What it costs to hire a truck driver
Short answer
The cost of a hire is everything you spent to fill the seat, divided by the drivers who are still driving for you after 90 days. Add the advertising, recruiter time, licence, record and drug checks, orientation pay and travel, any sign-on bonus, and what the parked truck costs each day it sits. The parked truck is often the largest line, which is why how fast you hire matters more than the price of a job post.
The worksheet
Fill in one month of hiring. Count everything spent on drivers who started that month, then divide by the drivers still driving for you 90 days later.
| Line | How to work it out | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Job boards and ads | Every board, ad and boost for the month | $630 |
| Recruiter time | Hours spent on calls, screening and paperwork x hourly cost | $720 |
| Screening | Abstracts or MVRs, PSP reports, Clearinghouse queries, drug tests, for every applicant you checked, not only the ones you hired | $410 |
| Orientation | Orientation pay, hotel, meals and travel | $1,300 |
| Bonuses | Sign-on bonuses and referral bonuses paid | $1,500 |
| The parked truck | Days each truck sat without a driver x what a parked truck costs you a day (payment, insurance, permits) plus the margin it would have made | $6,300 |
| Total | $10,860 | |
| Drivers hired | 3 | |
| Still driving after 90 days | 2 | |
| Cost per driver kept | Total / drivers still driving after 90 days | $5,430 |
A made-up example to show the sum, not an industry average. Use your own numbers.
Why the parked truck is the big line
In the example, one truck sat 14 days. At $250 a day of fixed costs and $200 a day of lost margin, that is $6,300, far more than every ad together. Two things follow:
- A faster hire saves more than a cheaper board. Calling applicants back the same day often matters more than which board they came from.
- Keeping a driver is cheaper than replacing one. If one hire in three leaves within 90 days, every remaining hire carries the cost of the one who left.
Ways to bring it down
- Post the pay and home time as numbers
Drivers who would not take the job do not apply, so fewer screens, fewer no-shows and fewer drivers who quit in week two.
- Answer the same day
Good drivers talk to several carriers at once. The first real call often wins.
- Pay referral bonuses in parts
Half at 30 days, half at 90 days, so you pay for drivers who stay.
- Screen before you spend
Ask the licence class, experience and record questions before you order paid checks.
- Count by channel
Track the cost per driver kept for each board and drop the ones that bring applications but no hires. The where-to-post guide has a table for it.
What the checks cost
- FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse: $1.25 per query, bought in query plans on the Clearinghouse website; unused queries do not expire.
- FMCSA Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) report: $10 each, plus a yearly carrier subscription of $25 for fleets with fewer than 100 power units.
- Driving records (MVRs in the US, abstracts in Canada): set by each state or province.
- Drug tests: set by the collection site and lab you use.
What TruckerPro Jobs costs
$29.99 CAD a month in Canada, $21.99 USD in the US and $399 MXN in Mexico, plus tax. That covers one new job post every week, each live for 30 days, with no fee per click, per application or per hire. If you hire only now and then, a single post is $9.99 CAD, $7.99 USD or $149 MXN, paid once. Each post shows how many drivers saw it, opened it, revealed your contact and applied, so you can fill in the worksheet for this channel.
Questions carriers ask
How much does it cost to hire a truck driver?
It depends on your market and how long the truck sits empty. Add advertising, recruiter time, screening, orientation, any bonus and the daily cost of the parked truck, then divide by the hires still driving after 90 days. The worksheet on this page does the sum with an example.
What is a good cost per hire for truck drivers?
A lower one than last quarter. Fleets, lanes and markets differ too much for one number to mean anything, so track your own cost per hire for each channel and move budget to the cheapest one that brings drivers who stay.
How can I lower the cost of hiring drivers?
Post the pay and home time clearly so fewer unqualified drivers apply, call applicants back the same day, pay referral bonuses to your own drivers, and stop paying for channels that bring applications but no hires.
What does TruckerPro Jobs cost?
$29.99 CAD a month in Canada, $21.99 USD in the US and $399 MXN in Mexico, plus tax, with one new job post every week, each live for 30 days. There is no fee per application or per hire. A single post with no subscription is $9.99 CAD, $7.99 USD or $149 MXN plus tax, paid once and live for 30 days.
Sources
Laws and prices change. We checked these on 14 November 2026; read the source before you rely on it. This guide is not legal advice.