SURREY, B.C. — A progressive B.C. carrier is shelling out more than $400,000 in profits to its drivers and owner-operators this year.

Surrey, B.C.-based Coastal Pacific Xpress, a 300-truck long-haul TL and expedited carrier, is paying 475 employees and drivers the bonuses in recognition of their role in helping the company generate revenue of $100 million for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2006 — a 41 percent ($71 million) increase over 2005.

The bonuses are on top of the 45 percent boost in raises the company gave its owner-ops since last October.

CPX, which specializes in temperature-controlled and just-in-time delivery across North America, is also unveiling an enhanced benefits package for its owner-ops that takes effect this coming October.

“It’s easy to just say ‘thank you’ to your employees and owner operators for a job well done,” said Jim Mickey, general manager and partner at CPX. “We believe in giving back to our people what they have given to us — committed, loyal and hard work through the past year that led to tangible results.”

Adds Glen Parsons, partner and vice-president of marketing at CPX: “We didn’t achieve these results alone. That’s why we feel so strongly about sharing these good fortunes. Every single person played a role.”

Of course, the ROI is more than just a positive company culture.

In an industry where the qualified driver turnover rate hovers over 120 percent, CPX’s turnover rate is now 20 percent — down another two points from 2005 — which is dramatically lower than the industry average.

In an interview with Today’s Trucking recently, Mickey said his company has grown 500 percent in the last few years at a time when other fleets are forced to downsize because of a lack of quality drivers.

Six years ago CPX wasn’t any different than any other haulage company, says Mickey — competing on price, and paying more or less the industry standard.

But the whole idea that trucking was just a commodity soon became difficult to accept for Mickey, who returned to trucking in 2000 after a long hiatus.

Realizing that premium service needs premium drivers, Mickey and Parsons set out to make CPX the employer of choice.

“Trucking has this ludicrous idea that we can get away with a cavalier disregard for a worker’s time,” he says. “That’s not the way the world works. You wouldn’t get away with the way we treat drivers anywhere else.”

People-Service-Profits — that’s the company’s motto, literally in that order. So far, it’s paying off in full.