What today's drivers expect from fleets

For small motor carriers specifically, what do you think is the most challenging part of onboarding drivers?

The most challenging part of onboarding drivers is a combination of determining what the drivers know, providing the new (or remedial) information they need and doing it in a relatively short time. Onboarding is a great way to make sure everyone is on the same page, but it takes a lot of classroom time to get into every topic a fleet wants to cover (defensive driving, hours of service, etc.)

In addition, drivers need to know about internal policies and paperwork, specific customer requirements, as well as specific cargo handling. Fleets often want to have time for meet-and-greets. How do you fit that in a three- or four-day session? Not to mention, the logistics of housing and feeding drivers who come in from out of town.

What are truck drivers seeking today from their employers or contracted carriers that maybe they haven't in the past?

Over the last five years or so, the major concern that drivers have had is with technology. Many people assume that drivers don’t like technology because they don’t understand it, but it’s more about how fleets approach new technology and how they introduce it to their drivers.

Fleet leaders are great at evaluating new tires or new hardware on a vehicle, but they don’t have as much experience evaluating and implementing a new software system (it wasn’t until the ELD mandate that all fleets had to start purchasing technology that wasn’t directly tied to the truck).

So it makes sense that many fleets don’t know how to pilot software with their drivers or teach them how to use it effectively. And drivers are left with the frustration and anger of not knowing how to use the tools in their vehicles and not feeling supported by their companies.

How can small carriers earn driver trust? Could they even use it as a competitive advantage when recruiting?

You can earn driver trust no matter what size your fleet is. It’s a simple cycle: 1. Ask your drivers how they feel. 2. Do what you can to make things a little better. 3. Tell your drivers what you did. Once you perform that cycle a few times and you do what you say you were going to do (or explain why you can’t), driver trust will improve.

The problem occurs when fleets stop communicating, usually because there’s a distraction (such as when the economy goes south, a major collision or the loss of a big customer). When things go wrong, it’s imperative to keep communicating. It’s a little more difficult when there isn’t a lot of good news, but that’s when it’s even more important.

Do you believe trucking carriers are generally paying enough attention to refresh training for their drivers?

It depends on how a fleet is implementing refresher training. Many fleets have a program of five-10 minute online training modules that are assigned every month to satisfy insurance requirements. Probably enough to claim that a fleet is training their drivers, but it’s not quality.

Sometimes drivers are expected to do this training without being paid, which means people don’t have a great incentive to do it (and is the reason that fleets try to keep it short). So if you’re assigning 10-minute videos per month without any meaningful follow-up or discussion, is it really training? Is it going to make anyone safer?

What does a true "culture of safety" look like to you?

Many of the Best Fleets to Drive For winners over the years have also won multiple safety and innovation awards and exemplify what a “culture of safety” looks like. It’s a collaboration between everyone in the organization—from leadership to planning to operations to recruiting to safety to drivers. Everyone has to be involved and have accountability for their part in getting a load from A to B on time and without an incident.

When only drivers are held responsible, or operations and safety have opposing goals and metrics (e.g., operations has to go fast and safety has to mitigate risk), it’s hard to say there’s a culture of safety.

Your organization runs the Best Fleets to Drive For program. What's one thing that consistently shows up among these top fleets?

They look for feedback on how they can improve. The overall winners each year consistently ask for more feedback and are thinking about what new improvements they can make for the next year’s program.

The winners often comment on how they start planning for the Best Fleets right after they receive their report and consultation for the current year. Sometimes their corporate objectives tie into what they can do to improve based on the driver surveys we collect through the process.

Best Fleets is an award program, but it’s also a continuous improvement strategy. The fleets that look at it that way may not make the list their first year. Taking the feedback and working to improve is how many of the fleets make it their second or third year, and their drivers are definitely happier overall.