With only nominal reductions in truck driver attrition in recent years, it’s abundantly clear freight companies need to make changes to improve retention rates.
According to reports, large truckload carriers only reduced overall turnover by a single percentage point, ticking down to 90 percent in 2020 from 91 percent in 2019. Smaller truckload outfits fared only modestly better, with a reduction from 72 percent in 2019 to 69 percent in 2020. Although job-hopping by truck drivers pursuing higher salaries and lucrative sign-on bonuses contribute to seemingly ferocious competition, the freight hauling industry struggles with deep-rooted problems. If transport organizations are going to resolve driver turnover, they would be wise to better address issues such as the following.
Improve Transparency For New Hires
Recent studies indicate that nearly 65 percent of new truck drivers quit within the first 90 days. That reality doesn’t bode well for an industry that already needs an increased number of professionals to fill the growing workforce shortfall. Among the common missteps recruiters and sometimes desperate freight companies make is painting an unrealistically rosy picture about the job. When a newly-minted CDL-holder starts thinking, “this is not what I signed up for,” the company is likely to lose that employee. Items such as compensation, hours away from home, working conditions, and support must be communicated in a realistic fashion and in a way that connects with new hires.
Show Appreciate For A Job Well Done
Approximately two-thirds of experienced truckers indicated that signs employers respected their hard work ranked among the top reasons they stayed with a company. That’s significant because at least 20 percent of CDL professionals went on the record stating they felt as though driving truck was a thankless job.
It’s essential for industry leaders to recognize that truckers are not necessarily a crowd willing to stick with bean counters and complaining bosses. Spending long hours behind the wheel and dealing with road-raging passenger vehicles often proves emotionally stressful and physically draining. Company decision-makers would be well-served to educate supervisors that hauling freight is not akin to driving a minivan to soccer practice. It takes rugged people to do the job, and they deserve respect for keeping America’s supply chains running. As the saying goes, “If you don’t have something positive to say, say nothing at all.”
Make Changes To Usher In Generation Z
The latest wave of people entering the workforce are considered Generation Z. This demographic grew up in the technology age and has little, if any, connection to old-school truck driving practices. Rigs that employ soon-to-be outdated “double-clutch” manual transmissions and those lacking Bluetooth and other advanced technologies are like old fiction books to upstart drivers. Companies that want to attract and retain Gen Z truckers are tasked with re-imagining working conditions to mirror the 21st Century. It’s time to let the old ways pass if freight and fleet outfits want to buoy their ranks.
Sources: fleetowner.com, truckinginfo.com
Pay us for every hour of our day… if we are rolling by the mile, if we are waiting for a load or unload, pay us by the hour.. If you dont want to share in the wealth then get your CDL-A and get your ass out here and drive your own damn freight !! Money talks and bullshit makes me go back to a better paying Office Job !
I’ve been saying that for years, no, decades. No one can explain why a driver shouldn’t be paid for pretrip, posttrip, fueling, scaling/adjusting, drop/hooking and everything else they do over the course of an average day. You mentioned the biggest beef – waiting to load/unload. I don’t understand why companies give customers an hour and expect the driver to do the same. We are still burning our time.
Show truckers the money. Money = respect
Want to retain drivers? Stop treating us like children with learners permits. Remove the AI dash cams that keep track of your personal phone conversations and alert a desk jockey if you blink too much, or yawn too often. Remove the truck governors. From my personal experience, they are the leading cause of road rage. Allow the grown up professionals to go the actual speed limit. Not only is it a severe aggravation for the driver to be stuck going 15+ mph slower than the speed limit, it’s dangerous, and taking money out of pockets. When you get paid cpm…. less mph = less miles per day = less pay.
Let’s start with Over Regulated, Under Paid, Never Respected , No Professionalism, should i go on or do you get the Message.The so Called Professional in 50% of Trucking no longer exists. Just warm bodies filling seats.
Being clear up front (certainly not misleading or flat out lie!!) would be huge.
I’d add more flexibility specifically home time and time off options even if unpaid.
I’ve been in trucking right at a year this is my 2nd career so I’m not a gen y. I’ve now worked for 3 truck companies and the first 2 either mislead, tricked or flat out lied to me. My 3rd company not only pays MUCH better but goes out of its way to shoot straight with me and does seem to actually care about me. Still trucking but certainly better….
And don’t make the time off always on the weekend. How can anyone schedule appointments (doctor, dentist, lawyer, etc.) when none of the people you need to see work weekends?
