Driver retention

I’m a grown up, I take 100% responsibility for how hard I work, how fast and how far I drive, and how I manage my time and sleep. Drivers who don’t have the common sense to do the same don’t get any sympathy from me!

I’m not saying piecework or cpm is the perfect answer for every situation, but it’s working for me as an OTR driver and it worked for me as a small business owner.

 

Now, if we could get all of the warehouse dock workers on a piece rate, the more trucks you load/unload, the more you make on your paycheck, maybe the wait times would drop dramatically.

 

Yeah, the churn would still exist but IMO it would be smaller and more of those drivers would switch to smaller carriers instead of leaving the industry.

 

They would quit

 

There are an awful lot of opinions on Macro/Microeconomics in here... and most are misled.

Some of y'all REALLY need to take an online Principles of Macroeconomics course (freshman level from any Community College) and get informed. A vast majority of the "opinions" I have seen here are just talking points from the DNC and RNC.

Signed- 2 degrees in Economics.

 

How would you go about addressing the issue of driver retention?

 

Quite simply, do as we have done. LISTEN to the drivers. Sure, there will always be the unwarranted ranting, but if the same issue is brought up time and time again, look into it and fix it. For us, it was a change to the detention pay policy ($20/hr after 2 hours whether we get paid by the customer or not) and the dropping of the most egregious offenders that made our drivers happy campers. Because of this, we enjoy a turnover rate that is 1/3 of the industry average... although I found we have two additional trucks to fill this week. One driver suddenly passed away on home time of natural causes, and another announced his retirement at the end of the week (dispatch neglected to inform our department). Both technically count as turnover, although they were the natural ends to long careers.

 

Megas aren’t going to listen to their drivers, they have no reason to when they have the numbers to support their churn.

I’ve had two company jobs, I worked at Pepsi for two years and left because of pay. At first getting a three day weekend was nice but eventually I decided I needed more money. I gave up home daily and decent benefits for more money, home weekends, and ok benefits. I stayed at the small flatbed carrier for around 8 years before buying my first truck. Eventually I got burnt out from hauling cattle and went back to that company job for 2 years. Then I bumped my head and bought a truck again.

Good, small companies are the best places to work. But we see it on this site all the time, shady small carriers paying on a 1099 and ripping people off. And because of that there tends to be a mentality among some that all small carriers are bad and that makes them gravitate towards larger carriers. Those are the guys that bounce from mega to mega expecting things to be different and they’re not. I stand by my earlier statement that with the computerized dispatch and network of terminals that megas have there is no reason for them to continue with their long haul OTR model and giving guys one day off for every 7 out.

 

I took econ back just before supply side economics started to be implemented, I'm sure there are more theories out now that try and explain things - have they discovered and truths yet?

 

The funny thing about economics is that its not an exact science, and one can follow preconceived notions that lead them to the wrong conclusions. For example, I can think of a young politician with an economics degree that sure seems to have no clue, yet she hangs her hat on that piece of paper.