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Volume 1 Issue 4 In
this issue: 3rd
Annual Recruiting and Retention Conference Our
Sponsors
--------------------------------- Question
of the Day Do truck driving schools do a good job of training new truck drivers? •
Yes. While some schools do a better job than others, the majority
of them turn out qualified truck drivers. • No. A few weeks of training doesn't cut it. I've seen very few people come out of driver school who were ready to drive a truck. •
Who cares? The trucking industry needs all the drivers it can get,
and we can train them right once they have their CDL. Click Here to Vote In
our last newsletter, we asked readers the following question: What
is the best potential pool of new drivers? Here
are the results: •
Ex-military. They have the discipline required to do the job: 11% •
Immigrants: They're available, hard-working and hungry for work: 17% •
Former farmers: You can't beat common sense and mechanical know-how: 0% •
Women. They comprise the largest untapped pool of drivers in the country: 22% •
All of the above. Are you kidding me? I'll fish in any pool to find
qualified drivers: 50% Note:
Inside Trucking polls are
surveys of those who choose to participate and are therefore not valid
statistical samples. Is
there a question regarding driver recruitment and retention you would like
to ask the trucking industry? Send suggestions to: phorner@otrprotrucker.com --------------------------------- Quote
of the Day "You
must be the change you wish to see in the world." --------------------------------- Contact:
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Retention is Everyone's Business Inside
Trucking
has one goal: to help carriers improve their retention rates and recruiting
efforts by presenting useful information and suggestions culled from a variety
of sources, including industry consultants, company officers, other
newsletters, trucking associations and those out on the front line of the
retention issue -- recruiting and safety directors. We want to hear from you.
You're the experts. You know the business. You have the experience. Share your
knowledge and insights through Inside
Trucking and join us in this critical mission. What
problems would you like to get out on the table and have us address in Inside
Trucking? What types of surveys would you like us to take? What
questions would you like to see asked in our "Question of the Day"
feature? Perhaps you have a success story you want to share. Perhaps you have
a "best practice" program that has reduced your turnover rate.
Perhaps there's just something you want to get off your chest regarding the
trucking industry. Whatever it is, we want to hear about it. Send your ideas
and comments to me at: mshefsky@otrprotrucker.com.
I look forward to hearing from you. We're
all in this together, and with your help, we can turn the industry's high
turnover rate around. It all starts by building a company-wide retention
culture, one company at a time. --
Marvin Shefsky, Publisher/CEO
By
Tim Jenkins
With a turnover rate in our owner-operator-based company of 49 percent, I guess we should be satisfied. However, satisfied, we are not. The average annual turnover rate among trucking companies is hovering around 100 percent. Can you imagine what turmoil would exist in a non-trucking company if it had to replace its entire staff every year? Depending on how you look at it, the picture could be even bleaker for the trucking industry, since some driver positions have to be replaced three or more times a year. Turnover rates are higher for certain groups of drivers or owner-operators within a company. It might range from 10% for experienced, seasoned operators to more than 300% for inexperienced, lower quality, newly hired drivers. Our company has been focusing on what it takes to meet drivers’ needs and what it takes to make good owner-operators successful, thereby creating an environment that makes people stay. Let’s look at our concept of “retention.” re-ten-tion
– n.
1 a retaining or being retained
2 capacity for retaining 3
a remembering; memory When
one reads the key words above from "Webster's New World
Dictionary" and "Thesaurus," it becomes very apparent as to
the focus of retaining quality owner-operators and fleet drivers. Cling to,
engage, to keep in mind, to enjoy, to preserve, to maintain, to treasure, to
sustain, to safeguard and to commemorate all bring forth the concepts that
have been talked about in all companies. Are we all doing every one of these
things? In
this world of "disposable everything," we slip into complacency by
saying, "We hate to lose him (or her), but we'll just have to find
another. After all, our turnover rate is well below the national
average." By
definition, "disposable" means to throw away; no longer of any
value; cannot be re-used. None of us believes that drivers and
owner-operators are disposable. No one believes that drivers and
owner-operators are "a dime a dozen," yet sometimes companies get
too busy to do the right things. At the "core" of our belief is
this: If we teach them to run a successful business, success will follow.
