Truck Drivers to Gather in Tunica, Mississippi
Posted by Chuck Melton on Tue, Oct 04, 2011 @ 06:24 PM
On Saturday October 15th over 200 truck drivers will gather in Tunica, Mississippi to attend The First Annual Truck Driver Social Media Convention. I wrote about this earlier in the year when I first heard about the idea. (For that post, click here.) I plan to attend this event because I think it’s important for us who are developing fleet management technology to hear what drivers are saying. Driver turnover is approaching 80% and is one of the industry’s most significant costs. What can we who serve the industry do to improve driver retention? Well we can start with listening.
Allen and Donna Smith, the organizers of this event, are passionate about drivers’ issues and from my observations over the last six months they are tireless advocates for drivers. Appropriately, I was able to catch up with Donna today on the social media site, Facebook, to get some comments from her as the convention date draws near.
Donna and Allen Smith
“Yes, we are expecting approximately 200 people”, Donna said, “and since we know some drivers do not RSVP it could be more. We are hearing many say, ‘I am trying to get a load there so I can drop in’. Did you know BusinessWeek will be there?”
She went on to say, “Our goals with this convention are to get driver concerns out to the general public so they do not have a negative image of drivers, but instead understand all the hardships they face….lack of parking, anti-idling, low pay, unskilled classification, and detention pay. They are also facing proposed new rules with Hours of Service and mandated EOBR's and face new challenges from Mexico with the new cross border agreement. Never has their been so much uncertainty for the American truck driver. We believe if more people understand these issues we can create more empathy among the public." For more information go to this link: http://www.truckingsocialmedia.com/
As I have said before, my goal in attending is simply to gain a better understanding of driver issues. I often hear drivers say dispatchers don't really know what it's like to be a driver. As one who develops dispatch systems, I admit I have never driven a truck, however, I would like to do everything in my power to understand their issues. It can only help me and my company serve the industry. I look forward to next weekend!
