Employee Recognition & Engagement Resources

Editor's Note: The following blog post was written by Chuck Melton, Owner of Melton Technologies. MTI is a leading provider of trucking software, covering all aspects of fleet management operations, from dispatch operations to billing and settlements to maintenance and driver compliance.

In this blog, Mr. Melton describes how the transportation industry has evolved and why it is mission critical to focus on engaging your drivers. 

Today's Truck Driver

The trucking industry is facing a multitude of issues in 2015, but that’s not so unusual when you look at the past. My entire career has been spent both in the trucking industry or serving the trucking industry, and at the risk of dating myself, I have seen some major changes over the years.

The business of delivering goods is incredibly fragmented among big and small trucking companies, shippers, and receivers. The supply chain has to work in tandem to yield glitch-free deliveries. Recognizing truck drivers for working in cohesion with all the other pieces and parts of the supply chain will ultimately drive sales and profits.

Every year technology continues to improve. One area of recent improvement in the transportation industry is the creation and implementation of Electronic Logging Devices. ELDs are electronic devices that are capable of recording a driver's driving hours and duty status. ELDs are expected to be mandated for all carriers as early as January 2017.

The implementation of ELDs is good news for carriers. The Aberdeen Group sites that carriers with ELDs:

• Cut Operating Costs by 10%
• Reduced Vehicle Downtime by 15%
• Improved Vehicle Utilization by 13%

Driving and achieving employee engagement with employees that predominately work outside of the office or over the road is a tough task to accomplish, but is very feasible to attain. Specifically regarding employee engagement in the transportation industry, it just takes a little more effort.

Communication is the Key to Driver Engagement

Start by making a conscious effort to touch base with and engage employees, at least once per week, to see how their week is going and if there is anything you can do serve their overall work performance. When your employees see that communication efforts are being made and they're being engaged in a meaningful conversation, they will feel as though their best interests, contributions, and work performance matter to senior management and the company as a whole.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulates organizations based on the hours of service (HOS) that are placed on drivers to prevent accidents caused by driver fatigue and to ensure that proper protocol is being followed regarding hours spent on the road. Manual log books have long been the way drivers have been expected to account for their duty status. However, with the advent of new technologies such as electronic on-board recorders (EOBR), most of the responsibility has been taken off of the driver while making the duty status process less susceptible to falsification.

This shift is a great thing for all parties involved, right?

Transportation industry leaders have been facing a colossal problem with driver retention. Depending on company size, driver turnover is currently between 75-90%. We must ask the question: why is truck driver retention so low?

Driver and Dispatch Alignment

A driver's job requires close interaction with a dispatcher. The primary reason for the mass exodus is that drivers are unhappy with the company alignment. Studies have shown that when dispatchers and drivers properly align, the level of driver satisfaction increases. As well, a cohesive company culture is created. When the roles of a driver and dispatcher are misaligned, drivers tend to feel like the dispatchers don't respect them or their time, which leads to feelings of company isolation and low employee retention.