The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs | Solutions for the Dreaded Driver Shortage II

Hooray! Someone save us poor trucking companies from the dreaded Driver Shortage!

The ATA reports average turnover is 136%. That means every driver plus a third more are replaced every year. (Not every driver is literally replaced, but others come and go in less than a year. That’s the average, some are actually worse? (Yeah, that’s a question mark.)

Instead of recruiting new drivers and having the same problem like I mentioned before, (with a solution!) how about keeping the drivers you already have. Part of the problem is some companies don’t care about their turnover rate. They’ve conducted their business like this for so long, it’s just part of the process.

Wanted: Long Haul Drivers

“Right now, we are really stealing each others’
drivers, and that’s not good for the industry and it’s not solving the
problem,” Russell said.

The rest of that article is actually pretty good and tells of ATA’s new ad campaign.

Seizing on that free-spirited image, the campaign will plaster slogans such as “My office has a better view than yours” on billboards and tout them in radio spots, said Mike Russell, spokesman for Alexandria, Va.-based ATA.

Which might be a pretty good ad. On a good day, it’s a big reason I enjoy trucking.

Others that do care have actually raised salaries and made an effort to cater to their drivers needs for home time or dedicated trips with more pay and benefits. Even with the effort focused on the drivers, some drivers are still hopping from one company to another.

If a carrier has done everything they can to give the driver what he wants what else is left? Send consultant fees to my paypal account and pay attention! The CEO or even a sales rep goes into a company and gets treated with respect. Try going in the back door and see how your drivers are treated! We’ve all been to more than a few warehouses that treat the drivers like children. Talk down to them, make them do stupid stuff like load or unload or just stand there and watch, complete stupidity. Sales reps don’t see the warehouses that have no facilities for drivers and if they do have some sort of facilities they’re too disgusting to use. Forcing almost illegal appointment times and the drivers are on time but still have to wait hours and hours to be loaded or unloaded. There are warehouses where the driver has to wait inside the warehouse in an uncomfortable break room instead of going back to
his truck to wait. That’s nuts! Among other things.

Back to the article -

“I can’t live without my truck drivers. We’ve
got to have them,” said Stephen Armellini, who runs the privately held
company’s Miami operations.

The overtures are essential for the company, which executives say
is hit especially hard by the shortage. That’s because its drivers have
to ride in pairs to deliver flowers more quickly and must unload their
own cargo.

Though the team arrangement can work well for two drivers who get along, it’s bad news if there’s conflict.

The potential battles: “Who smokes, who doesn’t? Who wants to run hard, who doesn’t?” Stephen Armellini said.

He jokes that Armellini’s dispatchers serve as marriage counselors for drivers.

Looking for ways to get more drivers in the door, Armellini gave
away one Ford F-150 pickup each quarter last year. But the attempt
didn’t generate much publicity or bring in as many new truckers as
hoped. This year, it plans to give away smaller-ticket items such as
televisions or jackets, Merritt said.

“He jokes?”, yup, pretty funny since your drivers leave as fast as they get there. Maybe it’s how you do business.

My favorite is the contest the warehouse staff has for how long they can ignore the driver standing there. No eye contact, no “just a minute”, no nothing, while they look busy playing solitaire. And even if they are actually busy, a simple, “I’ll be with you in a minute” would be the decent thing to do.

Drivers might deal with their carrier’s office once a week (besides dispatch) or if there’s a problem, but drivers deal with customers every day and sometimes several times a day.

If your customers treat your drivers like crap, no amount of spoiling by the carrier is going to fix that. They might be the customer and they pay the bills, but a little respect from your customers will go a long way to keeping your drivers. How do you go about doing that? That’s why you get the big money!