I suggest there are
five key areas of focus that should be happening in your company,
regardless of the size. As we like to say here at Christenson, "We are
small, yet we are mighty." We have never accepted defeat, as we believe
in our associates and independent contractors. The
five keys: 1.
Focus on the highest quality
individuals that are experienced, have demonstrated stability, safe driving,
and that are driven to succeed and business ownership. 2.
Excellence in orientation must be
the focus throughout the organization. 3.
Dedicate a person to develop the
owner-operators' business. This is a person who will listen to
owner-operators and help them succeed. 4.
Train, train and re-train your
Operations and Maintenance personnel. 5.
Analyze your "product."
From a Sales Department perspective, stick to what you do well, and keep
Sales involved in all aspects of retention. We
at Christenson are successful because our owner-operators and their fleet
drivers are successful. The president of the company states in orientation:
"We are looking forward to a long, profitable and mutually beneficial
relationship, so should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free
to call any of us." It's very
simple: If their wheels are turning, we both make a little profit. We are
truly business partners. Here's
a closer look at the five keys: 1.
Focus on the highest quality individuals that have demonstrated stability,
safe driving, and are driven by business ownership and success. Some of our
hiring standards include: •
Must have driven two of the last three years. •
No more than four jobs in the last two years. •
No more than two accidents (of any type) in the last five years. •
No DWI (ever), rollovers, lane-change sideswipes or rear-end crashes. •
No speeding tickets of 15 mph or over. No license suspensions due to point
accumulations or serious traffic violations. As
mentioned, we look for individuals who have a genuine desire to own their
own business and to succeed. We
have found that successful owner-operators are driven to succeed, knowing
there is a chance to fail. 2.
One of an owner-operator's greatest problems in succeeding in the trucking
industry is not being business minded. They have to consider income and
expense. Orientation
gives a company an opportunity that will never happen again. When asked the
reason for leaving their last job, the majority will mention the word
"communication." Trucking is a people business; it's a
communication business. A company has to design a communication network that
allows and respects people's opinions, suggestions and concerns. Most of us
have developed the fleet-manager concept that empowers the fleet manager to
be the advocate for the driver, or, in our case, the owner-operator. At
Christenson, we have many other avenues to allow and enhance communication.
An open door/phone to the president, the director of Operations and me,
director of Business Development, truly sends the message: "It's OK to
disagree, let's talk." The
topics of communication that are addressed in orientation: •
Two-way communication with Operations for "pre-planning." •
"Who do I talk to for answers?" •
Communication – learning how to disagree, yet respect each other. •
Electronic communication – dangers of misinterpretation. •
Business relationship – personal relationship: They're not that different.
Our
most important tenet: The only dollar you will ever really earn in life is
the dollar you save. 3.
I am the director of Business Development. At a small carrier, my
responsibilities are many, but there is one underlying test that determines
my direction: Will it help the contractor, driver or in-house employee be
more successful? Working directly for the president allows this position to
be an extra set of eyes and ears to be proactive in addressing issues that
affect turnover. We provide the contractors and fleet drivers with tools,
resources and constant contact to help them improve their business. •
We teach them all aspects of "cost of operation." •
We teach them not how to drive, but how to make money. •
We teach how to hold on to more of what they do make. •
We teach them "profit and loss." •
We teach them that they are not just truck drivers … they own a business
and just happen to drive a truck for a living. 4.
Train, train and re-train in the Operations Department. Training is a
journey, not an event. Transformation requires a strategic plan. Management
needs to work with the Operations Department in clarifying their job, their
role and their plan when working with owner-operators. The Operations
Department or the fleet manager specifically, needs to determine what
motivates the members of their team (their owner-operators).
Learning, the stated objective of training,
is never finished. In this difficult business we call "trucking,"
it is more about people than equipment and moving freight. When asking new
hires why they left their last company, the answer is generally in the area
of communication. Training and re-training of Operations personnel is as
important as what you do for the owner-operators. The following are training
programs we have developed and implemented during the last year: •
Trucking is a Communication Business: the process of inter-personal
communication. •
Customer Focus (internal and external customers): active listening to your
customers for continuous improvement. •
Us vs. Them: conflict management and successful interaction. Coaching
to Improve Performance and Create Success: a six-month training program. 5.
