The pandemic has been a major factor in both recruiting new drivers and retaining them, but mostly it has been a complication to a larger issue. We’ve seen the need for freight truck drivers, and so have many companies. The major question is, how can we help solve it?
Many companies are starting to look at factors beyond pay to retain and attract their drivers.
Professional Driver Agency (PDA) director Scott Dismuke has remarked that carriers need to communicate proactively with their drivers to reduce frustration. The PDA released a report that broke down what drivers found to be most important to retaining their jobs.
- Equipment, 34%
- Compensation, 24%
- Operations, 13%
- Home time, 9%
Equipment has been a top concern for drivers for six consecutive quarters in PDA.
Which makes sense! If a truck is always in the shop, then the driver is not logging miles. If he isn’t on the road, he isn’t getting paid, and he certainly isn’t getting paid what his company promised. Dismuke summed it up nicely as “So, an equipment issue for the driver this week becomes a compensation problem for a driver next week.”
Respect for the drivers is definitely another concern, and a course director at Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, N.C has said that pay may grab a driver’s attention, but what keeps them is the benefits, the work culture, and the way he is treated.
Companies are starting to double their per-mile pay, but that won’t keep a driver always. These freight companies are starting to notice too and have been building a reputation of treating their drivers fairly and with respect to keep them longer. Many are taking their maintenance programs more seriously.
A rival company might pay more, but if their equipment is shoddy, or their communication is bad, or their respect for their drivers is poor, then they will not retain the drivers to keep them in business.
Companies like Fleetmaster have focused on benefits, holidays, giveaways, home time, and communication. A supportive environment for truckers and their families is what will retain a driver for five, ten, or twenty years.
Keeping up with technology like mobile apps to aid in navigation, inspection, dispatch, finding their next load and getting paid make life easier for drivers and removes frustrations on the road.
Drivers need more than better pay, and companies are starting to listen. No drivers, no freight companies. They will have to do better for their drivers if they want to retain and attract the personnel they desperately need.
Source: ttnews
You also need to tell the truth about all the bs regulations, discriminating road taxes, the lies about the elds, the hos lies, the foreign drivers, the bs truck stops, paid parking etc. Until you do trucking will continue to be an armpit
Amen, brother!
All that is true but company’s have very little to do with that , that come from governments and people that make the rule that have no real idea what trucking is all about except what some other college professors tell them.
I agree with you but if trucking companies came together and stopped hauling freight for 30 days the government would have no choice but to change things or watch this country tear itself apart
you don’t learn about trucking in college or high school dummy!
Another very important thing that must be addressed, is teaching new drivers of all classes to have knowledge of driving around a 40 ton vehicle.
I’ve asked many young drivers of all perspective license classes if they were given any knowledge of the dangers of what can happen in their decisions about driving reckless around trucks.
They’re just being taught anything about this.
Exactly Right!
50 cents per mile, 600 miles per day, 11 hours driving (+ 3 hours ‘on duty’)= $105.
About $9.50/hr. Kids flipping burgers make more.
lol…then you are obviously working for the WRONG company,junior….
Last time I checked, .50 x 600 = $300. Jus’ sayin’… 😉
And $300 ÷ 14 = $21.43.
Did you study under the, “Common Core” curriculum in school? Just asking for a Friend… 😉
And home every night with their families!
Sorry put that reply for the wrong comment
I think you hit a wrong button, it is $300:00. I understand what you are getting at though. 14hr’s & gone from home for 2 to 3 week’s & not much home time. Payed not even a little for living in your sleeper, taking a shower at TK. Stop’s all over the Country. A good chance of taking Covid home to your family. If your folk’s are still alive, visit them out side. If the weather is ok & no hug’s or get together’s. Most people do not have a clue. I see sign’s in Victoria Tx. Taco Bell $10:00 an hr. work today & get paid today. Or H.E.B. people to sack grub, on loud speaker inside, make more than that. To many people working the system & not going back to work. They are not running all over the Country & sleep in there on bed’s at home every night. They are not responsible for a big rig & all that goes with it. A Company Driver or Owner Operator or not. That’s another thing, unless you are in the very right thing. It look’s to me all a O/O does is give you a little more freedom & more headache.
Your arithmetic is off bud
How about the dispatchers/fleet managers/load planners actually working together with the driver to keep the driver moving the loads? I know plenty of drivers, new and very experienced, who will sit for days (even up to a week) without a loaf. Some of it is on the driver, if they have refused loads in the past or if they won’t go to certain cities or states, but it is also equally the dispatcher/FM, Load planners fault for not having things planned out far enough in advance…
I was lucky, my dispatcher, fleet manager, and load planner were all the same person and he had all 25 of his drivers moving, averaging 2000 to 2500/wk (except 1 or 2 that would sabotage themselves by refusing loads), and we were home 99% of weekends and holidays.
