Best Practices in Driver Recruitment and Retention

Today, I wanna welcome you to our pre, uh, webinar and,

and tell you about our presenters.

So, uh, again, I’m Rob Abbott.

I’m a vice president here at Drivewise by Fleet Worthy.

I’m joined by, uh, Gary Johnson.

Gary is the head of Safety

and Compliance Strategy firm Motive.

Uh, Gary’s an industry veteran.

He’s, uh, been in safety

and leadership roles, uh, in a variety of places, big fleets

that you recognize, like Rider, FedEx, transport America,

and Anderson Trucking.

Uh, and subsequently, uh, for the last decade

or so, Gary’s been in the telematics business, uh,

serving the trucking industry.

So thank you to Gary for joining us.

Uh, we’re also joined by Allison Hughes, uh,

who’s the retention manager with, uh, with Bennett.

Um, she’s been with Bennett, uh, the Bennett family

of companies for six and a half years.

And, uh, Allison’s gonna share with us some fresh approaches

and, uh, to driver recruiting and retention

and some innovative ideas that, uh,

that she has successfully put into place there at Bennett.

So we appreciate Allison joining us as well.

Um, before we begin, I want

to tell you a little bit about, uh, fleet worthy.

We’re a, a company

that helps fleets operate more efficiently, uh, efficiently,

safety safely and more productively.

We offer a variety of, uh, of tools

and services to do so, including, uh, toll management, uh,

way station bypass, tax filings, and safety

and compliance services.

So, effectively, a lot of the things that fleets need to do

outside of operate their core business.

So we do things that help them do things more safely,

more compliantly, and more efficiently

so they can focus on what they do best.

Uh, Gary, welcome to, uh, our webinar.

Tell us a little bit about motive, if you will.

Well, thank you, Rob, and thank you Drivewise.

Uh, like Drivewise, our mission is to empower the people

who run physical economy, physical operations, with tools

to make sure that work works safer, more productive,

and more profitable.

And how we do that is we do that through very much a,

a whole host of innovative solutions,

but we really drive that through our industry leading

artificial intelligence.

It is one of those tools

that we are gonna be talking about quite a bit.

We will talk about quite a bit, but you’ll see it across

and especially with our solutions.

But do we do it only with technology?

No, we do that with also our people.

We have over 4,000 employees

that now is worldwide,

and we have over a million connected, uh,

vehicles throughout this entire industries,

or the industries we support.

But we also do that with our partnerships.

And of course, they have to give a shout out

to Drivewise being a very valued partners of ours,

but also with Allison and Bennett.

We consider them a very much a valued client partner

of ours, and we love supporting the industry in which she

is a part of as well.

And the topic we’re gonna talk about today, Rob,

so thank you again,

and thank you for the, uh, allowing us to participate.

That’s great. You know, I had no idea

that you now had 4,000 employees.

That’s really a pretty impressive,

and I’ve watched your growth over the years, uh, you know,

from your starts as a very small company to now serving some

of the biggest fleets in the industry.

So, very impressive

and certainly a testament to, uh, to your company

and your technology.

Um, wanna talk today about, uh, a number of topics.

So this is, uh, a quick introduction to our agenda today.

First of all, we know that, uh, webinars and recruiting

and retention have been very popular for many, many years

as everybody’s looking to this for the silver bullet

to recruit and retain drivers.

Uh, but you’ve heard many of the same themes over

and over again, and we wanna make sure that,

that we don’t hit those same themes that you’ve heard

so many times before, uh, that you know, it’s all about pay

and home time and better equipment.

Wanna make sure that you hear some new ideas

and some innovative ideas, things that people are doing new

and differently and better, uh, to get ahead in this space.

So that’s our commitment to you today.

We’re gonna provide some insights.

Uh, we have surveyed, uh, a number of drivers

and gotten a lot of insight into the sort of things

that matter to them.

Why do they stay where they are?

Why do they choose to go elsewhere?

Uh, and some things that fleets can maybe be more sensitive

to, uh, to address those concerns

and those views by on behalf of the driver community.

And then we’ll talk about, uh, technology implications, how,

you know, the adoption of technology, telematics, ELDs,

et cetera, has sort of changed the game, uh,

a little bit on driver recruiting and retention

and some of the things that fleet should now think about

when they, uh, deploy technology

and how the use of that technology

and how they deploy it impacts their driver

recruiting and retention efforts.

I wanna assure our audience that while Motive

and Fleet Drivewise

by Fleet worthy are sponsoring this webinar,

this is not a commercial for our services.

We will, uh, perhaps talk about a couple of our products

and services in the context of, of the webinar today.

Some things that we do that we offer that are solutions,

but it is certainly not an end to end, uh,

webinar in support of our products and services.

Uh, that’s not our intent today.

Our intent today is to cover the topic matter

as I described, and,

and to make sure that everybody leaves with a, a sense

that they gain something from this.

So that’s where we’re going next.

So I mentioned that we, uh, we wanted

to provide some insights.

So we’ve conducted a survey of over 300 drivers,

and we, uh, did so

and asked them about a number of things

that impact their day.

Like what are the challenges that they, that they, uh, uh,

that they incur on a daily basis,

and what are some of the technologies that tend

to their performance with the thinking that, you know,

the challenges and frustrations and the hindrances.

Those are things that impact their retention,

their ability to stay with a fleet.

And it also impacts whether

or not they would consider moving to a new fleet that,

that is addressing these things differently.

And some of them were very, very telling.

