One Person’s Answer to the Driver Shortage

This white paper that this article is talking about is at www.trincon.com and is worth the 5 page download in Adobe format. Out of all the solutions listed in the actual white paper, fleetowner.com likes this idea the best.

No time for cowboys
…trucking will never cure driver turnover until it starts turning to a new breed of employee.

“Trucking executives must be visionary and meet their demands for drivers by improving recruitment and retention strategies now,” says Swain. “The trucking industry has not focused on developing the career-minded driver.”

He then explains the kind of person that trucking attracts -

After conducting extensive surveys over the past 16 years, TRINCON GROUP has established the following detailed profile of truck drivers.According to Swain, 16 years of Trincon Group surveys of truck drivers has painted them indelibly with a profile that “does not define a stable employee concerned about a secure career and future.” Indeed, Trincon found the dominant job-related personality traits of drivers who frequently change employers are “independent, non-confrontational, and defensive.” If that’s the case, no wonder so many walk faster than they drive.

Swain says this profile “does explain why many fleet drivers think the company truck belongs to them; [why they] are attracted to a non-regimented job environment rather than money; and [why they]will quit their jobs when confronted with attempts to regulate their work habits. Thus, most truck drivers make a lifestyle choice rather than a career choice, when they look for or leave a work position.”

The drivers love their independence and have a problem with authority. Nothing new. The industry’s solution thus far has been -

Swain’s also correct in laying much of the blame for this at trucking’s feet. “The problem surfaced as a result of industry deregulation in 1980,” he points out. “Driver pay rates have been set by the market rather than based on experience and competence and drivers have little loyalty to a particular employer, since they can obtain comparable pay and benefits with any number of fleets.

“Previous and current recruiting techniques used by most trucking companies compound the problem,” Swain continues. “Poorly targeted advertising, unprofessional interviewing, poorly defined or enforced qualifications, and inadequate entry-level training produce drivers who are ill-suited to meet challenges facing trucking companies today.”

The solutions that Mr. Swain lays out are not that earth shattering (from the actual white paper).
Orientation programs need work. Duh!
Recognition programs These need work too.
Define a career path from trainee through different levels of experience and skills (BFD!), he does suggest that motivated drivers might advance to middle and upper management. (Something besides dispatcher!)
Improve training at industry schools. His only problem there is that he suggest that ATA and other groups put up money for loan guarantees.

Real change, therefore, must come from the leadership of the trucking industry, such as the ATA and TCA who can organize industry leaders and private investors to respond to this great challenge. This issue offers an opportunity for the ATA and TCA to fulfill their destinies by building resources from within their membership as well as lobbying for industry opportunities. They should lead a concerted effort to gain the attention and support of the insurance, shipping and logistics industries in this effort.

ATA, TCA and other industry groups only goal is to find a source of cheap drivers to fix the immediate problem.

Then we come to the big kahuna. Mr Swain firmly believes that a truck should be moving 24/7 and that a single driver for a single truck is a big waste of money.

Increased truck productivity is the only way to compensate for the increased costs of driver earnings, now or in the future. Full utilization of equipment and drivers will only come with new strategies.

Those of the past will not work. Trucking industry executives must replace the “one driver, one truck” philosophy with strategies that fully utilize their entire fleets and drivers consistently, and thereby increase productivity. Ask yourself, “When was the last time a plane or train had to sit idle because they lacked a well-trained pilot or engineer to operate them?” Or ask yourself, “when was the last time your flight was terminated because the pilot ran out of hours?”.

Trucks are should operate no differently. They are designed for near constant use. The typical warranty life is 700,000 miles, with a design life now exceeding 1,000,000 miles. Tax laws allow trucks to be depreciated over three years. Thus, the optimum use for profit and tax-advantage is to operate a truck 700,000 miles in three years. You cannot approach this optimum using a one driver per truck operating strategy or lack a sufficient cadre of well-trained drivers.

The only way that’s going to happen is if everyone goes to a hub and spoke system or “pony express” everything and in the world of brokered irregular truckload freight, that is going to be tough to do. I’m sure if the larger TL companies could make a profit doing that, they would. Even with dedicated customers, most of the time the customer only has freight one way. The company then has to get that truck back to that customer with whatever happens to be available.

Some companies are trying to keep their trucks rolling all the time by hiring more teams. Teams are in short supply right now and it will only get worse because this is the industry’s ‘quick fix’.

Bottom line-

The Solution: Make Truck Driving Attractive to Educated, Security-, Career- Minded Persons! To solve the driver turnover problem, the industry must recruit or create a driver who is security- and career-conscious, and self-motivated to increase their wage or standing in a company.

In order to make truck driving attractive, no matter what kind of employee, wages are going to have to come up. Good drivers come from good, professional, mature, responsible people. And with the economy the way it is now, those kind of hard working people have plenty to choose from. Trucking will have to compete with the rest of the economy instead of it’s normal supply of applicants -

A supply of applicants and trainees, who consider a truck-driving career an opportunity to improve their future financial security, career path and lifestyle, could include:
• Bilingual minorities
• Displaced workers
• Trade school students
• Economically-depressed minorities
• Working women

I wonder, why just economically-depressed minorities and not economically depressed anyone?