Steering Through the Driver Crunch

Brian. Hello everyone, and welcome to today’s webinar, steering through the driver crunch presented by best pass. I’m Brian peach, and I’ll be your moderator for today’s event. I encourage you to ask questions during the webinar at any point, and we’ll try to address all of them. However, we do not get to yours. Don’t worry, you’ll be contacted by email with response after today’s event. Our presenters today are Jason Walker, Chief Revenue Officer for best pass, and Angie tordala, CEO of Angie’s transportation. Jason joined best pass in 2022 with more than 25 years of experience driving results across multiple industries in SAS companies, Jason must most recently served as VP of sales and CRO at GPS insight, Angie’s transportation launched in 2012 and the family owned firm has become one of the fastest growing woman owned refrigerated carriers in the St Louis area. How are you guys doing this morning?
Good, good. Thank you so much for having me today. Hi everyone.
Great to have you. Angie, thanks for taking the time out today for our readers and Jason, how are you doing? And I’ll go ahead and hand it over to you.
No problem. I’m doing fantastic. Thank you very much. And thank you everyone for attending today’s discussion. And with that, I’m going to go ahead and move into just covering quickly the items that we are going to discuss today, myself and Angie, and what we’ll be bringing to you and what you’ll be learning about we’re going to focus on how big the driver shortage is, especially for the long haul trucking arena, the impact of driver churn, finding and keeping drivers Both as much of a art and a science and talking through what that looks like, what concrete steps you can take to recruit and retain your drivers, and then how investing in recruiting and retaining safe drivers can be an offset by smartly reducing other operational costs. So to kind of go ahead and set the stage for what we’re going to speak about and really talk about what this driver shortage has met thus far. According to the American Trucking Association, the driver shortage hit 80,000 drivers in 2021 and it could surpass as many as 130,000
drivers by the year 2030
so not only are more drivers aging out, but few young adults are now considering truck driving as a career. On top of this, the pandemics made it difficult for certified driver training schools to conduct in class training and as as covid has continued to hit the country, it’s also hit trucking ranks very hard, and many drivers are opting to take jobs that were less demanding, kept them closer to home and were perceived as less risky in the teeth of the pandemic. So as of that, the ATA estimates that over the next 10 years, 1 million new drivers will be needed to replace retiring drivers who leave voluntarily or involuntarily, and all additional drivers needed to cover the industry’s expected growth. So Angie, can you speak a little bit today to how, in addition to what I just kind of went over, how federal mandates things that are changing in the industry, like driver age and even autonomous trucks are maybe adding to the complexity of your business today.
Absolutely So autonomous trucks and electric chart trucks, they are coming. This is going to be the future, and we have to prepare for it. And I know right now they are trying to change the federal mandate to 18. Right now you can become an interstate class, a driver at the age of 18, but they are trying to change that the driving age to 18 for interstate driving, which is crossing state lines, so we’ll see what happens with that. And also, on top of everything you just said, I’m pretty sure that training school now costs almost $10,000 to add to that, so it is extremely expensive, and it’s getting harder and harder to find OTR drivers because they are on the road a lot longer, and as you mentioned, it is a very stressful and demanding job. And you know, drivers have a lack of exercise, it’s lonely. So yeah, there’s definitely some some issues here.
Great. And actually, as we were defining. Churn. Today, churn is being referred to as turnover stirred up by fleets competing for the same and really ever shrinking pool of existing qualified drivers. So fleets need drivers who are healthy and positive about driving for their fleet, instead of wanting to jump from one fleet to another to score bonuses and perks. Right now, the current stats highlight the driver turnover is as high as 90% so one of the things Andy that we talked about earlier, and I wanted you to highlight here, was, what are you seeing today that you believe are is contributing to causing that rise to 90% in the OTR space?
I think it’s definitely a lot comes to do with false advertising. A lot of just misleading information, such as companies promising, you know, promising a driver a brand new truck. They come on and sign on board. A driver comes on board, they are putting into, put into an old truck. And then, you know, they’re, they’re promising a sign on bonus as well, which is very misleading. They’re saying here, we’re going to give you $5,000 sign on bonus. But what they don’t realize, and what they don’t tell you up front, is that that’s going to be spread out over the course of the year. You know, trucking companies are kind of over promising and overselling their organization to drivers, and then these drivers, their expectations are not getting met, and they’re disappointing, or they’re disappointed, and this is why they’re leaving. There’s such a high turnover rate. And the first, I think the first three to six months are the most crucial months of when a driver signs on board to your company, and that’s when you really find out if that driver is going to stay with you or not. And it comes down to, are they meeting your expectations, and are you meeting their expectations? Awesome.
So talking a little bit about the art and science of curbing churn, and like many things, you know, it’s really a combination of both of these that makes for a successful organization and really mastering each part. And wanted to talk about both of them individually. So when you look at, you know, the art part is to strive really making your company a pleasant and easy place to work and deal with this can be include things like setting up driver lounge facilities, offering wellness programs and really striving to schedule more home time in advance, regularly for your drivers. Can you talk about some of the things that you’ve done with Angie’s transportation in that arena?
