What is your turnover?

3 jobs in 5.5 yrs. 1st lasted 18days, 2nd lasted 4.2yrs, last one lasted 4.2mos. Different reasons for leaving all 3 (compatability, business ethics, and "outlaw" outfit). Off times have been spent semi retired.

Each person is different and "The Truckin' Lifestyle" is something that a prospective candidate needs to think over a lot. It is a MAJOR change of lifestyle for a person no matter who they are. People see the $$$ signs in the ads and say, "This is going to be easy money, I'm for that." Then reality sets in and they realise they can't hack it and leave. I see that as a major statistic in the turnover numbers. You have the other stats also to those numbers but companies known Drivers are a dime a dozen and they can get them.

I; myself, appear to be going to a local company come first of the year (they haven't officially said I am hired but they sure do act like I have accepted their offer, which I haven't). I hope my next job is my last job before official retirement in 20 years or less. Time will tell.

 

You've been at ***** for 5 years? As my brother worked there and I used to haul allot of meat, and have met allot of your drivers, I can say 5 years with that outfit is a rarity. I rate you guys right up there with Gray and Stevens.....

So, are you a driver or do you work in the office......

 

I respectifully disagree with your email. If the companies spent more money on compensating truck drivers and less on recruiters, the turnover would not be so high. The companies are in the driving position (no pun intended) not the drivers who have oftentimes have little assets and would stay with good companies ( example is paying someone 40 or 45K for being on the road for 5-6 days even to start (if you are doing the job, lack of experience should command at least a reasoneable salary ))
While I think that you have a point with your email, the majority of the problem starts with the companies not the truck drivers who are running an assembly line.
You do have a point regarding the irresponsible truckers out there, but the companies can do something that other companies in other industries do and that is INTERVIEW IN PERSON THE CANDIDATE!! Maybe the bad drivers can be eliminated from the start for a change.

 

And as an answer to your question, I humbly submit this:

I drove truck for over 20 years. In that time I worked for 2 companies that I thought well of:

Munson Transportation until they sold out to Heartless Express (Heartland lied to the town I live in when they bought Munson, If they'd lie to a community, why wouldn't they lie to a driver)

Hill and Hill Transportation........These people are awesome, and you'll see their Petes at Tyson all the time. The owners, Bill and Camber, were always up front and honest with me, even when it was bad. I would not have left them if I hadn't gotten sick.

All I have ever asked from any employer was honesty and to be paid what I was told and to be paid when I was s'posed to have it. In return, I did my job to the best of my ability and gave them my loyalty........

Companies that don't fit into my requirements don't see me very long..........

Recruiters, safety men and dispatchers are generally liars. They get paid to lie, and are as bad as salesmen.......They are to be despised ......

 

Personally, I have had 3 jobs in the last 9 years, 4 in the last 29 if you count 20 years in the Navy. Just after retirement, I goofed off for a month or so doing a little bit of carpentry off the books for cash, then took on the first real job. I worked for a company that handled biosolids waste from wastewater treatment plants. I worked there a year, and due to some financial shenanigans in the office amongst the partners, the company failed. I then went to work for a local farm, driving truck most of the year and operating farm equipment, where I stayed for the next 5 years. When we decided to park the semi from full time hauling due to dropping income, I took some time off and then moved to my present employer. Been there over 3.5 years now.

I don't believe in job hopping, instead prefer to find the right job and stay there for a long spell.

As for the current employer, we have an annual driver turnover rate of right at 26%, so we aren't in the mix for the 120 and up percentages.

 

Hey kc, do they have a website, I tried to google and do not get much.

 

Yes they do, and it is still on my hard drive..............I promised to build them one while i worked for them, and when I got sick, I forgot about it........

I should get back to work on it........

They would not hire you anyway.......they are very selective about the area you live in.....That way the trucks stayed maintained and the drivers can sit at home waiting for the meat plants to take sometimes days to load the wagons......... And that area is with 75 or 100 miles radius of Davenport, IA

 

By the way, where I work, if you walk in the door with a 3 page resume of companies you have worked for in the past, we will very politely accept the application and then file it in the trash can. If you have a history of job hopping, then we aren't going to be interested in you. if you have left a bunch of companies, then the odds are high that the problem is you as much if not more than it is the company you were working for.

Being somewhat selective is how we keep our turnover to less than 1/4 of the industry norm.

 

Basically, all the man asked was if the drivers on here would say whether or not they are job hoppers. No need to get up on the well worn X-files conspiracy soapbox and accuse him of being a company plant just because he asked a question that might conflict with one of your pet theories. I realize that you tend to see a company stooge lurking behind every keyboard, but they are not as common as you would believe them to be.

While some companies do create turnover and cause drivers to leave, there are an awful lot of drivers out there that take the attitude that the grass is always greener in the other fellow's cab, and are willing to change companies at the drop of a hat, or on the promise of a bigger truck. Drivers are just as responsible for the turnover in the indistry as anyone else. You can't rationally assign all the blame to the companies, nor can it all go to the drivers. Both sides share some of the blame here.

If you worked for three companies that went under in a span of 6 months, I would draw the conclusion that you just jumped into the next available truck, without taking the time to take a close look at the owner and his operations. And that same failure to do your due diligence and inspection of a new employer is the same thing that causes a lot of the uncalled for turnover. So from here, it looks like you may be as much part of the problem as you are part of the solution.