Drivers to Receive Pay Raises, Increased Paid Vacation Time

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (July 10, 2017)

Drivers to receive pay raises, increased paid vacation time

Mileage-based drivers will see 1-cent-per-mile bump beginning this fall, while all drivers with three years at SRT will be eligible for two weeks paid vacation starting next year

TEXARKANA, Ark. — Drivers at Southern Refrigerated Transport will see pay increases and more paid vacation time annually in the near future, thanks to newly-announced compensation package increases at the temperature-controlled freight carrier.

Mileage-based drivers will earn an additional 1 cent per mile on every load when a wage increase kicks in on Oct. 1 of this year. That increase is equivalent to an approximately $1,000-a-year raise on average, and will affect company drivers and owner-operators.

Also going into effect Oct. 1, student drivers at SRT will see an increase in weekly wages during training, while drivers with at least one year at SRT will now receive holiday pay on both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“It’s just a nice ‘thank you,’” said Terri Lafayette, director of recruiting at SRT. “These folks work with devotion day-in-and-day-out. We know how reliant we are on them.”

Lafayette said the pay raise is meant to show both current and future SRT drivers that the company is “a great place to be.”

Additionally, all drivers with three years at Southern Refrigerated Transport will be eligible to receive two weeks of paid vacation, effective Jan. 1, 2018.

Drivers previously earned a maximum one week of paid vacation, on top of normal home time, and normal pay during holidays.

Billy Cartright, COO and executive vice president at SRT, said these changes to driver compensation represent the company’s commitment to its people and goals.

“We want to be competitive in the marketplace with our driver pay, and we want to take care of our professional drivers,” he said. “They keep America moving forward and are critical to the success of SRT .”

He said the increases will also help SRT fulfill its guarantee to customers.

“We deliver a service to our customers by picking up and delivering their freight on time, as promised,” he said. “As we take care of our professional drivers, they will take care of our customers — a win-win for all.”

To learn more about Southern Refrigerated Transport, visit www.southernref.com.
To learn more about driving for SRT, or to apply for a driving job, visit www.driveforsrt.com.

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About Southern Refrigerated Transport

Southern Refrigerated Transport specializes in solo, refrigerated truckload transportation. It is a wholly- owned subsidiary of Covenant Transportation Group, Inc., holding company for several transportation providers that offer premium services for customers throughout the United States. The consolidated group includes operations from Covenant Transport and Covenant Transport Solutions of Chattanooga, Tenn.; Southern Refrigerated Transport of Texarkana, Ark.; and Star Transportation of Nashville, Tenn. In addition, Transport Enterprise Leasing, of Chattanooga, Tenn., is an integral affiliated company providing revenue equipment sales and leasing services to the trucking industry. Covenant Transportation Group’s Class A common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol CVTI.