People want a nutritious work environment.
Companies think drivers are stupid I believe. Treat them with respect do what they say they’ll do. Don’t lie , listen to what they tell them. Back them up at these shippers and receiving docks. Don’t leave them hanging. Driver are treated like trash at these places not all but most. Show a driver they’re valuable be straight with them. Drivers also need to their part. Improve their appearance have a professional attitude. Communication is the key. I’m fixing to leave the company I’m leased to because of poor communication. Sitting at a shipper or receiver for more than 3 or more hours without compensation. Without access to facilities in some places. Advocate for the drivers instead of agitation
Don’t need Bluetooth or automatic trucks. Need better pay, health insurance for my self and family. Detention pay and get paid for everything we do such pre trip post trip, fueling.
‘…soon to be outdated double clutch transmissions…”
Who double clutches? I did that in training course 25 years ago. Was soon after trained by experienced co-driver to shift clutchless. Only time I’ve double clutched since was requirement at a couple of trucking companies whose road tester wanted to see me do it as technicality/check mark on his road test sheet.
I despise auto transmissions,emission control systems,e-logs,autonomous…you name it. Nothing but problems. Good way to get long time truckers out of the industry or go to another outfit is to think you can force them to comply with ridiculous over regulation. There are ways around it.
2003 Pete 378 heavy spec’d, original CAT C-15 wide open that refuses to die with 1,140,000 miles on it,Eaton Fuller 18 speed original that’s smooth as glass pulling around oversize heavy permit construction machinery/ equipment and rail industry equipment. Still running log book here in Ontario in my truck. Lots of guy’s are on cell phone e-log but that’s because they don’t know how to run a log book and company doesn’t trust them ie log entry violations.This company believes in old reliable,both me and equipment. That’s why I work there. I still have 15-20 years left before retirement.
Absolutely
Bottom line, Truck driving is NOT a galamorous job and it’s not for everyone. If companies want to keep/hold on to good drivers it a combination of many things, Respect, Equipment, Benefits, wages. A sign on bonuse is NOT going to get me to join your team.
Money is nice, but respect for Drivers goes much further. Start with a *salary*, not BS “zip code to zip code” miles.
…that’s just what he said
Let drivers have time off when wanted. A lot of companies will write you up for taking days off. Better missing days then not working there at all.
So much of our time is not paid, such as fueling, sitting at a dock, taking mandatory breaks, inspections, repairs, etc. Putting drivers on salary is the only fair way.
Salary? You must be nuts. Ask any businessman whose on salary; the company owns you 24/7. You need to rethink that.
1) Tell Recruiting to STOP lying to drivers! I have worked for 14 companies in 11yrs! Number 1 reason? I was lied to by the recruiter about the job. Why would I stay when you don’t deliver what your recruiter promised?
2) PAY More! These companies are making Millions off of us! Share the wealth!
3) Reasonable Personal conveyance! 30min a day for personal use is ridiculous! You cant get anything done with that. Food/laundry/Dr?
4) Stop Spying! Driver facing dash cams! They say they only are “on” when you are driving but unless you have an APU and you are Idling the truck the camera is recording.
Its a violation of privacy! Between the camera and the sensor settings you can’t cut a fart without setting of some alarm! Then you get a threatening phone call from Joe Safety who is trying to justify his salary! Its ridiculous. Those are just a few of the reasons why they can’t keep drivers on. In my opinion. 🤷🏽♂️ I finally found an awesome company to work for and guess what? They are from Canada!! I had to go to work for a company from another COUNTRY to find a great job!!
My dad drove truck for years and my hat is off to him for enduring the misery of cross country sleeper team – winter and summer. In miserable COE’s with no air ride, no A/C and no power steering. That was with P-I-E. He called them “Promises, Insults and Excuses. He was my hero, so I finally tried driving for a while. In beautiful modern equipment with all the comfort amenities and condo sleeper! What a miserable job!!! DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE. And drive some more. See the off ramp to every national attraction in the country. Get chewed on by the dispatcher as he sits in a warm, dry, comfy, air conditioned office while you toil away in blazing heat, pouring rain or blinding snow storms (and occasionally some nice weather) bitching at you because you’re late on the delivery. You’re supposed to be able to handle 80,000 pounds at the speed limit or better under all weather and traffic conditions. But it’s ALWAYS your fault when something goes wrong – no matter WHO is at fault. And then you been on the road for a month or more and you want to go home – “One more load to…………” that’s NOT towards home. And then one more. And then one more. Yes, there needs to better compensation – one way or another, in some form – for the long, boring, endless hours.