Comment NOT from a driver fir sure
But the biggest change needs to be hours of service regs the only way that it’s gona change is to shut down for week or two and the time to do this is now during this pandemic the time to act is NOW
The problem runs so much deeper than just pay and equipment. The culture needs to change. Disrespectful drivers. Both commercial and non commercial drivers. Corporate entities profiting from all aspects of transportation from big fleets to the truck stop chains. Everybody reaps a profit from the transport industry yet the respect for the driver, the one who makes it all work, is the last to be heard. Big fleets survive by recruiting drivers. If they get six months work from a driver they are golden. If he quits they have the recruiting pipeline all primed up to replace him with someone else and the cycle continues. Government is also much of the problem. Road and traffic conditions are atrocious at best. Regulators are quick to shut down a truck for safety concerns but never seem to want to address the conditions of the road that caused the failure. And the driver is always at fault. And that record of fault will haunt him for a long time. The companies that don’t push back against the government also must accept blame for conditions that make it hard to be a “Trucker”. Inadequate safe parking is in my opinion the absolute worst. How the hell can a driver follow all the hours of service regulations without exception and know he has a place to park when he or she needs to. It’s an absolute crime that this has been imposed on drivers without addressing that one problem. This is just the tip of the iceberg but you all know what i’m getting at here. Until the real problems are addressed the driver mill of recruiting will continue and driver retention will always be a problem.
Its all a money train and the drivers are the engine pulling the cars but we’re the only ones suffering by working for slave wages while the corporates are enjoying the free ride!
Keeping up with technology is exactly what is losing drivers. Find me a driver that’s worth his salt that likes having all the driver aids, you won’t, because they don’t exist. Let us do our jobs without all the extra distractions.
you want me ??? and any quality drivers with 20+ experience who will keep your CSA score low, not tear up equipment,always practice safety,and bhe availible every day of the week ?? Turn the trucks to 70, pay me 6 figures,and offer me a sign on bonus of at least 5 grand. You’ll have more than enough applicates…believe me.
Too many drivers are pigs and make a mess everywhere trucks park. Pee and excrement bags everywhere and litter. It’s not surprising there isn’t a lot of parking options. But since the DOT is imposing ELDs and huge fines for violations they should take a little money out of their billion dollar budgets and build more staffed rest stops! Everyone recognizes the problem of parking but nobody wants to pay for it.
Detention is another major problem with our industry. Spending anything over 2-3 hours waiting for a door or in the door for loading or unloading is baloney! I know drivers who have waited 12-24 hours and not paid for even on minute of that time. They don’t sleep because they don’t know when they shipper or receiver will be done, but they are expected to move normally once they leave. That too is baloney! There must be a push to compensate drivers for this. Shippers and receivers set the appointments, they need to honor those times and complete their work in a timely manner.
Too many companies treat the driver like another mechanical part of the truck. “You got your 10 hours off. Get back out there and drive for another 11.” No consideration is given to the damage driving on America’s roads does to a driver’s body. No one cares that it takes a while for most of us to unwind and relax enough to sleep. Too few companies realize that drivers have something called a “personal life” away from the truck. Too few office workers are aware, or even care, that when they go home after eight hours in a heated/air conditioned, relatively quiet, nicely lit and comfortably furnished office, drivers are just taking their second breath and looking at more miles of bouncing down roads, avoiding collisions and wondering what to morrow will bring. No, company operators, a free hot dog and some potato salad once a year, IF the driver gets to the terminal, isn’t enough.
Rather simple
Stop buying pos autoshift aero crap boxes. Buy something nice to drive. Keep us moving and stop accept cheap freight.
a lot of the reasons i dont do otr anymore have been listed i now now drive gas tanker more money the most i have made since i started no more sleepers home every night less stress just pull up drop the gas no dealing with anybody everybody is happy to see you. your strike idea will never work 20 plus years never saw 3 drivers agree on anything also math is all wrong on pay its 24 hrs not 14 your out there all day
Too many hours. Not all of us want 60-70 hours a week.
I been drivein gover 25 years.things remain the same.it is about valune not value.
You call the recruiter and they tell you what you want to hear. You go to orientation and they tell you what you need to know. Then you start your first day at work to find out you have been HOSED. That’s generally how it works
require companies Detention pay, a decent treatment for drivers in the warehouse, require companies to treat them better with respect