How to attract/retain AZ drivers?

Seriously, there's no way I would ever go to a grocery warehouse ever again. You teach those animals to behave in a proper fashion and I'd consider driving a box/reefer.
The drop and hook thing, is going to cost you a lot in trailer repairs. That's the biggest reason I'm leaving my current company, brand new trailer beat to #### because you can't enforce accountability, not by filling out a qualcomm messages that no one gives a #### about.

 

Annual earnings for an OTR driver ( With 2 to 5 years exp) must be in the $65,000.00 to $70,000.00 range to start!
All of the "Blue Chip Professionals" have a job, so why should they work for you?
All time on the job and on duty must be compensated - The driver works for you, not the broker or the customer, when they have to sit and wait - they need to go on the clock.
Home time must be respected and given.
Be clear and hold accountable for all policy and standard operating procedures for your drivers and operations personnel.
Equipment must be top notch and repaired immediately when needed. This is a drivers home for weeks on end.
Communicate with your drivers on a face to face basis as much as possible. Go out on short runs and see what their day is like. Do not hide behind a desk looking at emails all day!
Establish and maintain a progressive disciplinary process - document everything!

 

i agree with the others, pay and home time.. You can't expect a driver to be gone from home for a week or weeks at a time and have little pay or inconsistent pay.. We know how trucking can be, it changes like the weather, we get that.. however the bill collectors don't care and its hard for a driver to call home and tell the family they're check was little this week after being gone for a week or weeks.. As for me, i just want a company to respect the fact that i have a family to support and take care of and need to see on a consistent basis, maybe not every day or every week sometimes if thats what i choose to do. But don't get me out there and think you're doing me a favor by keeping me away from home for weeks and months. Not all drivers have a family they choose to come home too every week or every month even..

As for me, i bring 17yrs experience to the table with zero accidents or tickets and for most companies in this industry, that means very little. I was reading a companies Facebook page yesterday and the guy said he has 32yrs experience and they said he'd start out at .38cpm.. My pops even has been driving with the same company for 40yrs, a local freight company in NC and his checks have dropped in pay to $750/ $800 a week. He had a slight melt down a few months back saying "40 ####ing years at the same #### job and i'm right where i started, i can't even retire in 5yrs"..... I mean i think you just have to take care of your team if you want your team to win. Its just that simple.. Personally I don't expect to get rich out here, but i'd like to make more than $700 or $800 bucks a week also, especially if i'm sacrificing my time and family for you being gone and dealing with everything the industry throws at you, the levels of responsibility we have and whats expected of us.

I understand as a business owner you have overhead and expenses as well, so we should be able to come to a common ground in my opinion. Reward the experienced drivers who takes care of your equipment, reward those one who are trouble free and hassle free, those who don't need their hand held and helps the company/ business grow.. Everyone is dispensable in this in this industry it seems, meaning drivers and companies.

Speaking for myself, it's not like drivers want to quit. We hate having to start over and getting processed into the payment system which takes a week or two and learn the systems and processes. I'm sure for companies the cost of getting a driver recruited, processed, trained and into the system can be a headache as well.. Drivers actually want a place they can have consistent stability with.. I usually find myself leaving a company when i have trouble paying the bills or having to fight to see my family.

It's your company and it's your choice on how to run it, but some of these loads i know personally pay $4K and $5K and $6K or more and the driver may make a couple hundred dollars in some cases.. And again, thats fine if thats how you choose to run your business. However there are companies who share the money being made with their drivers and those drivers usually stay for long term, and those companies usually don't find themselves advertising or needing drivers or having to hire anyone..

Great post though

 

So your company gets a good paying load once in a while and they owe you more than you agreed to work for when you hired on? Who are these companies "sharing the wealth"? Never heard of that before. If you had ever run a trucking business you'd understand how foolish that would be. One $5,000+ load isn't the whole story. In fact it may look like a lot of money to you but is nothing in the face of obstacles and expenses out here. If a company isn't treating you right you move on to another company.

 

Yeah, something tells me there's a lot going on to have a load pay that much to a carrier. Specialized vehicle, Government load, Team Service, JIT, 3000 mile trip, maybe a mix of factors.

 

Well if it was every solo load paying that it would most likely be a specialized company driver and drivers who are specialized generally don't work for peanuts and complain about their pay.

With general freight for a solo truck you can see loads paying like that every once in a while. But when averaged in with all the other loads there's certainly no extra margin in there to be giving some whiney company driver extra money above his agreed to pay just because he thinks $5,000 is a lot of money and he deserves more of it.

He ain't got a ####ing clue about expenses to keep a truck going. That $5,000 load is nothing and gets swallowed up averaged in with all the average paying loads fairly quickly. And if the driver tears up equipment or something stupid as many of them "experienced professionals with lots of years" will do *POOF* all gone.

If you are a business owner running a truck you get what I am saying. To a company driver $5,000 is RICH.

 

I haven't hired a driver, yet, but I think about how I would go about it if I decide to take that route. I have a friend who started January of 2015 and drives locally and also paid by the mile. I listen to how he says he drives, and he says he just mashes it to the floor, and holds it there, all day. He drives a 65 mph daycab volvo with i-shift. I tell him I have noticed I can outdrive cruise control by keeping a steady flow of fuel rather than driving it against the governor, or, leave it on cruise and it will hammer down when speed drops rather than just easing it along, not giving up much speed, just to gain it on the downhill anyway. It doesn't make any difference in time but it does make a difference at the pump (nevermind easier on the engine). His response? "I don't give a F. I don't pay for it and my time is more valuable than what I can save them in fuel." Same attitude if something breaks; "I just get another truck, not my F problem". Ironically I must admit he does a more thorough daily pre trip than I do.

How do I compensate a driver like this? My thinking is have a bonus at the end of the year (or quarterly) based on customer satisfaction, how he drives/treats equipment, does he make picks and drops on time or is it anyone's guess when he will be there? Stuff like that. Things that separate the excellent driver from the rest.

 

I dunno. What I do know is I won't ever being hiring any drivers. If I can't drive it myself I'll get rid of it.

 

That will take some coercing to find someone to accept no waiting time pay,,sort of like selling ice cubes to Eskimos.