In my travels, I always ask for a tour of the facilities as part of my learning about the company.
To me, the most important stop is the drivers room, where drivers can come in, have a cup of coffee, fill out paperwork, perhaps have a snack, or prepare for an upcoming trip. I’m often disappointed in what I see.
Many companies don’t have a drivers room. If there is one, I look at the walls. I almost certainly see what I call the “wall of shame” – that one wall (or more) that has all the “Don’t do this …” or “You can’t park here,” or “If we get one more call about …”
Sometimes there are so many “don’t do” memos that they cover up other “don’t do” memos that are years old. Yet, nowhere in that room are there any “thank you” or “good job” mentions. It’s all negative.
Once, I went into a drivers room and saw a number of boxes from Amazon on the tables, which reduced seating and table space. It yelled to me, “Drivers, you are not important to us!”
When I asked the owner why all those boxes were on the drivers tables, he said they had been delivered the day before and nobody had a chance to put the items away. So I asked why they were sitting at the drivers tables, and not on the desk of the accounting officer?
He looked at me like I had asked a strange question. In truth, I was asking if the drivers are less important than accounting. Are they less important than the safety department?
You wouldn’t just have an Amazon shipment dropped on any of those desks, so why do so on the driver’s desk?
Respect builds retention
When we are asked about recruiting drivers, I ask the company why they need them. I am often told that drivers will leave for 50 cents more an hour for someone down the street.
However, when my associates and I interview driver applicants and ask why they were leaving their previous company, wages are at least third on the list, or further down. The top reasons are a “feeling of not being appreciated” or “Not having a say in anything/nobody listens” or a “sense of fairness between all drivers.”
Does your company have a “driver council” where its representatives can talk with management about issues drivers face? When management sits down with drivers, is there a real sense of listening and not just defensive pushback on everything the drivers point out? Defense is great in football, but it does not work in good management.
When a driver points out a problem, is it handled in a timely manner, or just put on the “I’ll get to it when I have time” pile?
My associates and I review a lot of social media postings for companies. We see a lot of pictures of pretty buses parked in front of beautiful sunsets or a mountain background, but how often are there posts on your social media thanking a driver for the great letter a customer had written about them, or for completing their first, fifth or tenth year with your organization?
How many pictures of your real drivers do you have on your website, or do you have that same stock photo of a driver that everyone uses?
Driver recruitment starts first with driver retention. If you have drivers leaving as fast as you are hiring new ones, the problem is most likely not because of 50 cents more an hour. Take a deep look within. Be the place where drivers want to stay, and you won’t need to recruit as much.
Mark Szyperski owns On Your Mark Transportation, a company that provides transportation consulting, marketing expertise, motorcoach training, and bus website development, among other services.
