You’re thinking we’ve talked enough about the employment squeeze. In fact, we haven’t. Until now the topic has revolved around recruiting and training, but what about retention?
Truck drivers love their jobs, otherwise they’d be doing something else. Why then is truck driver turnover still stuck at 90 percent?
As fleets try to stem the losses and prevent talent from walking out the door, all eyes have turned to truck driver retention. After all, what good is your recruiting strategy if you aren’t retaining your truck drivers?
|
|
Late to the Game
It’s no secret that the trucking industry has put a greater emphasis on recruiting and maintaining a healthy pipeline of applicants than they have on keeping them. You can’t recruit fast enough if you’re losing more than are walking in the door.
As a result, more fleets are trying to figure out what it will take to keep truck drivers in the cab. A recent survey by HireRight reports that 39 percent of transportation companies are increasing pay, while another 36 percent are doubling up on various incentive programs.
Unfortunately, it’s been a constant game of catch up. The survey shows that – although truck driver pay was up 1.92 percent last year – it’s only up 3.3 percent since the recession.
The numbers are even worse for dry van drivers. The average dry van pay today comes in at 37.2 cents per mile. Compare that to 36 cents per mile in 2008. To add insult to injury, when taking inflation into account, dry van drivers are making even less than they were in 2008.
Over the last few years there’s been a healthy number of pay increases from the smaller operators, but not much from the top-tier carriers – except in the flatbed market. That soon may be about to change.
|
|
Let There Be Bonuses
One of the easiest ways to inject some loyalty, either up-front or from existing employees, is through bonuses. It’s not easy to argue with a big chunk of cold, hard, cash.
In fact, more companies are moving away from across-the-board mileage pay packages and are instead focusing on various pay types and incentive programs.
Sign-on bonuses have been a popular tactic. For a solo van driver, some bonuses run as high as $6,000. Some flatbed bonuses come in as high as $7,500.
It doesn’t stop at sign-on bonuses, either. More companies are beginning to offer performance bonuses that reward truck drivers for great performance. Employees that maintain high levels of safety and compliance are often rewarded the most.
Ditching Mileage Pay
To pay, or not to pay, by mileage? That is the question. Even the United States Senate is getting in on the action with a bill calling for truck drivers to be paid by the hour.
One Louisiana-based fleet had a 34.5 percent turnover rate before they made the decision to pay their employees by the hour instead of the mile. While moving to the hourly rate took some adjustment, it wound up becoming a great source for employee referrals. It also halved their attrition rate.
According to a recent survey, almost two-thirds of major operators are experimenting with some sort of variable pay scheme. The problem is they simply don’t know what they’re doing. Without an understanding of sound statistical philosophy, fleets are simply making things up as they go along.
What Works?
Many pay and incentive programs get it wrong on the psychological side. For instance, plans that focus on positive reinforcement are more effective than those that focus on bad behaviors.
A bad plan might start truck drivers out at a certain number of points per month and then they lose points based on violations. These types of programs send the wrong message – that the operator has nowhere to go but down.
Good pay and incentive programs give truck drivers the ability to succeed, rather than fail. These types of plans will have a good percentage of employees exceeding the minimums. Once they buy-in to the program, it’s a race to the top.
In the end, no plan is going to work without the fleet solidly behind it. Payments should be effective and timely. Provided today’s carriers can find the right balance, retention efforts may eventually keep in step with, and perhaps surpass, recruiting efforts.