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Show Your Drivers You Care! Put a Healthy Trucking Kiosk in Your Terminal
"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."
-- Peter F. Drucker
Turnover or Retention: Where is Your Focus?
By Dick Follis
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Over the past 20 years I have been witness to every possible idea one can come up with when discussing the turnover and retention issue. Unfortunately, ideas only come up when turnover becomes a problem. Right now we are experiencing dramatic decreases in turnover due to the economic climate. The American Trucking Associations said the turnover at large truckload carriers -- those with more than $30 million in revenue -- fell from 103 percent in the first quarter to 85 percent, the lowest rate since the first quarter of 1998. Turnover at truckload fleets below that revenue level dropped from 80 percent to 76 percent, the lowest level since the first quarter of 1999.
After years of 100 percent-plus turnover, most carriers are feeling pretty good about themselves.
This is a dangerous mindset when we all know market conditions have created this anomaly. This mindset will eventually put everyone on the defensive once again. As baby boomers retire, as young people look for more attractive alternatives in the work place, and as the reputation of our industry as it relates to drivers continues to perpetuate shortages in the driver pool, trouble is just around the corner.
Like it or not, we are going to rely more and more on schools to provide us with enough manpower to keep the trucks rolling. In many cases, carriers are going to be faced with the decision to lower hiring standards to attract experienced drivers, thereby increasing their risk and subsequent costs associated with that risk.
There is a parallel that can be drawn between what we see happening in our financial markets and what we see with the ongoing turnover problems in trucking today. The lack of oversight, outdated regulations, government intervention in the free market and greed have shaken the very foundation of our monetary health. In the transportation arena, outdated hiring procedures, ineffective training procedures and butt-in-the-seat management philosophies will eventually rock our industry. The lessons of failure are staring us right in the eye if we will just open them.
Because turnover is lower and we have a little breathing room, now is the time to re-tool. We must learn to hire for success, train for proficiency and motivate people to be the best they can be. But this cannot be limited to just drivers. We must begin hiring the right people in-house and training them in the use of interpersonal skills. More than ever, drivers in the future will not tolerate being treated as second-class citizens. With a diminishing work force resulting from the huge number of people retiring in the next 10 years, the driver of tomorrow will have opportunities drivers today just don’t have. We simply cannot afford the revolving doors of the past.
Now, let me answer the headline: Turnover or retention, where is your focus? One might think they are one and the same; but they’re not. In the past we accepted turnover and made plans to outrun it. Retention is the realization that turnover is unacceptable with plans implemented to stop it. Where is your focus?
Dick Follis is a Partner of Working Blueprint: People Solutions by Design (www.workingblueprint.com), a consultancy that “works with organizations to help implement best practices in employee development (with emphasis on transportation companies) processes to enhance interaction with customers, peers, supervisors, drivers and management.” Prior to founding Working Blueprint, Follis served as recruiter, director of recruiting and V.P. of fleet development for various trucking companies over an 18-year career in the trucking industry. He can be reached at 866-848-2260 or via e-mail at dick.follis@workingblueprint.com.
