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2024 Trucking Industry Challenges: Driver Recruitment and Retention

posted by TrueNorth Transportation on Thursday, April 4, 2024

To close our 2024 trucking challenges series, we will look at the winning response to our survey and address the challenge of driver recruitment and retention. While this challenge isn’t new, its persistence demands innovative solutions now more than ever.

Driver Recruitment & Retention

Drivers are perhaps the most important asset to a trucking company, yet recruiting and retaining qualified drivers is an ongoing battle. In fact, the average turnover rate for long-haul trucking is a staggering 94% and recruitment of drivers has become even more challenging, with the number looking for a new job hitting a record low.

Jacob Pipkin, Senior Vice President of Transportation at TrueNorth, stressed the pivotal role of company culture in creating an environment for drivers to thrive in. "Successful carriers concentrate on cultivating a culture of driver respect from the top down,” Pipkin notes. Understanding drivers’ daily challenges is crucial, paving the way for continuous improvement initiatives.

Once you’ve gained a deep understanding from your drivers, the next step is to prioritize continuous improvement. Pipkin explains, “This approach unlocks valuable insights from the road, such as streamlining technology platforms to prevent duplicate work, building competitive benefit packages like the TrueChoices platform that concentrates on driver wellness, and understanding then implementing safety programs that are relevant to driver needs.” The goal is to enable drivers to perform their jobs at the highest level by giving them the resources they need and deserve.

An alternative method to understand driver’s priorities and gauge their satisfaction levels is by directly engaging with them. TrueNorth facilitates surveys to collect data from drivers to determine their overall sentiment about the company and various factors including compensation, safety, load types, and more.

Zack Hawkins, Account Executive, states that the goal of a perception survey is to “identify gaps between drivers and driver managers about how both parties feel about their respective companies, as well as their direct relationship with each other.”  He shares that oftentimes a manager may have a different perception from drivers, and identifying those differences is key to determining areas that need improvement.

A few findings from a real survey and analysis conducted:

• The lower the tenure, the higher the satisfaction score
• One terminal stood out among the rest with lower average satisfaction score
• Simple updates to facilities and equipment would make an impact on satisfaction

By analyzing the data, our team derives actionable insights so that they can then develop robust strategies to improve your employee satisfaction and retention rate.

2024 challenges

As this series wraps up, we hope you have gathered valuable information to help prepare for trucking industry challenges you may face. While you may or may not deal with these obstacles this year, it is likely all trucking companies will face most, if not all, of these challenges at some point. The key to overcoming them is being prepared before they come your way.

Get in touch with the TrueNorth team today.