Recruiting and Retaining Truck Drivers (The Driver Turnover Issue)
Posted by Chuck Melton on Thu, Nov 03, 2011 @ 02:40 PM
Retaining and recruiting truck drivers are up there among the major concerns for most every fleet manager or owner these days. Aside from the economy and government compliance worries, I can think of no other issue that keeps fleet owners and managers awake at night like “How do we make sure we keep drivers in our trucks”?
Happy Truck Drivers are Critical to Your Success
As I have said in several other articles I have posted, the relationship the carrier has with its drivers is a critical element in the carrier’s ability to grow going forward. I continue to focus on this subject because I think it is something we can do something about. As most of you know, the average turnover rate for the industry exceeds 75%. This is absolutely an amazing number. So to put that in its simplest terms, “the average carrier” has 100 drivers today and next year at this time 75 of those drivers will have moved on. How costly is that factor to the industry. How costly is driver turnover to your company?
So what can you do to improve driver turnover? Here are some suggestions that come to mind after hearing from some drivers recently.
1) Make sure they are paid fairly and accurately. Do you have an automated Driver Settlements program that clearly and accurately displays the trips they were paid for?
2) Avoid making drivers wait at shippers or receivers docks without being fairly compensated.
3) Sincerely listen to their concerns.
4) Start a driver recognition program that profiles a driver periodically on your website. Heck, with video technology now available on cell phones you could post videos of drivers. A “Stories from the Road” series for example.
These are just a few examples and I am sure you can add to this list. Lets honor this most important resource – the American Truck Driver – and attack this very serious problem of driver turnover. It’s the right thing to do and it’s good for business.
