MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -- It's not unusual that owner-ops' wages are falling along with carriers' bottom line in the current freight market.

What is surprising, though, according to Cerno Research's latest study of the wage and benefit market for the Trucking Industry in Canada, is other positions in trucking actually increased in 2008.

Cerno, a leading provider of industrial wage information in Canada, says that while owner-op pay -- especially in the upper percentiles -- contracted last year, highway dispatchers added 3.9 percent at the 50th percentile year over year.

Dispatchers are one of the few truck industry
workers that are seeing nominal pay increases

To manage such an increase in a difficult year there were multiple factors at play, says Projects Director Stephen Harrington, noting that "recessions cause complex markets."

Reasons for the up-tick in dispatcher pay include: shortage of skill in some regions; layoffs of lower-paid dispatchers; skill shortage and correction caused by retirement; union contract increases; and outlier transport firms that are still profitable despite the economic slowdown.

Cerno Research's complete trucking industry study is available now, covering nearly 100 job titles by regions, sub-industry, company size, and union or ownership status.

The firm is also in the middle of completing manufacturing & distribution study.

"Our goal is to help our customers fully understand their competitiveness in as many industrial job categories as possible in the trucking and manufacturing and distribution verticals," says Harrington.