Ensure that the Sales Department is in tune with the
"friendliness" of the freight. This is the key to building
satisfaction and loyalty. Professional drivers and owner- operators love to
keep moving. This is why they do what they do. The
Sales Department's role in pre-planning loads can also have a tremendous
impact on retention. The more information that can be given to the driver or
owner-operator on their future loads, the better. It gives the
owner-operator a feeling of control over their lives – an aspect of
trucking that is absent for the most part. Our
company has been very disciplined
in choosing our customers, lanes of activity and types of products hauled.
With little to no groceries, no Hazmat and average length of haul near 1,300
miles, the freight and customers are above average. These tough decisions
that are made every day contribute positively to retention. When problems do
arise, your Sales Department has to be involved by taking the concerns to
the customer, and ultimately being a factor in a contract negotiation. The
recent reports published concerning real driver shortages through 2014 are
not encouraging. It's a combination of demographics, working conditions and
pay. All of us understand the importance of reducing "the
churning" among companies. Many companies are successfully utilizing
creative programs that retain drivers and owner-operators. From the
viewpoint of an independent contractor, they are running a small business.
Over 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first three years, according
to the Small Business Administration. Most fail due to poor business
practices and under capitalization. If we view the owner-operator as a
"small business" and design our education, procedures and
communication around this concept, I'm convinced we'll retain more of them. Tim Jenkins is the director of Business Development at Christenson Transportation. Jenkins earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Demography from Southwest Missouri State University in 1979. He spent the next 12 years in the office automation and advertising/marketing/research industries in positions of sales and management. Entering the trucking industry in 1991, he has held a position in management in the areas of safety, risk management and human resources. Jenkins is a former chairman of the Truckload Carriers Association Safety and Security Council. He has held numerous voluntary leadership positions with the Missouri Motor Carriers Association, was named 2001 Missouri Motor Carriers Safety Director of the Year, and is a three-time winner of the National Fleet Safety Contest and the grand prize winner of the Fleet Safety Contest sponsored by the TCA. He can be reached at: tim_j@christensontrans.com or 417-866-5993, ext. 200.
My Point 
By Marvin Shefsky A
creed is a statement of essential beliefs that guides a particular group of
people. In this instance, it has nothing to do with religion; it has
everything to do with doing your job the "right way." Tim
Jenkins, the author of this month's lead article in Inside
Trucking, helped fashion an Owner-Operator Creed that reads as
follows: 1.
I am an independent trucker, an owner-operator. I do not choose to be a
company truck driver. It is my right to be uncommon -- if I can. I seek
opportunity, not security. 2.
I want to take the calculated risk, to dream and to build, to fail and to
succeed. 3.
I refuse to give up incentive for a paycheck; I prefer the challenges of my
own business; the thrill of making my own decisions to the routine of taking
just another load. I will not trade my freedom or opportunity for a
paycheck. 4.
It is my heritage to stand proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself;
to enjoy the benefit of my decisions and to face the world boldly and say,
"This I have done. All of this is what it means to me to be an
owner-operator." We
think the time has come to create a Professional Company Driver Creed.
Consider this an open invitation to submit your ideas for such a creed. Certainly,
company drivers are independent folks just like owner-operators, but clearly
there are differences between the two sets of truckers. An owner-operator
puts everything, including their life savings, on the line. The company
driver risks only his or her job. The owner-operator goes for broke. If his
or her business goes south, he or she could face bankruptcy. A company
driver just has to find another job. Owner-operators
and company drivers do, however, have many common interests, including a
natural desire to be considered a critical cog in the parent company's
success. Is there any more human emotion than the desire to be wanted and
respected for a job well done? The
public image of truck drivers in general, and company drivers in particular,
is not good. The general public tends to think that truck drivers are
cowboys, misfits or loose canons barreling down the road with 80,000 pounds
behind them. Reality, of course, is much different. Inside
Trucking
wants to set the record straight and one way to do that is to develop a
universal Professional Truck Driver Creed. Everyone has a stake in this.