Um, Gary, I wanted to get your thoughts on something here.

You know, for decades we’ve talked about, hey,

it’s all about pay and getting home time.

Uh, but yet when you look at the top challenges while on the

road or daily task inability

to get home is seventh on the list, there are other things

that are higher up the list, like, uh, long hours,

trouble finding rest areas, communication difficulties

with dispatch even was higher than inability to get home.

What, what do you make of that?

Are we doing a better job as an industry

of helping drivers get home,

or is it just that other things have become more painful

for them or things that have become more acute for them?

Well, I could say, I think there’s aspects

to all that, to be honest.

And first and foremost, you know, this survey,

and I appreciate, uh, driveways doing this survey, you know,

as an organization keeping up

and being sort of in touch to what the drivers

and some of the concerns they have is always key.

What you have uncovered here is, like you said, very much,

it’s interesting because US veterans,

and that’s just a way of calling you old Rob,

but us veterans, you know, we’ve seen changes with this,

and home time was a huge issue for many years.

And again, you know, we sort

of took the approach in the industry that you,

you’re out more, you obviously you’re gonna make more money,

but you really had the impact with, you know, that

that home life work balance.

So to see about the hometown getting better. Absolutely.

I I think that, uh, carriers

and, you know, even Bennett does a great job in recognizing

the importance of that

and really, you know, how they’ve restructured

their, their process.

But from a recruiting

and retention, obviously that’s,

that’s been a big pain issue

and I think that’s why you’re seeing a change with that.

But communication difficulties, things like that, I,

those are, you know,

the more you can communicate the better it’s gonna be, uh,

with any organization.

I don’t think you can over communicate to some extents.

But no, I love this survey

because it really highlights sort

of the changes from us veterans that have been

around for some time.

That’s right, that’s right. It was always, you know,

number one or number two.

Uh, and not saying it’s not important.

I think this maybe it indicates

that we’re doing a better job of addressing it.

The other one that caught me was poor routing tools.

Do you think this is because drivers aren’t getting

where they need to go, or maybe they’re getting taken

on nont truck routes?

Or do you think poor routing is another way of saying, Hey,

I’m always stuck in congestion.

I wish my routing tool would recognize that, get me to

where I need to go a little better, a little more quickly,

more directly, perhaps.

What do you make of that answer?

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, uh, for some of us,

we still remember having the big map books and,

and right lab books out.

But, you know, I think today’s age,

what we’re seeing is just, you know, even the simple thing

with your cell phones nowadays, you know, the,

the sophistication that really routing has gotten

to this level and,

and how technology has sort of played a big part of that.

You know, I I, I was talking

to an Amazon driver the other day

because it appears they’re at our house every every hour.

They are. But, but honestly, you know,

you have the tools nowadays that will do everything

for you in a routing aspect,

but even to the level of identifying weather

or impassable lanes,

but also identifying even to the extent of

is there a high risk area that they should be avoiding?

Uh, and you know, and honestly that just is better

and makes it more proficient for the driver,

but also it’s, you know, we, it’s about safety as well.

So I do believe,

and I can see this being concerned, I think that

we are seeing those tools get better and better,

but yet we know that there’s some legacy systems out there

that are still catching up.

Yeah. So this one is, is sort

of surprising, but not surprising.

It’s sort of those that I could see the importance of it,

especially, you know, what it’s like driving

around any city nowadays, you, it,

it went from having your influx to driving peak hours to,

it’s basically all the time now. Right.

This other thing that caught my eye,

something we didn’t see years ago we’re

of course seeing it now, false adas, not adas warnings, not

that they’re, they’re concerned about getting ADAS alerts,

uh, driver assistance alerts,

lane departure following distance, et cetera.

They’re not so concerned about getting ’em

or the volume it seems,

but the false ones. What do you make of that?

Yeah, it’s, it, it comes down to accuracy.

And let’s be honest, there are

so many technologies within the cabs

of these trucks nowadays.

It’s, we joke that it’s sort

of like a Christmas tree display.

You got everything beeping at you,

and, you know, drivers just don’t want one more thing,

but if it is, they want it to be accurate.

They don’t want the false positives.

And that’s why, you know, with anybody that’s out there,

that is really, you know, uh,

looking at bringing on a technology

or additional to an A DAS,

you’ve really gotta make sure you kick the tires,

slam the door, make sure

that you’re doing your due diligence

because it accuracy so much is dependent on the data

and the speed and what feeds the machine

to really identify what’s ahead or what’s around them.

And I can understand if I was a driver

and I had something beeping at me constantly, you become

what they call alert fatigue.

Right? And with that alert fatigue,

you just start ignoring it.

So does this surprise me? No.

And this is where I think as an industry

and as carriers, we just have to partner better to make sure

that any

of the technology being used here is operating accurately.

Yeah. I, I think that’s right.

Um, to your point, you know, if you’re not very careful

and strategic about delivering just the right number

of alerts at the right time

and that they’re not credible, uh, you know, the,

the cab could sound, as one friend described,

it could sound like a casino in there, right?

Oh, absolutely.

And you don’t want that. You want the,

the alerts to be very credible.

And that makes sense. So that’s something we’re seeing now.

That’s a, that’s a big issue for fleets.

Um, next one, Allison, I might ask you about that.

This, this, this was really interesting.

We asked the drivers, all of ’em that we surveyed,

on a scale of one to 10, will you be looking

for new employment next year?

