Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/959367
74 commercial carrier journal | april 2018 SPECIAL REPORT | THE DRIVER DEFICIT Whether through social media, email or a customized fleet portal, successful fleets use any means available to cultivate rela- tionships with drivers. "It used to be 'yes' or 'no,' " says Roadmaster's Fisk. "Now, if it's a 'no' now, we're going to stay in touch with you. It has to be relational, where they're interacting with you as well." As carriers deal with the realities of today's more severe driver short- age, many are looking for ways to be more flexible in their hiring standards while maintaining safe operations, FTR notes in its Trucking Update. Fisk sug- gests fleets take a more sophisticated approach to hiring. "We constantly assess and reassess how we hire," he says, evaluating each candidate from an individual perspective. If a driver had a traffic accident at 19 and now is 35, Fisk considers the current level of maturity and possible change in habits "instead of just having a list of nonqualifiers," he says. Such flexibility may require implementing additional programs or other require- ments for the new hire to be successful. Meanwhile, despite fleets' best efforts to recruit each other's drivers, many are content to stay put. Amid the flurry of carrier pay announcements, last month Truckers News and Overdrive asked drivers and owner-operators how likely they were to change jobs. Forty-seven percent said they have no plans to jump carriers because they are happy with their current employer. Another 17 percent said changing jobs was "just too much hassle." NEXT MONTH: WHO'S DRIVING THE FUTURE? Trucking's 'Dirty Little Secret' "Some fleets mistakenly believe the economics of turnover outweigh the benefits of retention," says Michael Fisk, director of hiring, marketing and driver development for Glendale, Ariz.-based Roadmaster Group. If it costs around $5,000 to hire a driver – including marketing, orientation and training, for example – but it's going to cost $15,000 a year to retain that driver, some fleets might look at those numbers "and decide it's cheaper to lose the driver and replace him," he says. But it's critical that fleets look at other factors, such as safety, he cautions. "You have one accident, and it could wipe out any savings," he says. Some carriers choose to embrace turnover because "they want to keep their cost at a level," says Ken Deocharran, president of Express Trucking & Courier. "If they are running at 30 [cents per mile], they don't want a driver at 40," he suggests. But in today's competitive market, turning a blind eye to the true costs of turnover might mean carriers lose out on plentiful freight and quality drivers. "Turn- over this year is a cost you want to avoid," says Gordon Klemp, president of the National Transportation Institute. "If you get a lot of churn, it's going to be hard to replace him with an equal driver." Klemp equates the situation to what the industry experienced in late 2004 and early 2005, when turnover at large truckload carriers reached more than 130 percent. "It's going to be a dogfight," he says. But if carriers decide to continue turning over driv- ers, that's fine with Deocharran. "It's a good thing for us, because then we pick them up," he says. "Some fleets mistakenly believe the economics of turnover outweigh the benefits of retention." – Michael Fisk, Roadmaster Group Successful fleets use any means available to cultivate relationships with drivers, whether through social media, email or a customized fleet portal.