Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/265903
COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | MARCH 2014 23 their own with no one who cares about them – believe it's time to go work for another company. Many fleets today work hard to make drivers feel like important members of the team, and focusing on the human touch is an easy way to do just that. Simple things like making sure drivers' lounges and restrooms are clean and that the TV works and picks up more than three channels is a start. More innovative fleets might consider hiring staffers to work in those same lounges serving complementary snacks and coffee. Never underestimate the power of the human touch in the never-ending battle to retain drivers. M y Overdrive colleague Todd Dills – follow him on Twitter: @channel19todd – was at the ACS/TCA annual Recruiting and Retention Conference in Nashville, Tenn., in late January and filed a report on driver recruiting and retention that made me stop and think. One of the speakers was John Elliott, chief executive officer of Taylor, Mich.- based expediter Load One, who told fleet attendees that if they had something like a "No Drivers Allowed" sign up anywhere on their property, it needed to be taken down at once. Elliott was making the point that treating drivers as a separate class within a fleet's structure is a bad idea for innumerable reasons. Creating any kind of "us against them" mentality fundamentally damages morale and creates ill will in any business, and for fleets, it's not just drivers: I've toured shops in the past and seen "No Technicians" signs in the supply room behind the parts counter. In some ways, these signs are easy to understand. When I was in school, I worked as a grease monkey at an old-fashioned full-service gas station. One of the more aggravating things we encountered on a regular basis was a customer roaming around in the repair bays. You're busy, you're behind, and you're trying to get caught up, and now here's somebody looking over your shoulder, in the way, wanting to talk – or worse, wanting to tell you how to do your job. Today, for insurance reasons, signs telling customers to stay out of the shop are common. Occasionally, we'd mutter to our boss that he ought to put such a sign up, but he never did. I would guess that he didn't want to offend anyone. Full-ser- vice gas stations were a throwback to a different time; much like old-fashioned barbershops, they were places where men of a certain age felt welcome to hang out, drink Cokes or coffee and exchange news and gossip. In some ways, this is the same situation fleets face today. We all know drivers have a particularly difficult and lonely job. They often go for days – even weeks – without interacting with anyone who isn't a stranger. It's only natural that when they return to familiar turf, they crave some face time and conversation with people they recognize. As a manager, this can lead to problems: Too much conversation kills productivity, and as noted above, having people in certain locations can lead to safety issues. Clearly some boundaries are in order, but instead of saying "No Drivers Allowed," it's a better idea to go with "No Unau- thorized Personnel." The idea is to avoid the unintentional creation of a "class system" that makes a driver – who already may feel they're out on PRODUCT REVIEWS, OEM & SUPPLIER NEWS, AND EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT TRENDS BY JACK ROBERTS JACK ROBERTS is Executive Editor of Commercial Carrier Journal. E-mail jroberts@ccjmagazine.com or call (205) 248-1358. The human touch Fleets must make drivers feel like part of the team US AGAINST THEM: This mentality fundamentally damages morale and creates ill will in any business. VALID REASON?: Conversation kills productivity, and people in the wrong locations can lead to safety issues. REACHING OUT: Many fleets work hard to make drivers feel like important members of the team.