When a driver comes to your orientation, I firmly believe that he or she
really hopes way down deep inside that this will be the last time they will
be starting a new job with a new company. Carriers need to show drivers that
their company is not only different, but that it is a right fit for the
driver looking for a permanent, stable home; it must be accomplished during
your orientation process. Both
sides have plenty at stake, which is why every issue of Inside
Trucking focuses on building a company-wide retention culture that
addresses the needs of carriers and drivers alike. Give your professional
drivers their pride. Make them proud to be what they are -- professionals.
Let’s give them a professional “creed.” Marvin Shefsky is the publisher of Inside Trucking, as well as Over the Road and Pro Trucker magazines.
Recruiters
wondering where the next generation of truck drivers will come from better
think twice if they expect the sons and daughters of current drivers to fill
future cabs. Over the Road and Pro
Trucker magazines asked a random sample of drivers the following
question: If
you have kids, would you want them to become truck drivers? Here
are some of the responses: “I’ve
got kids, but not in the trucking business. My son drove professionally for
a while, but I guess he’s just not cut out to be a truck driver. Not
everyone is.” --
Blaine Turner, 65, Crittenden, KY (professional driving experience: 30
years) “We’ve
got three kids. My wife will say no, but I would like to see my boys get
into it if they wanted to for the simple reason that this country is always
going to need trucks and someone to drive them. It’s job security, as long
as you do a good job. If you go out here and get a bad record, it’s like
anything else: You’re not going to have a job or you’ll have to work for
mediocre companies.” --
Carl Shoemaker, 58, Rock Island, TN (professional driving experience: 22
years) “No,
not really. It’s really hard on families. We made a policy after my
husband got into trucking that he would only go with a company that would
get him home at least every other weekend. The first company he was with, he
was out 11 weeks. That’s too much, so when he changed, that was always our
biggest thing -- how often can you be home? --
Alma Shoemaker, 55, Rock Island, TN (professional driving experience: 2
years “I
suppose it depends on the type of kids you have and what they want to do. As
for my kids, no. It really depends on the individual.” --
David Beckman, 43, Phoenix, AZ (professional driving experience: 17 years) “We
have three grown children, all girls, so no, I wouldn’t want them to drive
a truck. Let’s face it, the trucking business is still a man’s world.
The truck stops still cater to men. Women need clothes, too. We need
different things out here on the road, and we spend more money than men, so
you’d think they would cater to us more than they do. Then there’s the
issue of respect. Most of the men are great, but there are still those who
don’t show any respect just because you’re a woman.”
A Quality Approach to Driver Turnover Formal
Driver Surveys: An Important First Step in Reducing Driver Turnover By
Ward Warkentin Highland
Transport is a truckload and container carrier based in Markham,
Ontario, with a fleet of both owner-operators and company-owned
equipment of approximately 750 units. Highland Transport is an ISO
9001:2000 registered carrier and recently used their quality system to
help reduce driver turnover. At the start of this initiative their
annual turnover rate was averaging 108 percent, which they have since
reduced to 51 percent through their ongoing improvement efforts. Prior
to formalizing this initiative, they conducted a formal driver survey to
measure driver satisfaction. Following this survey, and in conjunction
with updating their quality system, they set up and trained an
improvement team tasked with reducing driver turnover. As
part of addressing high driver turnover, more carriers are recognizing
they need to make substantial changes in their business, such as
revising their recruiting and hiring strategy or making adjustments to
their overall business model. However, one dilemma associated with this
is what changes to make and what effect these changes will actually have
on driver turnover. A beneficial first step in addressing this issue
involves conducting a formal driver survey to accurately assess the
current situation and driver satisfaction levels. Some key benefits of
conducting a formal driver survey, as a first step to improvement, are
listed below. Key
benefits of a driver survey: •
Enables you to be proactive in reducing turnover levels. •
Helps you reduce turnover more quickly by effectively diagnosing the
root causes of turnover. •
Gives you an accurate measure of driver satisfaction as a baseline for
improvement. •
Gives you more confidence in what actions to take to reduce turnover. •
Gives drivers an opportunity to give feedback on how to improve their
work environment. The
results of a driver survey, if conducted properly, can give carriers a
head start on substantially improving driver turnover levels. Some key
aspects of a driver survey worth mentioning further include the
proactive approach a survey offers, the enhanced reliability of data
using surveys, and the usefulness of the survey as a tool for monitoring
ongoing performance. Offers
a Proactive Approach.
