SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE Ray J. Haight
The Simple Truth The simple truth is that the low retention rates prevalent in the trucking industry are nothing more than a business challenge gone unchecked. Having a successful business is a difficult thing to achieve, no matter the industry or company. Being in the trucking industry exaggerates this challenge since it is capital-intensive and there are very few restrictions to enter the industry, other than courage and money. Now add to this the margins that are razor-thin by most business standards, and you begin to understand how so many new companies always seem to pop up as they do and why so many fail. In the beginning, the trucking company owner must wear many hats to get the business off the ground. They are usually the company’s first dispatcher, the first salesperson, the first safety manager, the first billing clerk and the first bookkeeper, to name a few essential functions. This type of pressure can be overwhelming to all but the determined few. So as the company begins to gain traction, the task of adding and retaining drivers starts to get a little too finite. As companies expand, few ever go down the road of strategic planning. If they do, they might discuss the plan to build the company through additional sales and trucks. A discussion might also ensue concerning the business’s infrastructure, what needs to be added to accommodate the extra work budgeted. To some entrepreneurs, this entails the additional expense of hiring people before the additional revenue has been secured. 14 • OVER THE ROAD
Most business owners find this scary, but if it is not done, then things can quickly fall off the rails. Spending each day putting out fires because the company is understaffed can wear down the business owner and the rest of the staff. Driver retention usually starts to take a beating at this point. Scenario one allows the company time to filter through available candidates and train them to be precisely what is needed. Scenario two puts much more strain on the hiring process. It rushes things and it also likely shortens the training period for the new person, leading to performance issues and possibly more fires to put out. At this point, driver retention is not priority one, not that it shouldn’t be. It is just such a hectic atmosphere that the priorities get blurred when one is always playing catch up. Core fundamentals that need to be in place when talking about driver retention are nicely displayed in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham Maslow In my public speaking, I can usually hold a group’s attention with this discussion when I do presentations about driver retention. Most folks can absorb the concept; they get it. What they have a much harder time understanding is that this is a foundational concept of retention. In practice, it needs to be brought along slowly and thoughtfully. It is not something that can be muscled into place or that happens naturally. I have talked to many owners, and many of them want to act first and plan later. SEPTEMBER 2021
