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Is it ever OK to be less than truthful with drivers during the recruiting process?
Quote of the Day
"Management is nothing more than motivating other people."
-- Lee Iacocca
Treat drivers as professionals for recruitment and retention
By Duff Swain
If you want to recruit and retain professional drivers, you need to treat them as professionals within your company. Career paths are one of the ways to demonstrate professionalism to your drivers. A career path should provide an outline to personal improvement, an opportunity to advance in skill sets, and an opportunity to improve income and recognition for experience and skills. In other words, drivers need to feel a sense of upward mobility. Below are six professional driver levels that demonstrate upward mobility.
• Level #1 SPA (Service Provider Applicant) represents the new driver and covers from the first day of employment to the 90th day of employment. New drivers coming to the company with more than the minimum of 3 years of experience would be given a small but meaningful perk for this. Here, the basic minimums would apply to all newcomers. However, in addition, the prerequisite to successfully pass the 90-day probation period would be passing the general orientation course and the 85-plus-day in-field orientation program.
• Level #2 SPP (Service Provider Professional) would be an extended trial period extending from the 91st day of employment to the end of the second year. Some of the requirements for successfully completing this driver level would include the following: mileage minimum, minimum number of work days per week (sick leave, personal days, emergency situations would not be counted, if valid), no moving violations, meets safety standards, meets maintenance standards, meets fuel standards, meets log maintenance standards, meets customer relations standards, meets on-time delivery standards, meets alcohol and drug standards and completes on-line, self-study or classroom training courses.
• Level #3 SPPS (Service Provider Pro-Silver) begins with the third year of employment. Here, all the above standards continue. The perk of a small raise in pay or a one-time paid bonus would provide a celebration of having successfully met this challenge. Other celebration items could include a special hat that denotes the silver level driver, a certificate and a small but special present for the driver's family. If the driver doesn't have a family, another item would be substituted. In addition, new educational-training programs would need to be completed, again on-line, self-study or classroom. Further, at this level drivers would be eligible to qualify for other positions such as driver mentors, trainers, etc.
• Level #4 SPPG (Service Provider Pro-Gold) begins with the fourth year of employment. All the standards of previous levels would apply. The pay raise, bonus and celebration package would also apply here and be a little larger in scope and value. The educational/training program would once again continue.
• Level #5 SPPP (Service Provider Pro-Platinum) begins with the sixth year of employment. All the standards of previous levels would apply. The pay raise, bonus and celebration package would also apply here and be a little larger in scope and value. The educational/training program would once again continue.
• Level #6 MSP (Master Service Provider) begins with the 11th year of employment. All the standards of previous levels would apply. The pay raise, bonus and celebration package would also apply here and be a little larger in scope and value. The educational/training program would once again continue.
Duff H. Swain is president of TRINCON GROUP, a business advisory company that, since 1982, has provided strategies, planning and implementation services to ownership and management teams in the trucking and transportation industry. Swain has more than 30 years of industry experience and has authored several white papers and trade articles on the subjects of driver turnover, cost-based accounting and other topics. A version of this article appeared in the TCA newsletter, "Truckload Carriers Report." "The Driver Career Path" is part of a larger publication, "Driver Hiring & Retention," and is available at www.trincon.com. For more information, visit www.trincon.com; call 614-442-0590, or e-mail consultants@trincon.com.
