Keith A. Hamblin
March 29, 1998
Since I wrote Operation Driver Retention 2 years ago I have had literally hundreds of comments on that subject. All but two of those comments were positive with some exceptions that I might possibly rearrange or even restructure the list of ways a company can attract and keep good drivers. The 2 negative comments were from what I believe are people who are themselves having trouble keeping good drivers and are not willing to admit that the fault could lie with themselves.
Recently I wrote a series of 3 articles related to driver retention which I was trying to sell to one of the larger trucking magazines. They politely rejected them based on the belief that my twenty years as driver, dispatcher, operations manager and, thank God, driver again, does not qualify me as an expert in the field of driver retention.
Admittedly I was a bit offended at first but then I thought well maybe they are right. Maybe the lack of a college degree with a title like Human Resource Director and a salary like a 300,000 mile a year driver is a good indication that I have no clue as to what myself and my counterparts of the last twenty years think, want or are changing jobs in search of.
With that thought in mind I took my tax return this year and purchased four C.B. radios and antennas. I put one in each of the two trucks I drive at work. One in my four wheeler and one in my house. Then with those and email I proceeded to interview working truck drivers. Two hundred working truck drivers to be exact. Of these two hundred, 36 were women. Not because I'm prejudiced but because that was all the woman truckers I found during the interview process. Next, seventy five of the two hundred drivers interviewed were local drivers meaning they report to work and return home daily. I did not ask about pay structure though many volunteered that information. Some were hourly, some were by the load, one was by the ton and the rest who commented one way or the other were mileage. I even found one poor man who was working for .19 cents per mile. I told him that I made that in 1981 but he believes he is investing in an up and coming company so I let it go at that.
The average driver interviewed was twenty seven years old, male, had at least three years experience and had driven for four different companies.
Now can you guess what the number one reason given for changing jobs was? If you are a driver I'd bet on it. If you are a high paid consultant or otherwise accredited expert there is no telling what you might say.
Out of the two hundred drivers interviewed almost a full 41% said that honesty or rather dishonesty on the part of an employer had been a major factor in their seeking other employment. This dishonesty included bonuses promised but nearly impossible to receive. Pay scales or mileage promised and not received. Benefits promised and either not received or drastically reduced after a period of time. Consistent handling of promised "no touch freight" and finally, not getting home when or as often as promised.
The number two answer not surprisingly was pay and benefits. Broken down the majority of these actually fall under the number one answer which was dishonesty from the employer but this was the first reason given by 36% of the two hundred drivers interviewed. Most saw "greener pastures" on the other side of the fence and because they have families and bills to pay felt obligated to pursue them.
At number three with a respectable 19% was "trouble with dispatch". Many of the reasons given here again fall under the number one reason but included: No respect for drivers, Personality conflicts, All 'crappie' runs/loads, etc. and finally not caring about the drivers home obligations.
The final 4% had varying reasons ranging from poor equipment to needing longer/shorter runs etc.
Based on these answers I think there is one very important thing that every employer whether trucking related or not should conclude if they wish to stop the revolving employee door. Honesty is not the best policy, it is the only policy!
Do you use recruiters to man your fleet? If so how do you judge the performance of those recruiters? By the numbers they hire or by the numbers who stay? If you are judging them by the numbers they hire then you are very likely in the majority and I would bet that you are one of the companies with driver retention problems. If your recruiters feel that they must fill as many seats as possible, as quickly as possible then self preservation dictates that they do so by whatever means necessary. These means may not be in your best long term interests. In fact, without even realizing it, your recruiters may very well be guarantying their own future job security and your constant turnover turmoil.
Even the military found this out back in the late 70s while I was on active duty. Based on what they found many recruiters ended up being court marshaled. Some dishonorably discharged and some others even spent time in jail. Why? Because they had lied and or promised virtually anything and everything to get those recruits to sign up. They had a quota to fill and the pressure put upon them to accomplish that task was almost a literal, though unwritten and probably unspoken license to do whatever it took to get the job done; Including forging signatures and overlooking things that would have otherwise prevented them from allowing a person to join.