Uh, more than half of ’em said no,

or not likely, uh, fewer than 20 said, yeah, I’m very likely

to be looking for another role that bodes well for fleets

that are retaining drivers

and maybe says we’re doing a better job of retaining them.

It also means for fleets that have to recruit drivers,

you’re gonna have to do a bit more to lure them away.

What do you think’s behind this right now?

Do you think it’s just that everybody’s doing a super

job of retention, Alison?

I would like to think that, but I think it more so has

to do with the, the economy over the last year,

um, in the current economy.

And I think as we kind of shift, um,

into the next upcoming quarters,

we’ll start to see a change with that.

Yeah. I, I agree with you.

I think, uh, well, you’re certainly very humble.

I think to some degree it’s, it’s the good work that you

and other retention managers have done.

But I, I do agree that I think, uh, you know,

as the economy improves and, uh,

and the freight market normalizes, uh,

we could see a change there

and we better be, uh, prepared for it.

Interesting here, uh, Gary,

we also saw better routing tools here as technologies

that would improve your job

and retention, uh, you know, newer maintained

and better maintained trucks.

Not a surprise there, uh, better a DAS,

better fleet management apps.

Uh, but routing seems to be a, an area of, of key concern.

So that, that is an interesting theme.

Um, also the 10 reasons to choose a carrier.

So, not that they were, you know, gonna stay or leave,

but why, if they were, why would they choose a carrier?

Not surprising. You know, the old themes pay

and home time are high on the list.

Uh, but, you know, lack of loads

and miles is relatively low Right now.

What’s higher, and we saw this theme earlier, is manager

and dispatcher interaction.

So it’s the, the, uh, communication they have with the fleet

and the involvement in fleet leadership and,

and the, the, uh, the opportunity to, to work

with the fleet, I think really bears a lot of merit there.

Did you find this interesting, Gary?

I did. You know, and I, you know,

I’ve had the opportunity, as you mentioned, to work

or some carriers that did

just excelled in having very low turnover.

And when you asked them what the success was, a lot of

that had to do with exactly what,

this is the management dis dispatch

interaction communication.

And I feel that, you know, there’s a tendency

with the advancements

and more technology, I hate to keep talking about

that theme, but that you, you can sort of, you know,

make it not personal anymore.

Or there’s just a, you know,

you do everything through a system.

You communicate through an app you that they really strive

for, just having, you know, that interaction.

And I tell you, I enjoyed it when I was, you know,

obviously in the industry side, having the communications

with those out on the road were very key to us.

So I do feel it is, I feel

that there’s always improvement in this area.

And I hope there isn’t anybody on this call that is still

calling their drivers

by an employee number asking employee number, truck number.

Yeah. You know, we gotta get away from that.

And, you know, it is all about the personal interaction. So

When we get to, I like it when we get

to Allison’s best practices.

Uh, she’s gonna teach us all a lesson or two here.

’cause they, they know exactly how much this matters and,

and they’re doing something about it.

So it’s pretty cool. But this one down here at the bottom

really caught my eye.

We, you know, for years you had drivers say,

I won’t get into a truck that has an ELD,

I won’t get into a truck that has a camera.

Uh, I don’t want, you know, autonomous braking use

of safety tech to keep me safe was a top 10 reason.

What do you think they’re trying to say there?

I tell you, they’re saying that the times have changed.

Yeah. You know, I

was in this industry when there was no technology,

and then obviously we had a little blurp

there in the nineties.

Yeah. And then of course, then where we are today,

but I, it really comes down to drivers want to be safe

and they want to feel secure.

Right? And because of that, I think there has been

a different perception with the utilization of technology,

uh, but also, you know, to the level it can be utilized

and, you know, motive.

We actually do a lot of surveys as well.

And that’s why I love this. I’m a data person, Rob. Yeah.

I love the data. I love to know.

And it was about a year ago

that we did a survey on retention of, of drivers

with the use of technology, you know,

driver facing cameras, road facing cameras.

And people would be surprised that, yeah,

there may be some murmurs about it,

but people didn’t leave because of it.

In fact, the study showed people stayed

because of the safety and security reasons.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that’s what you’re seeing here is

that there is a level of security,

but they also know it’s gonna exonerate ’em

because, you know, it, it really comes down

to the interaction with the motoring public.

So, right. I tell you, I I, this is interesting to see.

We definitely didn’t see this in the past. Yep.

And I’m, I’m happy to see it. Yeah.

I mean, I, I think part of it is the, you know,

to your point, the, uh, value of exoneration video.

Uh, but, but what you also said really resonated with me,

which is that when we introduced certain technologies over

the last couple of decades, there was a noisy minority that,

that said, I’m not tolerating this,

but when the dust settled, they all did.

And they all recognized the benefit of it.

There are people now who wouldn’t drive a truck that if, uh,

if, if it didn’t have an ELD in it.

Right? So, uh, I think that’s really interesting.

The other, uh, really key point that resonated

with us here at, at Drivewise by fleet worthy, and it’s

because we offer a waste station bypass program.

So we knew this, but, uh, more than two thirds

of drivers said they’re likely to remain with a carrier

that provides Waystation bypass, uh,

or would join a carrier with the Waystation bypass service.

So for those who aren’t familiar, uh,

what our service does is alerts drivers

as they’re approaching the way

station communicates with the way station.

And more often than not,

provides a driver a notification in the cab at highway speed

that they don’t have to pull in

and wait in line, potentially get weighed or inspected.

Uh, a huge benefit, very, very popular, uh,

and not surprising to us, uh, that, uh,

that more than two thirds of drivers that we surveyed said,

Hey, I’m likely to remain because of it,

or join a carrier that has it.

