5 ways to employ and retain the best Drivers

Employing drivers has always been hard. The best drivers are usually long standing employees of secure & vibrant haulage contractors. They enjoy the work and love what they do. A set of reliable drivers can take years to build and seconds to destroy. Managing drivers is important, but whats more important is leadership.

Employ young drivers & actively look take on inexperienced drivers. It's no secret that Road Haulage is an ageing industry and the appeal to young people to take up driving as a profession is forever diminishing. The costs in getting the licences, the way drivers are treated and the pay are but a few problems the industry faces daily. We need to start taking advantage of the enthusiasm new drivers bring. It's always a calculated risk when taking on a new driver. Are they likely to cost you money in the short term with the odd minor bump? Most certainly.

Think two years down the line when you've moulded the driver to your way of working, they know the tricks of the trade and are eternally grateful for you giving them the chance. I've found you can usually tell if a driver is going to an asset to your business or a hindrance within the first couple of weeks & while its important to bring in fresh drivers, its also important to decide if the driver has potential & desire to improve or not.

Keep your fleet clean and up to date. Nobody wants to make their way into work wondering whats going to fall off the vehicle today. Drivers don't want to be driving vehicles with minor defects or engine warning lights on, they want to know if something needs repairing or replaced it will get done as a matter of urgency as it should be. Keeping your fleet fresh and roadworthy with regular PMI's, a robust defect reporting system & suitable spare parts cupboard all help to encourage the driver to take care in the vehicle they are driving. A way for drivers to wash their lorries regularly is also important in making sure drivers take pride with their vehicles. This can be done by allowing the use of truck washes or simply having a jet wash readily available back at base. Above all else, a dirty truck doesn't look good to potential customers.

Ask drivers opinions before making business decisions. One of the biggest problems I've seen in the industry over the last 10 years is the way drivers are made to feel unimportant within the business. Drivers on the whole are seen as people who like to moan on a daily basis instead of getting on with their job. Made to feel as if their opinions are irrelevant and their job is not important. This is especially prevalent in companies which sell their own goods and deliveries are very much secondary to the sale. Regular meetings are important in any business but especially important amongst drivers who are the face of your company. An idea from a driver who sees a problem first hand could end up revolutionising your business and the way you operate. Its important to remember the important job they do for the business and regularly ask opinions on how they feel the systems in place are operating.

Driver Training & Progression In today's world driver training is just as important to the industry as the driving itself. For a company to survive the cut and throat market of road haulage, employers need to ensure their staff are trained to the highest standards. With the introduction of CPC in 2009, drivers are required to carry out 35 hours of classroom based training every 5 years. It is imperative that courses are picked that will benefit the driver and not delivered just to fulfil the requirement. Most drivers want to broaden their skills and its important there is a system of progression within the company. This could include training to drive bigger vehicles, Hiab training or other related training within the business. From my experience a happy driver is a driver who has a lot of variety within his job, feels valued & feels secure in his job. Ongoing driver training plays a part in achieving this.

Pay. To most drivers pay would be the top of the list. The more money you give them the better the'll work. I don't believe that's true. A lazy driver will always be lazy regardless of how much money He/She takes home. Having said that, drivers must be paid fairly for the work they do. Rather than a higher gross salary, I've found drivers perform better with receiving company bonuses based on their performance. This can be managed with the use of telematic and requires little work to collate the data. Not only does this encourage drivers to drive more efficiently and safely on the roads, it also saves you money long term on fuel & tyre usage.

To summarise, to employ and retain the best drivers its important that drivers feel part of the team, respected and appreciated for all the work they do and the things they sacrifice in this industry. Vehicles must be clean and in a good state of repairs, nobody wants to feel like they have to drive a vehicle that's not roadworthy. Drivers must feel challenged with the work they do but not driven into the ground. Training is a must, not only because the industry demands it but the best drivers are the drivers who are trained to do their job properly. Pay must be competitive but also partly based on experience. There always has to be the option of further training & more money, otherwise we risk driving as a profession becoming just another dead end job. I think most of us can agree, it's certainly not that.