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Healthy Trucking Kiosks Offer Innovative Advertising Opportunities
According to some studies, "work-life balance" is now the single most important key to job selection for young (21- to 30-year-old) employees, ranking ahead of compensation. Can the trucking industry still attract drivers among this group?
Quote of the Day
"A good manager is a man who isn't worried about his own career but rather the careers of those who work for him. My advice: Don't worry about yourself. Take care of those who work for you and you'll float to greatness on their achievements. "
-- H.S.M. Burns, American businessman, president of Shell Oil
Driver Retention: Managing the Risk
By John Gentle
When I think about driver retention and recruiting, three things come to mind: the actions of the shipper, receiver and carrier. Each of these parties plays an integral part in your process and can either be an ally or an obstacle. Let’s start with your company and specifically your sales and operations teams.
When sales is soliciting freight from shippers, they are hesitant to say or do anything that could be perceived by the shipper or receiver as negative. They will not say "no" to things like multiple stops, touching the freight, tarping or even delivering the shipment to the attention of Tony Soprano and his boys in the middle of the night under a bridge with no lights somewhere on the East Coast. Seemingly, they would prefer to get the business and then let your company figure out whether it works or not. After all, it’s always easier to ask for forgiveness.
Additionally, most carriers don’t do a good job ferreting out all the information that is vital to providing the driver with a good experience, like gaining a clear understanding of the nature and value of the material to be transported, the service sensitivities, and what the driver is expected to do at the loading and receiving points. Your operations teams become co-conspirators in this process. Rather than ensuring that they have a clear understanding of the program, many operations managers are just happy to get more opportunities for their team, reasoning that there is no such thing as "bad freight."
So what about the shippers? Do they really know much about their product, including how and when the shipments are loaded? The good ones really do! And the mark of a good shipper is one that has a well-defined fitness-for-use (FFU) statement that’s available in print and makes it available to the carrier without having to be asked for it.
Drivers Sound Off
Dr. John McElligott, founder of the Professional Drivers Medical Depot (www.pd-md.com), has studied truck driver health issues for 15 years. It's no secret that driving over-the-road can be tough on one's health, and the relatively high percentage of drivers with health problems such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes back that up. When asked what makes the trucking lifestyle so unhealthy, Dr. McElligott points the finger at stress. "It's stressful from the time they get up until the time they go to bed," he says. "They are regulated like no other profession in this country."
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Driver Turnover Up in First Quarter of 2007
The driver turnover rate for large truckload and less-than-truckload carriers increased during the first quarter of 2007, marking their highest turnover rates since the end of 2005.
America Trucking Associations (ATA), which began collecting driver turnover statistics in 1995, reported that turnover for large truckload carriers was at a 127 percent annualized rate for the first three months of the year. This figure was 6 percentage points higher than during the last three months of 2006. The group ended the quarter with 1.8 percent fewer drivers than it had at the start.
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My Point: Differentiate Your Company by 'Branding' It
Marvin Shefsky
- Publisher
All trucking companies do the same thing: haul freight. Does this mean that all trucking companies are the same? I should hope not!
I’ve been publishing OTR and Pro Trucker magazines for more than 26 years now, and I’ve seen a lot of changes in the way we do business, but not much has changed in the field of successful driver recruiting and successful driver retention. In fact, very little has changed. The bottom line remains the same: You are still offering job opportunities to drivers and business opportunities to owner-operators.
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Problems with Performance Appraisals
By Thomas Stirr
One of the most dreaded activities for managers and employees in most organizations is being involved in a performance appraisal, and for good reason. The vast majority of performance appraisals are poorly planned and even more poorly executed. The result is usually a stressful interaction that accomplishes very little in terms of giving employees meaningful feedback that they can use to improve their performance.
Trucking Industry Targets Returning Military for Driving Jobs
American Trucking Associations Chairman Ray Kuntz testified before the House Veteran’s Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity in support of expanded educational benefits for veterans.
GPS: From Big Brother to Big Mama
When global positioning systems (GPS) were first introduced on a widespread basis to the trucking industry, many drivers considered them an invasion of privacy. Now, a few years later, carriers and drivers alike consider GPS not only a valuable work tool, but a driver retention tool as well.
To learn more about Over the Road and Pro Trucker and how to put our team to work on your driver recruitment advertising needs, call our advertising sales team at 800-878-0311 or go to: www.otrprotrucker.com.