So, uh, uh, something to, to take away there, uh, in terms

of the technology as well.

Um, wanna turn now to, uh, to Allison Hughes

and a Allison, uh, you’re there at, at Bennett, done a lot

of inter, inter interesting things that we wanna share.

But, but first, for those who aren’t familiar

with the Bennett family of companies, tell us about Bennett.

Tell us about yourself, about the fleet,

uh, and your role there.

Yeah, so, um, for Bennett family of companies,

we have several different operating divisions.

Um, we do just a little bit of everything.

We’ve got our open deck division, we’ve got van, um,

we’ve got crane and rigging and oil fields.

We’ve got mobile home and toter.

So kind of a wide array of, um, services that, that we do.

Um, and I’ve been here about six and a half years.

I predominantly serve with our, um, open deck division,

so do a lot with our owner operators

as we’re predominantly an owner operator based company.

Sure. And you know, I thought about that, uh,

while you’re pri primarily owner operator

or contractor base, some of the drivers are,

are company drivers at Bennett.

But, uh, I think a lot of the things that you’ve done apply

to company drivers or owner operators or contractors.

Uh, ultimately I think a lot of the things

that you’re gonna talk about are really applicable to both.

So, wanted to spend some time on that.

When you and I first met, I asked you about the things

that you’re doing to really improve retention

and have done to improve retention at Bennett.

And your track record speaks for itself.

But what you really impressed upon me was the,

the personal touch that Bennett applies to, to drivers.

So they don’t feel like a,

a truck number or a driver number.

Right. So, I wanted to walk through these

and wondered if you could, uh, speak to them for us.

The first one you told us about was when you first bring on

a new driver, you have one-on-one calls with them.

Right. Tell, tell us about this.

Why are you doing this, and why does it matter?

Yeah. So when, um, new contractors first lease onto us,

there’s a number of my team that is assigned to

that specific driver, and they will reach out

to them once a week, um, for 24 weeks at a minimum

of once a week for 24 weeks.

And the first call is really just to, um,

your recruiters are the ones that kind

of set the expectation

for the company that you’re leasing onto.

And we wanna reaffirm those

and reestablish those expectations,

make sure we’re all on the same page, um,

and really just get to know them.

Let them know that we’re there to help.

We call ourselves a one-stop shop.

So anything that they could need help with, we want them

to call us so they have one direct point of contact.

Um, and it could be anything as simple

as helping ’em submit their paperwork

to figuring out their technology, the app or whatever it is.

So it just, instead of not knowing who to call, bouncing

around, they’re getting to, they’re getting a personal touch

and they’re getting to know us.

We’re getting to know them. Um,

and we’re just kind of walking them

through those first several weeks of the,

of the onboarding period.

Well, that’s 24 weeks.

That’s five and a half months

that you are calling them once a week to say, Hey, we,

we created expectations about this company.

We want to make sure we’re delivering on those expectations.

And also, we wanna make sure you

have a good first impression.

Is it important that, hey,

if they get past those first five months,

that that’s sort of the break point?

Like, Hey, if they’ll get past that,

we’re keeping ’em, is that the point?

Yeah. So really our first 90 days is our, is our point

that if we can get ’em past that first 90 days, um,

there’s an even higher chance

that they’re gonna stay with us.

And so that’s our goal.

Um, and that’s kind of what the point of these calls are, is

to establish that, yes, we’re meeting those expectations.

We’ll go over their revenue, their load count,

their rate per mile, just kind of to make sure that we’re,

um, meeting everything that they

were told on the front end in the recruiting process,

and just see that there’s anything that we can do to,

to assist them and, and make their experience even better.

Um, so once we get them past that 90 day mark,

we still continue to reach out to them, obviously,

because at that point we’ve, we’ve formed a relationship

with them, and it’s not, oh, we got you past

that 30 day or that 90 days.

Now it’s, you’re on your own.

We wanna keep, um, keep that relationship going.

Just make sure that they know that we’re still there to,

to support ’em until they feel comfortable in a new system.

Well, that’s a great lesson for any trucking company,

maybe for any employer.

Um, we talked about home time,

but you specifically focus on holiday home time, right?

Yes. Yeah. So, um, our vice president

for our general freight division, it is huge for her

that any of, whether they’re owner operators

or company, if they, if they’re trying to be out,

she’s strongly encouraging

to go home and be with their family.

So we’re a family owned company.

Um, so we’ve been around for 51 years this year.

So we treat everybody, we’ve got a lot of family members

that work here for the company.

So it’s really important for us that they get to be home

and spend time with their family.

And it does good for them to kind of do a reset, recharge

to be home and, and off the road.

So giving them home to spend

that quality time is important to us.

Well, that says a lot about your values. Of course.

You’re, you’re sending cards to drivers,

like handwritten cards?

Absolutely. Yep. We do handwritten cards

for just about anything that you could think of.

We do ’em for their anniversaries, um, for their birthdays.

We do them for, um, get well cards.

If we hear that one of ’em sick or they’ve had a surgery

or something’s going on with a family member,

or they’ve lost a loved one, we’ll we’ll write them.

Um, we’ll write them cards and mail ’em to the family

and just let ’em know that we’re thinking of ’em

and make sure that they know that they’re in our thoughts

and prayers and there’s anything that we can do.

We want ’em to know that they’re here

and that they are part of our family as well.

