will also be raising their average pay as well. Walmart said that the average salary for a long-haul driver sits about $56,000, give or take, and they're hoping to nearly double that.
Now, the push really comes as a supply chain disruptions really disrupted the already troubling trucking industry. Last month, the trucking industry said that they lost 4,900 jobs according to the Labor Department. Walmart and other retailers really saw a significant jump in revenue as the demand for consumer goods really soared during the pandemic. Walmart has hired 7,000 drivers for its internal fleet during the past two years, compared to last year when they hired 4,500 drivers. Currently, the retailer employs 12,000 drivers right now.
And the new private fleet program is a 12-week program that is taught by the company's established drivers. And so through this new program, Walmart is paying for supply chain associates in Dallas and other areas to earn commercial driver license, the CDL, which could cost between $4,000 and $5,000 to become a professional Walmart driver. Brad?
- All right. Yahoo Finance's own, Dani Romero. Thanks so much, Dani.
