SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE Ray J. Haight
Are You Looking for a Professional Driver? I have been speaking and consulting over the past number of years on the subject of retention. What I have learned and has been my experience is that high turnover in any trucking company can be brought under control. That’s a fact. I have been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. Any insightful management team that can muster up a committed effort can show an impressive reduction of lost drivers in a matter of three to twelve months and, with ongoing programs it can be maintained indefinitely. When speaking to my trucking executive audiences, I ask them how many would prefer to hire professional Drivers? (To put this question in context, I first classify drivers into three categories: First, the lost and forlorn. They are just driving a truck until they find their real calling and by the way, they rarely do. Secondly, there is the truck stop cowboy. These folks are in love with the image of being a truck driver but not interested in being proficient at what they’re doing. The third grouping of drivers are the professionals; always looking clean and sharp, concerned with doing things properly and being accountable and responsible for all their actions). After I explain this and ask what type of Driver and Owner Operator they would like to hire, what I see is a room full of hands that have shot up into the air for, of course, the professional Driver and Owner Operator.
24 • OVER THE ROAD
So, here’s the next question that I ask the group. So you all want professionals in your company? Okay, that makes sense. So what do you do to foster that desire and this is when I get the glazed over look. Most companies currently have professionals in their infrastructure that they support such as a CPA that assists in making sure the company is current and compliant with all accounting rules. The head of Human Resources needs to be kept abreast of all the new labor rules that the company supports and how about the Safety Manager? The company likely sends this individual to regular safety council meetings and has paid for employees to obtain their CDS designation, to name just a few positions. So I ask, you also want professional Drivers and Owner Operators at your company but what do you do within your fleet to support this claim? How do you make information available so that your people have a source of knowledge that will allow them to excel at their trade? Examples would be: how to be a successful Owner Operator, new proposed rulemakings, advanced defensive driving, new equipment innovation, conversational sales to name just a few. If your answer is nothing then you should stop claiming to want professionals at your company because you do not have an infrastructure that supports that claim. If you want professionals, treat them like professionals or as Don Cherry would say “It’s not nuclear surgery”. AUGUST 2018