In addition to recruiting new drivers to replace drivers that have left,
also look at what issues have contributed to drivers leaving your
employment. Doing so enables you to be proactive in searching out and
acting on the reasons drivers are leaving, and thus reduces your
dependence on the need to recruit new drivers. Driver
surveys place more emphasis on measuring driver satisfaction – a key
indicator and contributor of driver turnover. Understanding driver
satisfaction and the causes associated with driver satisfaction, gives
carriers tangible things to work on that can affect driver turnover. Generates
More Reliable Data on Driver Issues.
In an attempt to understand how to address driver turnover, carriers
typically collect driver information through exit interviews. While this
is certainly one area to collect information, especially for monitoring
patterns or specific driver-related issues, it is generally limited in
its usefulness for a couple of reasons. First, most drivers are not
forthcoming on why they quit, and second, exit surveys only represent
the pool of drivers that are leaving which may only represent a fraction
of your driving force. A
formal driver survey would generate more reliable results as to why
drivers are leaving which gives managers more confidence in taking a
next step. Also, formal surveys, best conducted by a third party,
provide more credibility in the survey and generate a greater
willingness by drivers to share their input on how the organization can
improve. Provides
an Ongoing Measure of Your Performance.
Measuring your driver turnover rate is one way to assess how well your
process is performing. However, the driver turnover rate is an
after-the-fact measure of how the process is performing. It is also
important to collect information in-process, and at different stages of
a driver's employment with the company to get a real sense of how the
process is performing. Driver
surveys are an excellent mechanism for collecting in-process information
on how well drivers' needs are being met. A well-crafted survey can get
at questions relating to drivers' needs and issues at different points
in the driver's employment cycle as well as different areas of the
business drivers need to interact with. Surveys also provide a baseline
of how the process is performing which can be repeated as often as
necessary to assess the impact of changes made to the business. Given
that many drivers have access to the Internet, it is not a costly
venture to continually survey drivers on a monthly or quarterly basis by
sampling from the overall pool of drivers. Here
are some tips to consider in conducting a formal driver survey: 1.
Customize the survey to your company. A survey is only as useful as
the objective it is trying to achieve. Customizing the survey to your
individual company's objectives and needs gives you valuable information
to react to. 2.
Use outside resources. Most carriers don't have formal Human
Resource departments to set up, conduct, collect and analyze the survey
and ensure statistically valid results. Even if they do, using outside
resources lends credibility to the survey as well as confidentiality. It
also helps minimize any bias from having one individual or department
conduct the survey. 3.
Keep the survey simple and easy to complete. The easier it is for a
driver to complete a survey, the higher your response rate. Keep the
questions well formatted and organized, professional looking, and easy
to fill out. Also consider various methods of collecting survey
information, such as a mail-in survey with a self-addressed envelope or
a drop box, by fax, by email, by telephone or possibly by
person-to-person interviews. 4.
Include questions relating to different areas and levels of the business.
Questions relating to different areas of the business help you uncover
gaps or issues relating to driver turnover. Consider asking questions on
drivers' interaction with departments and people they deal with such as
dispatch, payroll and maintenance. 5.
Act on the results of the survey. If you don't act on the results of
the survey, then this may be worse than not having conducted the survey
in the first place by creating expectations in the mind of drivers and
then not fulfilling them. As a minimum, acknowledge that you received
feedback from drivers, and share what initial areas you plan to consider
further. 6.
Include open-ended questions. While you may raise many of the issues
important to drivers in the survey, give drivers an opportunity to share
other concerns that may not have been covered in the survey using
open-ended questions like, "What other issues are important to
you?" Also give drivers an opportunity to elaborate further on
issues they are dissatisfied with. 7.
