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Extreme Training: Curbing Driver Turnover
Here is a call to everyone using workplace learning and performance strategies.
We have a challenge for you! There is a treacherous mountain to climb! In fact,
no one has conquered it yet. The adventure ahead of you: find a way in which
learning and performance interventions can help address the ominous and
looming driver turnover rates existing today in the motor carrier industry. Here is
a situation where the individual, the group, and the organization need attention.
Can change come to lower the turnover rates that are now becoming ridiculous in
the motor carrier industry? Can the folks engaged in workplace learning and
performance scale the turnover mountain? It won’t be easy, but the climb is worth
the effort. Here are some reasons why this endeavor is so worthwhile.
Consider the importance of the trucking industry. Simply put, an industry adage
tells all: “If you bought it, a truck brought it.” Experts say that over 70% of
Americas communities rely solely on trucks to deliver their goods. Therefore, if
the trucks aren’t rolling, neither is our economy. It becomes obvious that driver
retention and motor carrier success is critical to all of us. The consumer bears a
higher cost of delivered goods because consumers share in the replacement cost
of lost drivers. We all pay--one way or another. As a driver, turnover is extremely
stressful and has lasting affects on health, wealth, and emotional wellness. As a
carrier, turnover and the lack of productivity that it creates can become your
death knell.
The return on investment (ROI) for a successful turnover reduction or retention
program is tremendous. It is easy to do the math. For example, pretend you are a
smaller carrier with 100 drivers on the road and the driver turnover rates climb to
over 100 percent annually. If replacement costs for a driver range from $5000 to
$8000 or more, how much does it cost to replace your “entire” workforce? The
answer of course can range from $500,000 to $800,000 per year. The next
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question becomes: Can you afford this? Any reduction in turnover also results in
the elimination of replacement costs. Efforts to reduce turnover therefore deliver
a solid return on investment that has a direct impact on a company’s bottom line.
The opportunity is golden and the time is now.
Drivers can easily become part of an invisible workforce. Most non-driving
internal employees of a carrier never see the drivers they work with or support.
Management of drivers is from afar, making the challenges and opportunities
extraordinary. Consider just three items taxing the motor carrier industry:
mobility, communications, and relationships. Regarding mobility, drivers drive.
They keep putting on miles and this makes them a moving target for the people
who support and manage them. Mobility can make drivers invisible and forgotten;
in fact, drivers can become an extension of the truck rather than a member of the
carrier’s workforce. In addition, mobility adds to the challenge of communications.
Technology helps carriers and drivers stay in contact with each other, but the
contact is brief and impersonal. Limited “human communications and contact”
impedes fulfilling human relationships at both business and personal levels.
Drivers are human. They need social interaction to become part of the carriers
“family”, but this is difficult. It’s like Uncle Louie stopping by during the holidays.
We catch up when he’s around but when he’s gone, for the most part we forget
him. Carriers must attend to their relationships with their drivers, but they need
help. It is important to realize that small but consistent improvements from
internal employees who work with and support drivers can bring large rewards.
The opportunity to recognize the driver as a key part of the carrier’s family is
priceless.
Drivers bring home the money for motor carriers. The only product that a motor
carrier can offer is transportation services. The employee that has the most direct
impact on the transportation service is the driver. They put money into the
paychecks of all non-driving employees at that carrier. Knowing the extreme
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value of drivers to a carrier’s success, it would seem natural that drivers have a
support system working diligently to meet their needs. This is not always the
case. During any given day, a driver encounters numerous challenges requiring
more knowledge, skills, and abilities than he or she may possess. All of the
people employed by a motor carrier must be able to understand and assist a
driver while on the road. Obvious examples include dispatchers, driver
managers, mechanics/technicians, and safety personnel. Everyone that interacts
with the driver must be ready to provide any support needed.
Driver turnover can be voluntary or involuntary and carriers can prevent both.
Voluntary turnover is usually associated with a driver making a conscious
decision to quit despite the carrier’s willingness to allow this individual to continue
driving for the organization. This type of turnover results from disputes,
misunderstandings, or unfulfilled expectations. Carriers can prevent voluntary
turnover through education of the non-driving employees in an effort to improve
the driver-carrier relationship.
Involuntary turnover is associated with a driver being told to leave by the carrier
and can be attributed to preventable accidents, failed drug tests, violations
pertaining to regulations, laws, and/or company policy, or an abundance of
service failures. Carriers can prevent involuntary turnover and improve the drivercarrier relationship by providing training to drivers on a constant basis during
daily interactions focusing upon ways to keep these issues from occurring.
Old problems remain. They are the never ending driver shortage, the difficulty in
developing effective driver recruitment programs, being able to provide
orientation programs that are equally useful for both new and seasoned drivers,
and poor driver support systems within motor carriers that lead to poor driver
retention programs. The problems described here in most cases are the result of
circumstances that have been festering for a long time with no long-term
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successful solutions. The opportunity here is to see each area as a potential for
great change and success.
An impending new challenge facing the truckload carrier industry as well as all
industries is the baby boomer exodus from the workforce. Within the next ten
years, experts predict we will have a major rift in the talent available for key
positions within US industry. Truck drivers are a key position in the workforce.
Carriers will be competing for individuals to become drivers from a pool of talent
having more opportunities across other industries. The professionals engaged in
workplace learning and performance activities must assist carriers in promoting
and providing an environment that not only draws talent into its doors but an
environment that becomes a career choice and not just a job.
The motor carrier industry is an artery in the heart of the American economy and
it needs attention regarding one critical component—the truck driver. The driver
is human and as such requires a human touch. Workplace learning and
performance professionals can provide that human performance touch.
Jim DePillo has 18 years of experience within the transportation and logistics
field and is the president of RTE Associates. RTE specializes in organization
development and process consulting for the transportation industry.
Stan Poduch is a doctoral candidate in Workforce Education and Development
at Penn State University. He is an independent researcher, writer, and educator
focusing upon workplace knowledge, employee self-development, and rules-ofthumb.
Jim DePillo and Stan Poduch are the co-authors of True Stories of Driver
Turnover: Translating the Driver’s Perspective. For more information on True
Stories of Driver Turnover (ISBN# 1-4180-1104-5, $35.95) please call 1-800-477-
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3692, visit www.trainingbay.com/truck, or send an email to
jennifer.stall@thomson.com.
The authors may be contacted at RTEASSOCIATES.COM
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