High rates of truck driver turnover have long plagued the full truckload (TL) sector. While greater driver turnover raises TL carriers’ costs, no research has examined how changes in industry‐wide TL driver turnover rates affect industry‐wide prices shippers pay for TL transportation. Drawing on economic theory regarding firms’ asymmetric adjustment of prices in response to changing costs, we explain why increases in driver turnover are expected to increase the prices carriers charge for their services, whereas decreases in driver turnover are expected to have limited effect on the prices carriers charge for their services. We further explain why the positive impact of increases in industry‐wide TL driver turnover rates on prices will be more pronounced when industry employment is rising more rapidly. To test our theory, we assemble a time series data set combining proprietary driver turnover data with publicly available data regarding TL pricing, trucking employment, diesel prices, and aggregate industry activity. Results from fitting a set of time series econometric models corroborate our theorized predictions. We explain the implications of these findings for theory and practice.

中文翻译：

---

货车司机周转对货车货运价格的影响

卡车司机的高周转率长期困扰着整个卡车（TL）部门。尽管更大的司机周转量增加了TL承运人的成本，但没有研究检查全行业TL司机周转率的变化如何影响托运人为TL运输支付的全行业价格。基于关于企业响应成本变化而非对称地调整价格的经济学理论，我们解释了为什么驾驶员营业额的增加预计会增加承运人对其服务的收费，而驾驶员营业额的减少预计会对价格产生有限的影响运营商会为其服务收费。我们进一步解释为什么当行业就业增长更快时，全行业TL驱动程序周转率增加对价格的正面影响会更加明显。为了检验我们的理论，我们将时间序列数据集组合起来，将专有的驾驶员营业额数据与有关TL定价，卡车运输就业，柴油价格和行业活动总量的公开可用数据结合在一起。拟合一组时间序列计量经济学模型的结果证实了我们的理论预测。我们解释了这些发现对理论和实践的意义。