Obviously, vehicles cannot be transported to and from auctions and dealerships without someone to load them and drive the hauler to the intended destinations.

United Road is boosting its efforts to ensure that key person is readily available to meet vehicle transportation demands.

This week, United Road president and chief executive officer Mark Anderson announced the expansion of the company’s guaranteed pay benefit to all drivers: first year, tenured and rehires. 

Anderson explained that guaranteed pay gives drivers a level of financial assurance and security with the knowledge that they can count on a consistent level of income. He said it’s one way the company can support its professional drivers who are key to United Road’s ability to deliver for its customers.

“Our drivers haul in all kinds of weather including through and around hurricanes, construction zones, under challenging circumstances — from the pandemic to the chip shortage,” Anderson said in a letter to company drivers. “We recognize that many elements of car hauling are out of a driver’s control, including the variability of earnings.

“Guaranteed pay is a mind-easing benefit, a safety net that can help mitigate the downswings of pay volatility,” Anderson continued.

For drivers in their first year, United Road said, guaranteed pay is $2,300 per pay period, which over the course of a year equates to a pay of at least $60,000.

The company said tenured drivers — professionals with more than one year of employment — will earn a minimum of $2,500 per pay period, or at least $65,000 annually.

Typically, United Road said company drivers earn well-above these thresholds with the top quartile of tenured drivers earning an average of more than $100,000 annually.

To qualify for guaranteed pay a driver must:

— Be an active employee and operate a seven-car hauler or larger truck

— Be available for and accept all assigned work within a current two-week pay period

— Work a minimum of 100 hours during a pay period

“We piloted the benefit earlier this year with first year drivers and saw a dramatic increase in driver satisfaction and retention,” Anderson said. “It was a natural to take this pay stabilization benefit company-wide with our tenured and returning drivers. Our goal is to be the employer of choice for professional drivers. These men and women are the ‘front door’ of our customers’ experience with United Road.”

United Road employs approximately 900 professional drivers and has a network of nearly 1,000 independent contractors and 5,000 third party carriers.

For more details about becoming a drive for United Road, go to this website.