5 Tips to Improve Driver Retention

Due to high turnover rate in the trucking industry, companies are always looking for ways to find and retain quality drivers for a long time

losing drivers can be very costly and difficult to replace them

In this blog post you will discover 5 tips to help you improve your retention

1) Be completely honest 

When hiring drivers, do not sugarcoat the job or promise a particular thing and not deliver.

Nobody likes to be lied to. I’m sure you don’t, right?

It breaks trust that cannot be rebuilt.

If your trucking company has a broken hiring process and hire the wrong drivers who are unhappy with the job or something you did not communicate clearly in the interview, well guess what? they likely won’t stick around long. 

2) Offer competitive pay

Be sure that your drivers are happy with your offer.

Most drivers agrees that they’re underpaid for work they do on a regular basis which will lead to a fleet of unhappy drivers who are looking for the next opportunity to leave your organization.

Some claim that the pay to drive a tractor-trailer with more responsibility is almost equivalent doing local deliveries with a cube van.

If you were in their position, would you say that is fair?

Is the rate you offer your drivers worth the work they do day in, day out? 

If you don’t know, just ask and you shall receive an honest answer. 

3) Provide better onboarding

I’ve heard from many drivers that their former employers just throw the keys in their hand, give them the paperwork and off you go.

This is a great way to show that you as a company don’t care and you just want the load to be delivered to the customer.

This could be a very costly mistake in the near future where drivers are clueless about rules, and guidelines of your company

This is your opportunity to set the right expectations and demonstrate to new drivers that they will be treated with respect in your organization.

4) Communicate well on a regular basis

It is so important that everyone in your fleet and customers are on the same page.

Now that the ELD is in place, drivers don’t want to be sitting around wasting time waiting at a customers dock when a load is not ready to be shipped out or any changes. Miscommunication can cause frustrations

Improving your communication will increase productivity and keep your keep operation running smoothly

5) Be appreciative

Working up to 14 hours per day, and spending time away from family are sacrifices truck drivers make to help keep the economy moving.

By showing continuous appreciation to your drivers can go a long way and make them feel good. 

Not only to say that you appreciate, show them that you do by rewarding them with a Timmy’s gift card to grab a coffee and snacks in morning the because we know that action speak loader than words 

Did you get value from this post? Share it below

If you are a trucking business owner looking for ways to get quality drivers and improve your retention CLICK HERE for your FREE case study

-Elroy