A newly published compilation of ideas to help carriers make the most of National Truck Driver Appreciation Week (NTDAW), Sept. 8-14, is available from Stay Metrics, a provider of driver retention tools for motor carriers.
The Driver Appreciation Week strategy compilation, titled “How to Celebrate Driver Appreciation Week,” is on the Stay Metrics website for free. The publication has creative and successful practices drawn from interviews with a wide variety of top fleet executives and managers.
Stay Metrics, the leading provider of driver retention tools for motor carriers, announces a new free compilation of ideas for fleets to make the most of National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, Sept. 8-14. The publication is entitled “How to Celebrate Driver Appreciation Week” and is available on the Stay Metrics website.
The early indications for drivers hired in 2019 seem to be following this trend. Averaging several months together and comparing by year shows this most clearly, with 84.9% of drivers hired from March through May 2019 staying a full 30 days with their carriers, compared to 86.3% over the same period in 2018.
This trend is even more pronounced at the three-month mark, the company said. Among drivers hired in the first quarter of 2019, only 64.9% made it 90 days on their new jobs. This is almost a 5% decrease from 69.3% during the first quarter a year earlier. This downward trend on the average driver retention rate is consistent with recent American Trucking Associations turnover measurements. The ATA recently reported turnover at large carriers increased 5% in the first quarter of 2019.
In 2019, 84.9% of drivers hired from March through May made it a full 30 days with their carriers, compared to 86.3% over the same period in 2018. The shift is even more pronounced at the three-month mark. Among drivers hired in the first quarter of 2019, only 64.9% made it 90 days. This is almost a 5% decrease from 69.3% during the same period of 2018.
The Stay Days Table was recently expanded to include a column for “Average Days Stayed” that is calculated once a driver group has reached 365 days since their hire date.
Stay Metrics CEO Tim Hindes said the key insight from this update is that early-stage turnover is increasing overall across the industry.
While drivers hired in January 2018 stayed an average of 283 days, drivers hired in June 2018 stayed only 216 days on average, a decrease of 67 days.
I was listening to a webinar a few weeks ago about the driver shortage. One of the speakers in answering the question, “Why do drivers leave?” gave this answer: “Because they can.” That struck me as simple but profound.
In fact, given today’s low unemployment level, all of your employees have many other options to choose from.
More drivers are chasing a slower freight market so far this year. Carriers and fleets want to keep their best behind the wheel. Higher pay helps. But offering new equipment is a big factor, said Tim Hindes, chief executive of Stay Metrics, which tracks driver retention.
“The key is to spec the truck properly to not only serve customer needs, but also the needs and some wants of drivers,” said Casey Stump, general manager at Ag Trucking in Goshen, Ind. Ag held a companywide vote to determine the paint scheme of its new tractor, he said.
Case in point, a research paper published by Stay Metrics, South Bend, Ind., found that female drivers tend to be more satisfied in most areas with their carriers, feel less bored by their work and feel more fairly compensated and satisfied with their home/work balance. Female drivers also scored significantly higher in pre-turnover thoughts, which indicates they are less likely to leave their present carriers than male drivers.
“In short, they are more loyal when treated well. Their top turnover predictor is their equipment, which correlates to safety. Give them good treatment, stable earnings and safe equipment and they are likely to stay at higher levels. They are generally safer drivers taking fewer risks and handle procedure and paperwork better,” says Jerry Scott, chief operating officer for Stay Metrics. “I honestly think that in the 25 years that it will take for autonomous vehicles to make a material difference in capacity, women could be the savior of trucking and everything that would mean for supply chain and logistics in general.”
It should come as no surprise that drivers prioritize the best pay possible, but another avenue to keep them could be much cheaper — earn their trust.
In a survey of more than 15,000 drivers, Stay Metrics found that while pay and compensation are the areas that drivers considered the most when deciding to stay with a carrier, trust was also a significant factor in potential turnover.
Stay Metrics asked drivers questions about their satisfaction with key elements of their jobs. Questions touched on issues like fairness of compensation, work related stress and whether or not they felt their employers had their best interests in mind.
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Stay Metrics, a provider of driver retention tools for motor carriers, has released a new research report that identifies the top 20 priorities for carriers to focus on to improve driver retention, according to its newly developed Stay Index.
The index combines measurements of drivers’ average level of satisfaction with each area of their jobs and how closely their answers relate to their commitment to stay. Stay Metrics says the index gives fleet executives and managers a resource to focus their efforts on areas that both need improvement and matter to turnover.
To create the Top 20 Stay Index report, Stay Metrics analyzed a sample of 15,709 Annual Driver Satisfaction Surveys completed by drivers between 5/31/2018 and 6/1/2019. Sixty-seven diverse carriers were represented from sectors such as dry van, tanker, intermodal, flatbed, reefer and expedite.
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