Wow. Well, I, I’ll be the first to admit,

I’m not sure I’ve handwritten a card in a very,

very long time, but judging by the number

of drivers you have, you’re probably handwriting over 5,000

cards a year, which is remarkable.

You’re calling people on their birthday.

Yep. We do that too. Anniversaries and birthdays.

Wow. So you’re picking up the phone to talk to a person

to say, Hey, man, happy birthday.

We appreciate you here. You know,

sometimes there’s little things that matter, right?

Absolutely. Yeah. Mine is coming up by the way,

so I’ll let you know when that is. Um, all right.

Yeah, we’ll give you a call And thank you. Thank you.

And, and you said that you got to get

to know them and their family.

Tell, tell us a little bit about that. How do you do that?

Yeah, so, um, a lot of them, whether they’re contractors

that have family members riding with them,

their spouse is riding with them, um, their, their children,

if they might be a little bit older

or riding with them, um, they’ll stop by the office

and we’ll get a chance to meet them.

Um, and then as I mentioned, for those 24 week calls,

you’re talking to them for an extended period of time.

So once you kind of build that relationship, you’re,

you’re gonna check in on them

and get to know them a little bit deeper than

just a surface level.

You’re getting to know them as a person and their family

and what’s kind of going on in their life.

And, um, you become, you build a friendship. Yeah.

So we get to talk to ’em about that,

and I think that sets us apart

because we know a little bit more than just them as,

as a worker, as a, um, contractor.

We’re getting to know them as, as a person,

and that they have family at home.

And it just gives us another, another way to, to bond

with them and, um, form that relationship.

And it reinforces them and their commitment to Bennett. So

Yeah, it’s, you know, it’s really, to me, it’s, it’s, uh,

sort of mutual, uh, relationship.

Right. It sorts mutual loyalty.

When we talked, you also gave me the impression that,

you know, a lot of fleets say they care,

but you guys really do, I mean, you really,

and we’ve got a number of things

we’re gonna talk about here.

Tell me about this driver relief fund you

have and how that works.

Yeah, so each of our divisions, um,

we have a driver relief fund.

Bennett as a, um, company has a foundation.

It’s called the, um, Taylor Foundation.

And so the Taylor Foundation puts money aside to donate

to the driver relief funds,

and then employees can donate to the driver relief fund.

Um, and then we do different auctions, um, raffles,

that kind of stuff to put money into the driver relief fund.

And then we also have settlement deductions where drivers

can donate a certain percentage

or dollar amount, um, to the driver relief fund.

And that basically just sits there, um,

and to where if a driver, they were in an accident,

they have a medical emergency,

or we’ve had drivers who’ve lost their homes from fires

or natural disasters

and just things like that, that money is there for them to,

um, to use if they need it, to kind

of help them get back up on their feet as a resource to, um,

just get them back up and running.

You know, I think that recognizes something really

important, which is that sometimes people don’t stay, not

because they’re going to work somewhere else, but

because they’re having a, a personal matter

and they, you know, the necessity of it is,

is they just have to work through that personal issue.

It might be financial, it might be something else.

And so your ability to help them there is, is huge.

And not only says you care, but it also is,

is realistic about the fact that, hey,

if we get people over these humps in life

and these little bumps in the road that we’ll retain them.

Tell me about your healthcare plan, the,

or the one-to-one healthcare program.

Yeah, so we partner with a company called One-to-One,

and it serves our employees.

Um, so employees like me and then also our owner operators.

Um, there’s a small fee that serves, um, if a,

an operator were to sign up to it, there’s a small fee

for them, but it is for them

and their entire family, um, their immediate family.

And so basically it’s, we have a nurse practitioner

that’s just one nurse practitioner that is, um,

that we hired specifically for Bennett.

And, um, so she really, any type of appointments,

you can do phone calls, you can do video

appointments, anything like that.

So it’s easy for them to do out on the roads.

Um, and so she just acts just like your family practice, um,

would, and so it helps them

as they can get prescriptions filled.

We have different pharmacies that we partner with, um,

across the United States.

So if they need anything medical, um,

or if they need medications called in prescription refills,

no matter what it is, she’s available to them.

And so for those guys that are far away,

they don’t go home often, they can’t get home

or whatever it is, they’re running low

on medicine that’s available to them.

So it’s just another reinforcement that, that it wants

to make sure that they’re taking care of themselves

and, um, that we care about them.

And she’s an employee of Bennett, then She’s one

of your people who’s available to them

whenever they call? Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Yep. That’s great. Okay.

Do you have a chaplain available?

We do. Yep. We, uh, have a chaplain who’s available 24 7.

Um, we are a faith-based company, so we have a chaplain

who is available, um, night

and day that owner operators, company employees,

whoever can call, um, that can get grade for kind

of just talk, talk through some things, uh, if they need to.

We also have, um, prayer calls that we do weekly

and bible studies that we do weekly that employees

and, um, contractors can, can listen into.

Really. Okay. So they, and,

and that gives them, I mean,

for somebody who’s out on the road a lot, that gives them,

you know, sort of a sense of belonging, right?

Like there’s a group they come to,

it’s like, you know, book club, right?

Absolutely. So a virtual bible study group, and they,

and they probably see familiar faces

and hear from familiar people.

Uh, so that’s really quite interesting.

Um, a retention department, so this is a little different.

Right. So you have a dedicated retention department,

not recruiting and retention,

Correct? Yes, sir.

Wow. So that, that’s fantastic.

I mean, I, I think that speaks volumes for your approach.

Um, and, and speaks to the results

that you’ve shared with me.

