ARLINGTON, VA. – The turnover rate for truckload drivers at large fleets climbed to 89 percent in the third quarter, indicating increased demand and competition for drivers, reported the American Trucking Association(ATA).

"Due to the economic recovery, as well as regulatory factors like CSA, we are seeing the market for good, quality drivers tighten,” said ATA chief economist Bob Costello.

“As our tonnage index has shown recently, demand for freight continues to rise, so we expect the need for quality drivers to become more acute going forward, particularly if regulations either force current drivers out of the industry or force fleets to put more trucks on the road.”

This marks the fourth straight quarter that turnover rate has increased, and sets the nechmark rate at its highest level since the first quarter of 2008. Since bottoming out in the first quarter of 2010, the turnover rate has climbed 50 percentage points and averaged 81 percent throughout 2011.

Turnover rate at small truckload fleets also increased to its highest level since Q3 2008, coming in at 57 percent.

Less-than-truckload turnover is still extremely low at 10 percent.