Published: September 1st, 2026

Early August Data Shows Trucking Fleets Growing as Driver Pay Cools From June Record

Most trucking employment data takes time to arrive. Payroll data doesn’t.

Because Superior Trucking Payroll Service processes payroll for trucking companies, our monthly indices give us an early look at what is happening with driver employment, pay and turnover before much of the broader industry data for the month is available.

Our August numbers are now in, and the three indices are beginning to tell an interesting story.

Trucking fleets in our data grew 1.63% in August. Driver turnover was 9.37%. And the STPS Driver Pay Index fell to 158.08, its second consecutive decline after reaching an all-time high in June.

Taken together, the numbers suggest fleets continue to add drivers without the surge in driver pay or turnover that we saw in June.

Fleet Growth Accelerated in August

The STPS Fleet Growth Index increased 1.63% from July to August.

That follows growth of 0.80% in July and a decline of 0.86% in June.

Recent monthly fleet growth:

• June 2026: -0.86%
• July 2026: +0.80%
• August 2026: +1.63%

One month of growth can be noise. Two consecutive months deserve more attention.

The longer-term numbers make the trend even more interesting.

Our rolling 12-month fleet growth rate stands at 9.67% through August.

A year ago, in August 2025, the rolling 12-month growth rate was -1.97%.

That is a significant change in direction.

The fleets represented in our data aren’t simply recovering from a bad June. On a rolling 12-month basis, they are employing considerably more drivers than they were a year ago.

It is worth noting that August’s 1.63% growth isn’t unprecedented. We saw monthly growth of 6.18% in February and 2.18% in April, for example. What matters more is that the longer-term growth trend has remained positive.

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June’s Record Driver Pay Number Increasingly Looks Like a Spike

The STPS Driver Pay Index reached 170.04 in June, the highest reading we have ever recorded.

At the time, that raised an obvious question: Were we seeing the beginning of another major acceleration in truck driver pay?

Two months later, the answer increasingly appears to be no.

The index fell to 161.31 in July and declined again to 158.08 in August.

Recent readings are:

• April: 150.83
• May: 157.15
• June: 170.04
• July: 161.31
• August: 158.08

That doesn’t mean driver pay is falling over the longer term.

Quite the opposite.

The Driver Pay Index was 148.88 in August 2025, compared with 158.08 today. That’s an increase of approximately 6.2% year over year.

The distinction is important.

The upward trend in driver pay remains. The extraordinary acceleration we saw in June does not.

June’s record-high Driver Pay Index increasingly appears to have been a one-month spike rather than the beginning of a new surge in driver compensation. July and August suggest the pace of increase is considerably more moderate than June initially indicated.

We will need additional months of data before we can say that definitively, but two consecutive declines make June look increasingly unusual.

Driver Turnover Returns to a More Normal Level

Our Driver Turnover Index also had an unusual June.

Turnover reached 14.21% in June, before plunging to 7.12% in July.

August came in between those extremes at 9.37%.

That number becomes particularly interesting when we compare it with last year.

Driver turnover in August 2025 was 9.22%.

In other words, despite everything that has happened in the trucking market over the past year, our August turnover rate is almost exactly where it was one year ago.

The last three months look like this:

• June: 14.21%
• July: 7.12%
• August: 9.37%

Rather than viewing August’s increase from July as a negative development, we think the more useful interpretation is that turnover has returned to something closer to its recent normal range after two unusually volatile months.

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Three Indices Are Starting to Tell One Story

This is why we created multiple trucking payroll indices.

Driver pay by itself tells us something.

Driver turnover tells us something else.

Fleet growth gives us another piece of the picture.

Put them together and we can begin asking better questions about what’s actually happening inside trucking companies.

As of August, our data shows:

Fleet size is growing. Fleets expanded 1.63% in August and are up 9.67% on a rolling 12-month basis.

Driver pay remains elevated but has cooled from its June record. The Driver Pay Index has declined for two consecutive months but remains approximately 6.2% above August 2025.

Driver turnover is relatively normal. August turnover of 9.37% is almost identical to the 9.22% recorded in August 2025.

That combination may be significant.

Trucking companies in our dataset are adding drivers without an accompanying surge in driver turnover. At the same time, they don’t appear to be bidding driver pay dramatically higher to accomplish that growth.

We aren’t ready to declare that the driver labor market has fundamentally changed. There are too many variables involved, and these indices measure the trucking companies represented in STPS payroll data rather than the entire U.S. trucking industry.

But the direction is worth watching.

An Early Look at August Trucking Employment

There is another reason we think these numbers matter.

It’s September 1.

Much of the traditional employment and trucking industry data describing August hasn’t been released yet.

Our indices are calculated from actual trucking payroll activity, which allows us to see changes in driver employment, compensation and turnover very quickly after a month ends.

That doesn’t make STPS data a replacement for government employment statistics or other industry research. It gives us a different view of the market, and an earlier one.

Right now, that early view is encouraging.

Fleets in our data are growing. Driver turnover is nowhere near June’s elevated level. And while driver pay remains well above where it was a year ago, the record-setting June increase increasingly looks like an outlier rather than the beginning of another rapid escalation in driver wages.

We’ll find out over the next several months whether that pattern continues.

For now, August gives us another data point suggesting that trucking fleets may be finding it a little easier to grow without dramatically increasing what they have to pay to attract and retain drivers.

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