The persistent driver turnover problem in the trucking industry makes life difficult for fleet managers. The driver shortage is a constant headache, and perpetual turnover is a huge drain on time and energy too. If turnover is a challenge pressing your fleet, these solutions are worth your consideration.
Provide Fair Feedback
Giving feedback can be a potent way to empower every driver in the fleet and build a culture of transparency. Drivers want to be acknokwledged for their hard work, and it’s worth it for fleets to provide them that.
Obviously giving (and receiving feedback) is not always easy, and it’s a skill that takes time to develop. However, there’s no doubt that it’s better than leaving people in the dark. If feedback is left unsaid, drivers may get their own, possibly false ideas about their performance.
True Fuel was designed to make this process easier and more accurate with a simple system designed to measure performance fairly. Rather than letting personal biases get in the way, True Fuel provides an objective framework to base any feedback on. It factors in the capabilities of the truck, the load, and the route. That way, drivers never feel like the feedback they are getting is unreasonable. It’s always based in the unvarnished truth, and with in-cab coaching, True Fuel provides a clear roadmap on how drivers can take that feedback and improve their performance from there.
Reward Successes and Improvement
Drivers want to be recognized for the good, hard work they do. The simple act of recognizing success and improvement consistently can have a dramatic impact on retention. Many people quit simply because they feel that they aren’t being recognized for their work.
You can also go beyond pure recognition and provide clear, tangible rewards for consistently high-level performance. Those rewards could take shape in a variety of forms, but you can’t go wrong with bonuses. True Fuel makes it easy to give fair rewards because it measures performance objectively and coaches drivers to perform at their highest level. Plus, the money you save on turnover costs and fuel should be more than enough to cover compelling bonuses for your fleet’s top performers.
Rewarding successes not only helps engage your drivers, but it can bolster performance in its own right. Your drivers will be more motivated to improve when they know that there is something in it for them. Not only that, but when those rewards are tied to goals and objectives, they will have a clear ambition and means to drive them forward.
Be Clear About Your Mission (and How Every Drivers Fits Into It)
Beyond recognition and feedback, one of the most powerful motivators is a unified purpose — a guiding mission that every driver in the fleet can understand and appreciate. There’s no limit to the shape it can take, so long as it is inspirational and meaningful to every driver.
Trucking fleets are already equipped with the potential to tell a powerful story of who they are. They keep this country running strong, and they deliver the things that we need every single day. It may sound obvious or corny, but letting every driver know that their work is vital and important to so many people can really make a difference.
With True Fuel, it’s easier for fleet managers to communicate this sense of purpose to every driver in the fleet. By putting a clear measure of their progress and improvement into the hands of every driver and rewarding them for high performance, they have a reason to be real partners — not just in their own development, but the success of the fleet as a whole.
These methods can have a profound impact on turnover because they provide drivers the respect and engagement they crave, with the confidence and trust that they are being measured fairly. True Fuel makes these objectives possible, and saves you precious time, money, and energy on the costs of turnover.