Do Private Fleets Have an Advantage?
Published on March 25, 2026
“I wouldn’t want to have to compete against [large, well-known private fleet], paying their drivers $120,000 a year”
~ Numerous for-hire fleet executives over the years
For 18 years, we’ve been running the Best Fleets to Drive For® program, and for just as long, for-hire fleets have been telling us that their private counterparts have a dramatic advantage over them when it comes to hiring and retaining drivers. But is it true? Is it really the case that private fleets, with massively above-market pay packages, are dramatically and fundamentally better than their for-hire counterparts?
After watching this issue for nearly two decades, we can confidently say… maybe, but also maybe not.
Let’s dig into it and see if private fleets really do have an advantage, and if so, what for-hire fleets can do about it.
What is a “private fleet”?
First, it’s important to define what we mean by “private fleet”. The vast majority of private fleets are separately incorporated entities, and most have for-hire authority as well, so on the surface they can look and act a lot like a normal for-hire company.
When we first launched the Best Fleets program back in 2008, our partner at the time, Truckload Carriers Association, was focused on serving the needs of the for-hire community and didn’t want private fleets participating. The private fleet definition at the time – any fleet that hauls its own products – sort of worked, but even then it was muddy. A fleet called “Bob’s Fresh Fruit” would have been disqualified, but “Bob’s Fruit Delivery”, wholly owned by Bob’s Fruit, would have been fine.
Throughout the first 15 years of the program, we saw many participants like Bob’s Fruit Delivery. In the last 3 years, we’ve opened up the program to any separately incorporated company with for-hire trucking authority, and we’ve seen a much broader range of “private” fleets as a result.
Some private fleets haul some of their parent company’s products but do mostly for-hire work. Some are the opposite, doing very little for-hire work. When considering whether private fleets have a driver recruiting or retention advantage over for-hire fleets, it’s important to recognize this wide range of fleet types.
After evaluating all those different types of fleets over the years, the data we’ve seen indicate that private fleets DO NOT have any distinct advantages over their for-hire peers, for a variety of reasons. Let’s look at why.
Advantages and disadvantages – for-hire-leaning fleets
The private fleets that are on the for-hire end of the spectrum (doing half or more of their miles in a traditional for-hire capacity), perform just about the same as fully for-hire companies. That is to say, some have fantastic programs, some are working on it, and some are still figuring things out.
As businesses, most of these fleets are expected by their parent organizations to stand on their own, maintaining stability and profitability. They get business from the parent organization but have to fill in much of the schedule on their own.
For these fleets, the parent company’s support is rarely obvious when evaluating them. There are only a few places where we typically see them excel as a result of the relationship:
- Benefits like health insurance and retirement, where the fleet can be part of the parent company’s much larger plan
- Career development, since there are often opportunities to move into other positions at the parent company
Advantages and disadvantages – private-leaning fleets
For private fleets that skew towards the private end of the spectrum, with a focus on supporting the parent company’s needs with only occasional for-hire work, things can definitely be different. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean “better.”
There are definitely private fleets with compensation packages significantly above the market average. These fleets often have nice equipment, too. Add in the benefits and career development options noted above, and it can look great. On the surface.
In these situations, the private fleet is a strategy that ensures the parent company can always move their product. The fleet size, and its strategic importance, may go up and down with the market, but self-sustaining profitability isn’t generally the primary objective.
Since the business exists in part as a kind of insurance policy, corporate priorities can be different, and that can affect job stability, routing, and many other things.
Just as significant is something that’s not always obvious—why is the fleet paying drivers so much above the market?
If you look below the surface, there’s often a lot to be learned from looking at pay packages. Over the years, we’ve seen many companies (private and for-hire) who pay their drivers quite a bit more than their peers. However, the fleets that do really well in the Best Fleets program (the fleets with the best driver satisfaction, retention, and safety performance) are rarely the highest paying fleets.
Companies pay employees what they need to pay to attract and keep workers. If the company offers a great workplace culture, where people feel like part of a team and are happy coming to work, it generally doesn’t need to pay as much as someone who doesn’t provide those things. This is not unique to trucking—every company in every industry has to balance these issues.
So, if private fleets are paying way above market for drivers, what aren’t they offering? Why do they have to pay that much to attract and keep people?
Implications for different skill levels
Some high-paying private fleets are doing that because they want to attract and retain the absolute best of the best in the industry. There’s nothing wrong with that—every company wants to hire the best quality workers it can find and afford, and great people always command a premium. Great drivers are always in demand, but in pretty much every fleet we’ve ever interviewed there are some drivers making a LOT of money (one owner-operator fleet had a driver regularly grossing over $1 million a year, for example). There’s definitely money to be made at any kind of fleet for the top performing drivers.
For superstar drivers, a high-paying private fleet may be a fantastic opportunity. Those people have a lot of options at any established, reliable fleet, but if they just want to make money running miles then this can be a great option.
For middle tier drivers, the ones who are diligent and on their way to becoming superstars but aren’t there yet, the situation is a bit different. Those drivers typically thrive with the benefit of regular coaching and support, so the “high pay and little else” model can hobble their ability to reach their full potential. As well, if the high-paying private fleet downsizes for strategic reasons, these drivers are the ones most likely to get packaged out. It might still be a good option for them, especially if they’re interested in moving up the corporate ladder, but it’s not a slam dunk.
Bigger isn’t always better
It’s also important to note that there’s a big difference working for a subsidiary of a giant public corporation and working for a smaller, closely-held company. Neither is inherently bad or good, but they’re very different work experiences and drivers need to find a company that’s the best fit for them.
Of course, this is not something unique to private fleets. Big and small are very different whether private or for-hire. We dug into this issue in a post written on LinkedIn, but it’s an area that drivers continue to undervalue when considering job opportunities, so it’s worth noting.
Is there a private fleet advantage?
After all that, hopefully the cagey “maybe, maybe not” answer we began with makes a bit more sense.
For some drivers, working at private-leaning, high-paying fleet is a great opportunity and perfect fit for their skills and work preferences. For other drivers, a for-hire-leaning private fleet, that pays market rates and offers a range of development and support programs, is ideal. In other cases, a straight for-hire fleet is perfect.
After 18 years of sifting through mountains of fleet data and driver surveys, we can say with some certainty that there is no fleet type, industry segment, business size, or freight mix that is definitively or categorically better than others. We’ve seen high-paying fleets that didn’t do well because they didn’t do anything but pay a lot. We’ve seen average paying fleets do really well because they do a lot more than just that. We’ve also seen pretty much everything in between.
There are some large, well-known fleets that pay really well and have great programs. However, that’s not an intrinsic component of being a private fleet, it’s just a reflection of those specific companies.
There is a lesson here for any fleet, private or for-hire. It’s starts with asking yourself, who are the drivers that you want to attract and retain? What do they value? How does that match up who you are and what you’re about? Finding these connections help you identify where to focus.
Here’s an exercise to consider. Create a list of your top drivers, the ones you wish you had more of, then ask them why they like driving for you. Why do they stay when other opportunities come up?
Then look at your programs and how they line up. Open up the Best Fleets Results Book and see what other fleets are doing in the areas your best driver say are important and look for opportunities.
When fleets do that, whether private or for-hire, large or small, they end up with happy drivers who don’t leave, and a solid business. That’s the real advantage.