Um, in terms of policies

and perks, you identified a bunch of them.

Why don’t you walk us through these real quickly just

as the, hey, these are the, the additional things

that really, uh, make drivers think, you know what,

I’ve got it pretty darn good here.

Yeah. Um, so I mean,

most companies say they’re not forced dispatched.

We’re, we’re the same. Um,

we let guys choose when they wanna

run, when they don’t want to.

Um, and even same with our company, our company drivers,

it’s not forced dispatch with them either.

Um, so that just allows them to kind

of run at their own

pace, whatever they’re comfortable doing.

Um, and then we do have driver’s lounges across,

we have several different company store locations

across the United States.

And so at each of these company stores,

we’ve got driver lounges,

which are basically just little, little homes.

Um, we’ve got living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, uh,

laundry rooms, showers, that kind of stuff.

We stock them with food

and drinks that way, if they’re every in the area

or they’re stuck on the yard, they’re not,

not everyone wants to use truck stop.

They get tired of going to truck stops.

Truck stops are hard to find parking,

whatever the case might be.

So we, we have these lounges available to them for them

to use, um, and just to show our appreciation for them.

Cool. Cool. Yeah.

And then, um, riders

and pets, we do, we have a certain age limit on the rider’s

permits, but we, we do allow that.

Um, and then pets, same thing.

Um, a lot of them have multiple pets that are with them.

They get lonely, they’re out on the, on the road

for extended periods of time.

So having a companion with them means a lot to a lot

of these, these drivers that are out there.

What’s the most unusual pet they have out there?

I’ve met, I bet much of ’em have dogs and cats and such,

but what’s the most unusual one? Any idea? Oh,

Gosh. I’ve predominantly

seen dogs and cats.

I’ve seen some with multiple dogs

and cats that I don’t understand how they all fit in there,

but they do they, yeah.

Um, so yeah, we get to visit with them, so that’s fun

and bring ’em into the office and we get to,

to live on ’em and give ’em treats.

So it’s always fun. Bring ’em in. That’s fantastic.

Yeah. Tell us about your safety incentives.

Yeah, so we have different, um, safety incentives.

We’ve got the clean inspection bonuses that we do

that if they get a roadside inspection, they get,

it’s a clean inspection, they submit it in

and they get some money.

So, um, just our way of saying thank you to them

for taking care of their equipment.

Um, and then we do the quarterly safety bonuses

where there’s certain criteria that they have to meet, um,

and then they get a, a bonus payout each quarter

that another thank you for, for working hard for us

and, um, operating safely.

Sure. That’s almost sta table stakes in the industry now.

That’s so common. Um, mm-hmm.

And then the growth opportunities, you have them right?

Just ’cause of the Yes. And the size of your company.

What, what sort of things are, are they allowed

or are able to take advantage of there?

Yeah, so we’ve had a lot of, um, contractors

that have moved up to company positions,

whether it’s a company driver position, we’ve got some

that have moved into the recruiting position.

We’ve got some that’s moved into safety positions.

We’ve got some that have become, um,

managers over some of our different terminals.

So a lot of them, once they get tired

of being out on the road, um, they’ll look

for opportunities here at Bennett,

they wanna stay within the company,

and what better way to help us,

because they know the industry the best.

They’ve been out there for however many years,

they know all the ins and outs.

So it helps us,

and we get to keep them just in a different side of things.

That, that’s a good point, is that you have somebody

with firsthand knowledge and experience,

and they’re probably very credible when talking

to the drivers and when they, they can add insights

to planning routes and dealing with problems.

Um, you know, you, you obviously have figured out that, uh,

to be really keeping up with the, the best recruiters

and retention folks in the industry,

you gotta be on social media.

You guys have like an influencer

with more than 4 million views that that’s a lot, right?

Yeah. Alright.

What are, what sort of stuff are they posting?

It depends. We have social media influencers

that are owner operators

and they’ll just post their loads,

their days, what’s going on.

Um, just kind of talk about Bennett,

what we’ve got going on, what they’ve got going on as far as

what they’re hauling.

Um, and then we’ve got marketing department

that really specializes in the different divisions

and highlights kind of what, what Bennett is,

what Bennett has to offer.

Um, and so we, we try to do just a lot of fun videos just

to kind of get engagement up.

And I think that’s important

because sometimes the industry can be, can be serious

and sometimes too serious.

And so when you’ve got some of these silly videos

that show us all cutting up

and having fun, um, it just shows the,

the culture that we have here at Bennett.

Yeah, that makes sense. So, uh, slip to the next one here.

The, sorry, I’m having a little struggle

because we’re stuck on this slide.

Oh, sorry. Let me back up a couple here.

So, uh,

you mentioned the drivers can get promoted in physicians.

One of them is your drivers

or your recruiters, they’re all former drivers, right?

Why, why did you guys do that?

I mean, do you really find that, that, uh,

that it helps more than people

who per perhaps have a long history

of being a recruiter at some other fleet?

Yeah, so we do have some recruiters

that were not previous drivers,

however, most

of them have come from different positions within the

company, so they have experience in different areas.

Um, but we do have recruiters that were former drivers.

Um, and to us that’s important

because they can speak to all of the things

that are important to a driver.

They’ve, they’ve been out there, they’ve dealt with it

from a driver’s point of view, so they know kind of what,

what Bennett looks like and what, um, how we function

and if what we’re promising them, if we can meet up

to those expectations.