Get feedback from drivers on the content of the questionnaire.
Testing the survey with some initial drivers is also helpful in
fine-tuning your questions. You may also consider having drivers
participate in the development of the survey from the start. 8.
Consider incentives for completing the survey. Incentives can
substantially improve survey response rates. Consider offering
incentives that enable drivers to maintain their anonymity and that
don't generate bias in the results. 9.
Keep the survey anonymous and confidential. Enable drivers to give
responses without the fear of exposing their concerns or issues to
others by keeping the results anonymous and confidential. Doing so helps
improve the reliability of the responses. 10.
Use a quantifiable scale for more response accuracy. It is best to
use a 5-point or 7-point scale when soliciting responses to individual
questions and using "Very Dissatisfied" and "Very
Satisfied" as the end points of the scale. This gives you a
quantifiable measure to statistically assess and compare issues
important to drivers. Ward
Warkentin is president of Service Quality Associates Inc., a management
consulting firm specializing in improving carrier performance through
quality management practices. He can be reached at 1-800-313-9923,
www.isotruck.com, ward.warkentin@isotruck.com.
A version of this article appeared in the TCA's online newsletter. This
is the first of a two-part series. Reproduced with permission. Drivers
and owner-operators tend to be independent individuals. As a rule, they
don't like people telling them what to do. They don't want the boss
constantly looking over their shoulder when they go about their
business. The freedom of the open road is what attracts many people to
the trucking industry in the first place. As
a recruitment and safety officer, you have a vested interest in keeping
drivers safe. You want every one of your drivers, for example, to fasten
their seatbelts every time they get behind the wheel, but how do you get
that point across without rubbing them the wrong way? First
of all, it's the law, but perhaps some sobering statistics will help
make the case. According
to DOT Secretary Norman Mineta, 80 percent of U.S. motorists wear
seatbelts, but only half of commercial truckers do. Mineta cites
statistics that indicate that half of the 620 truck drivers killed in
2003 were unbuckled and that of the 171 ejected from their cabs, more
than 80 percent did not have on their seatbelts. “Far
too many truck drivers take it on faith that the size and weight of
their rigs will protect them and that if they are a really good driver,
they don't need to wear a belt,” Mineta says. “But driving unbuckled
is like playing Russian roulette – you are tempting fate, because you
never know when the loaded chamber will come around.” Mineta
made his remarks at the Mid-America Trucking Show during a session on
driver safety. Another panelist suggested that better truck driver
training could have a positive impact on seatbelt usage. FMCSA
Administrator Annette Sandberg noted that the government is implementing
other initiatives to improve truckers' safety. To a huge round of
applause, she described a pilot program in the state of Washington in
which passenger-car drivers are targeted for safety. The idea is to
place a trooper in the truck cab to identify car drivers that cut off
truckers. The trooper in the truck then calls ahead to other officers
who pull over the offending car driver for a citation. In
a related item, newly released statistics show that a national pilot
program conducted in Virginia on I-95 between Petersburg and
Fredericksburg increased safety belt use among truckers by 11.5% in less
than one month. Before the big rig initiative, a survey showed that
fewer than 59% of truckers were wearing their safety belts; a
post-campaign survey indicated that 70% were buckling up. "Traditionally,
safety belt use within the trucking community has been much lower
compared to other motorists," says Janet Brooking, executive
director of DRIVE SMART Virginia. "So you can imagine that we were
very excited to find that our outreach efforts prompted an increase in
use of nearly 20% in a matter of weeks. Our results proved that the
campaign was a crucial step in closing the gap between the safety belt
usage rate of 59% for commercial truckers versus the nearly 80% safety
belt usage rate for all other drivers in Virginia." Federal
guidelines require that truckers wear their belts. Virginia State Police
are charged with enforcing the guideline. "I
am very pleased with the positive results of this campaign and commend
our trucking partners for their increased compliance with Virginia's
safety belt laws," says Col. W. Steve Flaherty, Virginia State
Police superintendent. "The figures are statistically significant
and demonstrate the success of this pilot program." The
program featured a media blitz as well as stepped-up enforcement of the
safety belt law for truckers. During the first week of the three-week
project, truckers were informed of the initiative through a variety of
public information methods, including alerts on CB radio, mobile
billboards that traveled up and down I-95, truck stop events and radio
announcements. Enforcement was stepped up for the second and third weeks
of the program, with the public information activities continuing, as
well. The project was funded by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. "This initiative is so important because safety belts, in many cases, are lifesavers," says the FMCSA's Sandberg. "The more drivers who realize the benefits of wearing a safety belt, the more lives will be saved. We want all drivers to return home safely every time."
