Recruit & Retain: New Ideas To Solve Your Driver Problem
High driver turnover often snowballs for trucking companies. You suffer from high turnover and need more drivers. However, you have a hard time finding the right candidate. As a result, you need to hire whomever you can. You resort to hiring poor-fitting candidates who are likely to quit. Subsequently, you suffer from high turnover. Rinse and repeat. We call this the driver problem. The driver problem is complex and has no clear end or beginning, and its negative impacts on your business are widespread.
The Relationship Between Recruiting, Retention, & Training
In December of 2019, AvatarFleet President Scott Rea was a guest on the podcast Recruit & Retain: Trucking Edition. The episode focused on AvatarFleet’s solutions to the driver problem. Rea and podcast host Chad Hendricks discussed the relationship between recruiting, retention, and safety, as well as how the three affect one another.
“I never have enough drivers. I’m drowning in compliance paperwork. I’m constantly focused on putting out the next fire, accident, or incident. And, we got as many [drivers] walking out the back door as the front door.” That’s how Rea describes the driver problem. None of these problems happen in a silo. Poor retention and recruiting numbers have an adverse impact on safety and accident rates. Thus, it stands to reason, improving one can help improve the others.