Under the same circumstances the very nature of men and women is going to dictate that they conduct your business the same way. The difference here is that your drivers or other employees are under no legal obligation to stay on for three or four years even after they find out what the truth really is. Not only that but when they do leave they are going to make it a point to inform every possible replacement that they can reach of the truth before they make the same mistake.
So what is the answer? Obviously it is to tell the truth right from the beginning. I will go you one step further. Try to scare potential employees away before you hire them. If you can't scare them with the truth then the chances are good that you have found a keeper.
Several years ago I was a dispatcher at a dray company who's primary business is local pick up and delivery of inter modal and steamship containers and trailers. Part of my duties included hiring drivers which in my first three months with this company often seemed like a never ending battle. I was following the companys' prescribed methods for hiring but often guys would quit before their second paycheck. In frustration and serious doubt about my ability to perform the job I talked to the company president and vice president about the problem. They informed me that I shouldn't worry. They had been experiencing this type of turnover from the beginning and had not expected any better from me. This relieved me as far as my own job security but I was still very much troubled about why this was happening. I started being more careful when talking to drivers and started asking more questions from the ones that were pulling out.
What I soon discovered was embarrassing to me because of the fact that with so many years as a driver myself, I had not known it right from the beginning. The largest part of our business was local work and because of that we paid our drivers by the hour rather than by the mile or load. Our wage was competitive with the competition but one thing this company did not do that our competition did do was pay time and a half over 40 hours. Our drivers averaged 60 hours per week and for any industry but trucking overtime pay is the law for overtime hours. The largest number of our drivers were not finding this out until their first paycheck and like anyone would be, were very angry when that check came.
Without talking to the bosses I began informing new hires of this before I would allow them to accept the job. My retention numbers began a rapid improvement. Then something happened.
At one time our business was expanding rapidly. I had brought over some customers from my previous employer and it was quite a chore to keep up with the growth. At times even though we were adding new trucks and drivers fairly regularly I was also renting tractors and using drivers from two of the local temp services, a thing I would not now recommend to anyone interested in anything more than moving a large volume of freight for a short period of time. In the midst of this I was trying to hire new permanent drivers. One day while conducting an interview I happened to glance up and see that the president was listening intently at the door. This particular driver seemed ready to come on until I told him about the overtime situation. He thanked me but politely declined the job. Soon after he left I was summoned to the president's office. There I got a royal chewing for telling this potential driver the truth. I explained my side and could show statistically how my retention numbers had improved but that did not matter. I needed drivers right now and I had let one go by telling him the truth. Nothing I could say would convince the president that this was for the better and in the end I was relieved from the hiring responsibility all together. In the opinion of the president it was better to get the guy in the truck and deal with the truth later. Of course it was I not he who had to deal with the angry driver when he did get that first check and find out the truth.
For this and other similar reasons I soon left that company and can tell you in all honesty that they are still using that same revolving door. I can also tell you honestly that nearly every driver I hired with my honesty policy is still there to this day which is now about four years later. You tell me who the expert was.
In conclusion I would just like to say that though it may seem otherwise, these problems are not insurmountable, unless you choose to let them be. If you want to know the truth about your company and it's problems then forget the consultants. Talk to the real experts. You know who they are because they were driving your truck yesterday but are far away today.
In addition to implementing a totally honest hiring policy you might try other things as well. Periodic employee evaluations of dispatch, operations, maintenance and safety could be invaluable. Give them the choice of anonymity so they are not afraid to tell you the truth because no matter what you may say, if for some reason they already don't trust you then they certainly are not going to feel confident telling you something you probably don't want to hear.
Next don't be so willing to get rid of a driver based on the opinion of one dispatcher. Everyone has personality conflicts with different people at different times and if you are so willing to take the word of one without hearing the side of the other then chances are good that you are missing out on a valuable asset. It is also very possible that it is the dispatcher and not the driver who should be heading out the door. If you have more than one dispatcher try transferring a problem driver to a different dispatcher and let him decide what the guy is worth.
There are many other things to look at but since my intention here was not to write a book I will save them for future use. Like always I am willing and happy to answer specific questions though with the volume of mail I receive I can be slow at times.
Until next time remember that a trucking company without drivers is like a truck without fuel. You are going to get nowhere real fast...... Keith