Are New HOS Regs Causing More Fatigue in the Cab? If
drivers and owner-operators have a fundamental problem with their job,
then driver recruitment and retention officers have a problem, too. If
things aren't going well in the cab, that can only mean bad news for
those back in the home office charged with keeping those cabs occupied. If
some issue becomes a concern of drivers, it should also become a concern
of recruiters. Take the hours-of-service regulations, for example. While
the new HOS regs were implemented to ensure commercial drivers had
adequate sleep, at least one study finds that drivers are drowsier today
than they were under the old rules. That's a problem. The
survey, conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS),
found that one in four drivers said they drive more than the daily limit
of 11 hours. Eight out of 10 drivers said they drive 25 percent more per
week, thanks to the “restart” provision in the new rules. “While
the drivers said their sleep time has increased under the new rule, they
reported slightly more instances than the previous year (under the old
rules) of driving drowsy or falling asleep at the wheel,” the IIHS
says. When drivers were asked about dozing at the wheel, 13 percent said
it was a problem in 2003 under the old rule, and 15 percent admitted it
was a problem in 2004 under the new rule. The
explanation for the discrepancy, according to an IIHS official, is that
“truckers are using the restart provision to squeeze even more driving
hours into each week.” The restart provision allows drivers to start a
new workweek anytime after taking off 34 hours. The provision
effectively increases allowable driving hours in any seven- or eight-day
period by 25 to 30 percent, according to the IIHS. Source: IIHS, Roemer Report
Praising
employees for a job well done should be on every manager’s to-do list.
Praise boosts morale and pride in work and lets employees know they are
valued. One study found that of 65 potential incentives in the
workplace, the most effective, as judged by employees, was a manager who
personally offered congratulations on a job well done. So how exactly
should a manager offer congratulations? Consider these tips: 1.
Make it timely.
Offer praise immediately after you spot the desired behavior. This
creates the strongest association between behavior and reward. Waiting
too long can actually have a detrimental effect. If you congratulate
someone weeks later, your message is this: “Your achievement slipped
my mind (i.e. it wasn’t important)” or “I am out of touch with
what you’re doing” or “I don’t really care.” 2.
Be sincere.
Praise only works when it’s sincere. If you just go through the
motions, your words will ring hollow. On the other hand, don’t worry
if you feel awkward offering praise. If you are sincere, employees will
see this and appreciate your words all the more. 3.
Make it personal.
When you take a break from your busy schedule to offer words of praise
or hand write a note, you are underscoring the importance of the
employee’s achievement. Your effort will not be lost on the employee! 4.
Don’t be stingy.
Offer praise whenever it is merited, not just during performance
reviews.
Source:
Roemer Report
3rd Annual Recruiting and Retention Conference The
3rd Annual Recruiting & Retention Conferences presented by Over
the Road magazine of Canada and Impact Transportation Solutions,
Inc. are scheduled for Sept. 28-29 in Toronto and Nov. 2-3 in Calgary.
The Toronto conference will be held at the Doubletree International
Plaza Hotel, while the Calgary event will be held at the Glenmore Inn
& Convention Centre. Kelly
Anderson, president of Impact Transportation Solutions Inc., will serve
as moderator at both conferences. For
more information, including the list of speakers and topics, as well as
registration forms, visit the conference Web page at, www.otr.on.ca/RRCONF2005/mainconfpage.htm,
or contact Over
the Road of Canada at 1-800-416-8712.
Inside Trucking is freely distributed by the publishers of Over the Road and Pro Trucker magazines as a service to help our clients strengthen their driver recruiting and retention efforts. |
