A new study suggests that there's a link between higher pay for truck drivers and safer vehicle operation. Co-sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, that study, titled "Paying for Safety," was overseen by Wayne State University professor Michael H. Belzer.

The study looked at several different data sets to analyze the relationship between pay and safe driving. One set of data was proprietary information for two 13-month periods from the truckload carrier J.B. Hunt, which raised driver pay to reduce crashes and turnover. Based on J.B. Hunt's experience, the study found that if a newly hired driver's base pay was 10 percent higher than standard, he or she would have a 34-percent lower than standard probability of having a crash. If the driver received a subsequent 10-percent pay hike, his or her crash risk dropped by another 6 percent.

The study also analyzed data collected by the University of Michigan's Trucking Industry program. Researchers from that university interviewed drivers at a number of truck stops during the summer of 1997 and from the spring of 1998 through the winter of 1999. Based on the analysis of those data, the study authors said a 10-percent increase in the mileage pay rate reduced the probability of a crash from 13.8 percent to 10.86 percent.

The study concluded that higher pay produced superior safety performance. "Conservatively," the authors wrote, "we can say that the relationship between safety and pay probably is better than 2:1."