And so, um, it just helps them to know that

they have someone in their corner that’s relatable to them

and that can give them all the, all the tips and tricks

before they even come through the door, so. Right,

Right. I, I agree.

I think that’s, uh, that speaks a ton, uh, that,

you know, new driver recruits might be somewhat skeptical,

uh, when recruiters tell ’em they’ll be happy here.

And I think, uh, they, they lose

that skepticism when they’re talking

to somebody who’s walking their shoes.

So that’s just fantastic.

Um, last thing we wanted to ask you about, so you sponsor

a NASCAR vehicle?

Yeah, we do. Okay. Who’s, who’s the driver?

Who’s, who’s the, which car is this one?

Austin Hill. He’s the Xfinity Series, so, yep.

Austin is, we sponsor that car.

And, um, he’s part of the RCR Richard Childress racing team.

So we have a lot of fun at these events.

That’s fantastic. You have a

fan zone, people can hang out.

Nobody’s, uh, nobody’s drinking Perrier in the fan zone.

And that this, uh, so this, this reminds me, Gary, uh, is,

brings back to mind a million references

to Talladega Knights, uh,

because Gary, as you know, if you’re not first,

You’re last.

You’re last. That’s exactly right.

Uh, and, uh,

and Gary, have you been tossed out of an Applebee’s?

I just want to know that anyway. Maybe,

Maybe, maybe.

All right. All right. Well, thank you Allison.

Uh, we’re a little short on time,

but I, I wanted to, uh, get Gary’s thoughts on a couple

of things here with respect to the technology implications.

You know, we, we’ve talked about how, uh,

the world has changed over the last, you know,

20 years in recruiting and retention

and the implications of, you know,

putting cameras on the windshield, putting ELDs in the dash,

having adas, uh, give us some of your thoughts around how

that has changed and some things

that fleets need to think about.

Yeah, and I, I can ease this by just summing it up

by just a couple of key points here.

’cause I know that we’re sort of short on time.

I, I will tell you this, that I have seen

companies like Bennett had really think outside the box.

And we just heard some great examples of that,

for heaven’s sakes, of what some wonderful approaches.

And I’ve seen that also with the technology side.

I mean, people, they do away with the old mindset that, Hey,

you know, I got this driver qualification, uh, process

that I gotta fill, or I got the discipline

process of three strikes.

You’re out. And I can tell you that with technology

and the advances that have come on, people have thought

outside the box and really looked at it as more of a, Hey,

is this a recruiting tool we can utilize?

We sort of have a driver instructor sitting in the truck

with them that we can really

identify if there’s true issues or not.

Or even on the policy side, you know, we don’t have to go

with this three strike, you’re out.

What are the areas that we can really, you know,

mentor or coach?

And, you know, some of you have heard me say this,

I love this analogy, but look what professional athletes do.

You know, when they’re either in season

or off season, they look at game film,

they look at the performance numbers, they,

they get coached, they get mentored,

and they, they always are trying to improve themselves.

And what do we call our drivers?

We call them professional drivers.

So the taking the approach of sort of even your, you know,

even the affinity driver and,

and the NASCAR approach, it’s, it’s all based,

how can I improve myself?

And what I can tell you is those people and those industries

and those, uh, clients and prospects

and anybody in this industry that sort of take the step

outside the box in their approach, we’ve seen

them just excel with the adoption.

And even on the technology side.

’cause the key is, you know, Rob,

we have all lived in a reactive process for so many years.

We recruited the same way we held

and managed drivers the same way.

But now by getting to be a proactive, utilizing the data,

utilizing the performance, we’ve seen such great excellence

that’s come from it.

And again, I go back to Bennett

and applaud Ben for what, just some great, uh,

approaches when it comes to, you know,

not only getting people on board, but keeping ’em

and addressing the concerns

that your great surveys showed Rob. Yeah.

You know, I, I think one of the messages that I’ve gotten,

and one of the themes we’ve heard from fleets is

that we used to take what you call the,

the three strikes throughout approach

and the new approaches.

Hey, the, the tools and the technology give us the

opportunity to improve people, not

to just to discipline people.

So, you know, it’s a whole lot easier to improve

and coach people in any occupation than it is to,

to simply say, oh, let’s go find a new one

with a new set of problems, right?

Uh, a new set of things you have to coach ’em on.

And so I think, um, what I’ve seen successfully done,

and I think you probably have as well, is the ability

to say, Hey, here’s some areas where we can coach people up

and improve them and retain them in the

process and make them better.

I think, uh, is that, has that been your experience,

especially in the last few years with the additions of,

of coaching tools and metrics

and KPIs around driver performance?

Absolutely, and very well said.

I mean, think of the days, uh, you know, if you had a driver

that low bridge, let’s say they were off route,

they hit a bridge, but they have all this experience,

so you’re gonna throw away because of one incident and,

and now start over with a brand new driver.

You gotta get them used to your company and all that,

or you have the tools to bring that through.

So the, I have definitely seen a change.

I’ve definitely seen a change to more mentoring and coaching

and getting away from this, this discipline process,

which just doesn’t work.

And you know, when you got a well working machine

and like even Bennett, you know, we call

that in this industry in safety, shake and bake.

Rob

Well played Gary, well played.

Well, we’re, we’re running close on time here,

but, uh, we have a few questions here.

If, uh, for the audience, if you have questions, uh,

feel free to put them in the q and a window.

Uh, we’ve got a few here that we wanted to ask.

