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My Point
High-Tech vs. Straight Talk
By Marvin Shefsky
"What we have here is a failure to communicate."
-- Captain, Road Prison 36 (played by Strother Martin in the movie "Cool Hand Luke")
"Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true."
-- Charles Dickens (British novelist)
"The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished."
-- George Bernard Shaw (Irish critic and poet)
QualComm. Cell phones. Laptops. E-mail. Blackberries. How in the world did over-the-road professionals survive all those years with just a CB and a quarter for a pay phone? As many veterans of the road will tell you, truckers did manage to communicate quite effectively with dispatch, with the customer and with their home despite limited technology in the "good old days." The better question might be this: Today, despite all of the high-tech gear, why does this industry continue to suffer a widespread failure to communicate?
While technology has certainly improved the speed and accessibility of communication, it can do nothing to improve the "quality" of communication. In this context, we're not talking about the technical quality of the connection or the clarity of the voice transmission. Instead, we're talking about the ability of the person at one end of the exchange to get his or her point across to the person at the other end, and vice versa.
Why all the fuss about communication? Because poor communication between drivers and recruiters, dispatchers and other company employees is one of leading reasons behind the industry's high turnover rate.
You can have every high-tech gadget in the world, but if you can't effectively communicate your concerns to someone else -- or if that person isn't receptive to what you're trying to say -- you might as well be sending smoke signals. They still won't understand you, but at least they'll know where you're coming from.
Many of the contributors to this newsletter stress the importance of communication in creating better retention rates. They also emphasize that the trucking industry, despite outward appearances, is and will always remain at its heart a people business. I couldn’t agree more. The two go hand in hand.
If you and your company want to build relationships, establish trust and cultivate loyalty with your drivers -- the foundation of a solid retention rate -- you have to do it the old-fashioned way, through direct contact. An e-mail just won't cut it.
-- Marvin Shefsky, Publisher/CEO
Quote of the Day
"Pay your people the least possible and you'll get from them the same."
-- Malcolm S. Forbes