$1500 a week salary is fine for the first 40 hours each week but I always end up working 80 per week for the same pay.
Hiring recruits straight out of the cdl mill and paying them the same as driver’s with years experience is a insult to the old hands.
So called safety systems like lane assist, surprise braking systems and restrictive governors are just harassment that only make sense to desk jockies who work for trucking companies and insurance companies. They mandate them but have no actual experience using them. If a company has a driver that needs that kind of supervision then fire him and let the next company know why.
And when you have a driver that picks up on time, delivers on time, doesn’t bang into stuff and never passes off the customers; leave him alone and pay him what he’s worth.
Correction
Not “passes off” but “pisses off” the customers.
Stop lying about everything and expecting drivers to eat crap.
How about this:
Get rid of the Gen Z crap. Go back to needing common sense, technical ability and common courtesy to be a truck driver. Read and write English, know how to read a map and get to where your going. Be able to communicate effectively. Then it’s out and back; whether that’s today tomorrow or next week.
I want to be paid in tapioca pudding.
Australia Applied to their Wages Commission to be paid for all hours worked, with the commission denying drivers to be paid for all hours worked.
Gen Z certainly wont accept this.
Drivers do not accept being lied to and treated like a Mutt…..
Is it an appalling indictment on the Industry that they are reaping what they have sowed…
Small fleet owners and Owner Drivers have their own battles within the Industry and nothing has really changed since the early days of Jimmy Hoffa Snr. and The Teamsters…..
All of the comments above pretty much summed up what is wrong in the industry for drivers. I agree with all of them. I will only add that after driving rigs for nearly 25 years I have lost all hope that anything will change for the better. The problems with lack of respect, pay and home time are as old as I remember. To those came new problems with being micromanaged and annoyed by stupid technology and more over regulation. But after 25 years I have come to a conclusion that the trucking companies, especially the mega carriers, must like the huge turnover. If they didn’t, they’d make changes for the better in no time. Somehow, somewhere “upstairs” it makes more sense to constantly pay for training newbies than to pay already trained and experienced drivers enough to make them happy. Just sayin’
They love it, no actual health insurance ever gets paid out on driver’s, no retirement either and they can have less driver incident claims since on average it takes a driver 19 months to aquire a citation or ticket from some grubberment thug.
Wanna run off potential hires, then do what 75% of companies are doing. Lying, putting cameras in the driver’s faces, hiring drivers to fill a sex or race quota then belittling your actual productive drivers with some “woke” crap. Telling them “you not just a number here” to driver they call on as 8725″.
Damn liars and fools they are to call you in and ask you, hey you wanna lead our 30 driverless Amazon trucks and hand out firing slips to your friends…… Yeah, these 75%, they deserve to go bankrupt.
Get rid of 5 things, and fill all the seats in days with good drivers.
1-recruiters
2-hiring quotas on race, sex or freakiness.
3-threat of Autonomous trucks.
4-taxes on the first $75,000 earned by drivers.
5-grubberment thuggery against the people who keep the food on their tables.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems at least a few of the answers are blatantly obvious.
Number one to me is equipment. You ask a driver to spend the vast majority of his time inside that machine, so it’s reasonable to expect good equipment. All I’ve seen over the course of my career is a steady decline in the quality of trucks. A focus on economics, not the driver. Cheaper trucks that can be operated as cheaply as possible, catering to the penny pinchers at big fleets. .The driver seems to be an afterthought.
Pay has gone no where in real terms for as long as I can remember. Yet the demands of the job have skyrocketed. More onerous regulations, protecting your record, a lot more traffic, passing DOT physicals, and on and on.
Throw in dishonesty. So many companies hiding behind recruiters and their scripted recruiting pitches. Reality tends to be far different. Ineffective regulators that allow the bottom feeders and chameleons in this industry to continue to operate.
Do you really need a slide rule to figure out why drivers bail out ?
The definition of madness is to do the same thing, and expect a different result. Welcome to trucking.
Blah blah blah blah
Been spoken about for years and years
They know what has to done, have known all along what’s been needed. Tired of hearing about month after month year after year. Corporate asdholes are blind dumb and stupid to act upon, what they already know. College doesn’t teach common sense.