One is, uh, Allison, I want I wanted to ask you, um,

the handwritten cards to me that was so impressive

and it’s interpersonal touch and it,

and it says that you guys are very genuine, svi sincere,

but clearly you’re writing more than 5,000 cards a year.

How are you handling that?

Is, does everybody have to take a hundred each

or do you have somebody who’s full-time

job is to hand write cards? How are you doing that?

Yeah, so in my department, we split it up.

Um, I do, there’s five of us in our department.

And so, um, we just split it up and we go month to month

and just kind of,

whenever we can find time, when sometimes we’ll split it up

with our, with our dispatch team

and, um, even get executive level people involved

to hand write cards too.

So it, it kind of come from a little bit of everywhere,

but it stems from just wanting them to know

that we appreciate them and value them as,

and what they do for, for our country

to keep everything moving.

Yeah, absolutely.

The other thing I wanted to ask you, um,

somebody here was wondering, you know,

if if there’s one thing you could put your hand on

or your, for this

or this has to happen in order for me to stay with a fleet

or, or I’ll leave if a fleet doesn’t have that,

is there one thing that you’re like,

Hey, this really matters.

And is it, is it pay? Is it the holiday home time?

Is it, hey, I know

that the company ownership is really engaged here

and there’s personal interaction,

and if you had to put your finger on one thing, what is it?

I would definitely say the communication.

Um, I think that’s the most important piece.

And it shows that we value them as, as an owner operator

and as a, as a partnership, um, of them with our company.

I’ve had guys and girls tell me time

and time again, drivers tell me

that it doesn’t matter if it’s bad news,

it doesn’t matter if it’s no news.

They just wanna be communicated with

so they know what’s going on.

And so that’s the biggest thing to them,

is just being kept in the loop

and it shows that we value them.

Yeah. You know, it’s funny how when fleets are struggling

with retention, they’re like, well,

maybe we should look more at bonuses,

or maybe we should look more at this or that.

Sometimes it’s as simple as, uh, you know, let’s,

let’s have a more personal touch.

Let’s communicate with people

and let’s, let’s make sure they understand

that we appreciate them.

Um, Gary, I wanted to ask you,

because, you know, we talked about there was a period

of time, you know, and you’ve seen this evolution of,

of technology where drivers said, Hey, if it has

that in the cab, I’m not gonna work for that company.

If it has this piece of technology,

I’m not gonna work for the company.

It could be an ELDA camera, an ADAS system.

Have we passed that era where, uh, that’s an obstacle

to employment now or really look, it’s all gonna be there.

Uh, so that’s no longer really, uh, something that we have

to be concerned about as one of the real obstacles, as long

as the technology is used appropriately.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I apologize for the background noise here.

My TV just turned on.

Um, the, uh, absolutely Robin, I’d say that, you know, the,

the perception, the mentality of, you know, geez,

I’m gonna go somewhere that doesn’t have technology anymore.

It’s just not there.

I mean, nowadays, just let’s talk about, you know, how many

of people have adopted everything from a DAS to,

you know, Inca technology.

It’s hard to find a place that doesn’t have it anymore.

But I think the mindset has also shifted to the fact of,

you know, it, it really is a, it’s there for my safety,

it’s there for my security.

And, and, and go back to the exoneration part,

it’s all there, you know?

Yeah. Do we have some regulated, uh,

type approaches that come through?

Yes. But I think we’ve been beyond that now,

and really the reasons that, you know, partners move forward

and adopt technology is because it’s more for personal

and more for safety and security.

So yeah, I think the evolution has changed and now, and I,

and it’s been a great, it been a great change.

It’s been great to see the adoption,

You know, uh, Allison,

we had a question come in the window here,

which I thought was really interesting.

Um, you offer to call the drivers once a week, you know,

some people they don’t want to communicate that much.

Does, is that the case?

And if so, will you say, Hey, we’ll we’ll give you a little

space, you know, some like Gary here, he likes

to text people every six minutes,

but some people, they’re, that’s not their gig, right?

So do you give them a little space and

or do they all want to call

once a week? How does that work?

Yeah, so for the most part, they,

they normally wanna talk at least once a week,

especially in those first couple of weeks, just to

make sure everything’s going well.

Um, they, if they have questions, that’s their time.

A lot of them, if, if we don’t call them on the same day

every week they’re calling us,

Hey, I haven’t heard from you.

Um, but as you get further into the weeks, a lot

of ’em will say, I’m, I’m doing good.

You can skip next week. Or How about I call you if,

if, if I need something?

Um, I would say that that’s probably less than 15% of them.

Um, but most of them, they do enjoy the calls

because once we build that relationship, a lot of ’em,

it’s just someone to talk to.

Um, so they do look forward to those calls.

Well, and one last question for you, uh,

and it’s a selfish one,

but, um, you know, we, we’ve often felt here,

’cause we hear from our customers

that the drivers really like Waystation bypass.

Um, you guys are a customer drivers are using it.

Do you hear that from drivers that, that, hey,

that’s important to them, the ability to have the,

the bypass system in the cab and the bypass away station?

Absolutely. Yeah. That’s a, it’s a time saver

for them and it’s a great benefit.

So a lot of them have that

and then the, the safety plus feature.

So it is, it’s a great, great service to have.

Well, we, we appreciate you saying that.

We do hear that from our customers and, uh,

and think it’s worth noting.

So, hey, we, uh, we’ve run out of time here,

but I want to thank you both very much for, uh,

for joining us today and hope our, uh,

our audience members got the most out of it.

And, uh, hope to do this again soon. So thank you.

Thank you.