Yeah, definitely. So some of the things that we have done is we try to create a very driver centric environment and atmosphere that’s also that’s also family friendly, and that is a family atmosphere. We try to be as kind as nice for drivers as possible. It’s anything little from when our drivers come into our office showing just showing that sign of respect that they deserve, standing up, shaking their hands, making them feel welcomed and not intimidated by your office, and not making them feel uncomfortable by your office and your staff, because it can be a little intimidating when they’re walking in and they, you know, see a massive office with everyone sitting there, and there’s their eyes on you, and just making sure you got all your all your office staff, the right people in the right seats, working with your drivers. And it’s also comes down to just certain policies as well, such as allowing allowing your drivers to have pets a rider. Policy also comes down to scheduling repairs and maintenance, making sure that those are being scheduled when a driver is on their home time or off times it’s not interfering interfering with their job and their work.
So on the science side, you started to talk a little bit about the maintenance and some of the administrative stuff that you’re able to do in advance, that, again, makes that makes their lives a little easier. On the science side, we talked a little bit about that too, and you mentioned a couple of things there. First, there’s, I’d like you to discuss maybe how you handle pay and benefits, but then also, what are you doing specifically? You had mentioned things like the ability to declining loads and really focusing on certain locations, again, as a way to cater to what your drivers are looking for. Can you talk about those things a little bit
Absolutely, so you have to stay on top of pay, and you have to constantly look at what where the market is and what’s going on. You can look up all of this information and see if you’re on track just by looking at what competitors are doing. Get on, you know, get on indeed.com, or get on Craigslist. Look at your competitors Facebook pages and website. Sides, see what’s going on, so that you’re on track, and you’re monitoring all these trends, and you’re not paying drivers, you know, salaries from the 1980s you want to always stay ahead of the game and competitive more constantly looking at this. So you know, if a driver asks, you know, why can I get a raise, or, you know, what’s going on? You’re kind of prepared to answer that question as well.
So one of the things that we discussed, too, when we were talking about some of the programs you’ve run, you had mentioned one of the things that you were doing is you really focus in the recruiting process on getting to know your drivers, setting expectations. And then you mentioned that the first three to six months are really critical in terms of retaining these people, and you’ve got a mentorship program. Can you? Can you talk a little bit about that and
how it works, absolutely. So how it works is we have a little bit of, like, a, yeah, driver, mentorship, slash leadership group. So we got our best trust, most trustworthy drivers, and this is based on longevity and safety and their history as well. So you get a nice little group of drivers, and you know, they can test out the new technology you’re trying to implement, or whatnot, and they give you this, they give you their feedback. So you’re having, you know, real, real feedback, feedback from them that you can trust. And on top of that, having new drivers speak with them on any questions to help them transition as well and make them feel comfortable. So it allows everyone’s voices and opinions to be heard. And I’m not saying, you know, do this for all the drivers, but you know, you know which drivers are there for your company, and that are going to stick around, and that have been there for years, that have a good track record, I would definitely recommend creating some little leadership focus group so then they can provide you with their feedback, and you can trust it, and it allows them to feel a part of, you know, allows them to feel a part of your organization, and that they are making an impact, and their voices and opinions are being heard.
And then also, again, going back to the declining loads in certain locations, talk a little bit about how you’ve been able to leverage that to
keep your drivers happy. Yeah, so whenever a driver first comes on board and signs on with us, we have them fill out an expectation sheet and like a little driver profile as well. They look what their experiences are for us, and we list what our expectations are for them, and they also fill out this little driver profile that lets us get to know them a little bit better in regards to where they are open to running, and where they are absolutely not open to running, where they will not go certain parts of the country. So whenever we are hiring drivers, the other thing that I want to, I really want to stress out, stress on, is we’re hiring drivers that fit our operations and not the other way around you. You want to make sure that you know this is you tell these drivers, you tell this driver up front, hey, we run to this part of the country. This is the equipment we’re running. Is this what you’re looking for? If so, I think we’re going to be a good match, and it’s not, I don’t think we’re going to be a good match, and it’s just going to be a waste time for you and me both. So I think, one, that’s really important. And two, if they agree to, yes, I’m willing to run here and here, this is your operations. Yeah, all great. Okay, well, sometimes on a back haul, you might have to go somewhere you know, don’t like to, and you have to kind of explain that to your driver, that it is give and take. And then at the same time, you know, you have to keep in mind that your drivers are your customers, too. At the end of the day, they are the ones that are moving the product, moving the freight. And there’s so much freight to go around that you can decline some of that. And you just have to be honest with your drivers and say, Hey, I this is half of these loads. This is our, our steady customer freight. And then the other half, you know, if it’s your back hauls or whatnot, you know, some of these may be good ones may not be, and just letting the notes give and take and declining loads as well, because at the end of the day, like your drivers are your customers too. They’re the ones out there moving the freight, and there’s enough freight for everyone to go to.
So essentially, to going back to some of the earlier points on one of our first slide, you’re taking the approach of being overly transparent about your business, where you where you do deliver, and where your drivers are going to be expected to go, so you’re setting expectations up front. So you’re doing the opposite of other organizations. Persons that are misleading, folks, and this is helping you attract the right people for your organization.
Absolutely, absolutely. And I think this is the right way to go, and we’ve learned from experience, and this is what works for us. And then, you know, something happens later on down the road where our driver is like, okay, you know, this is not part of my expectations or whatever. Then we, we tend to bring that form back out and say, Hey, remember, we went over this. We what you wrote down what your expectations from us were, and we wrote down what they were with you, and these were the terms that we kind of agreed to. And then with that being said, we also add driver. We do like driver surveys and questionnaires. So after about about three to six months, we kind of check with that driver again, and we have a sit down meeting with him, and he kind of rates and rates his driver manager rates off as a company does a little survey and gives us a little feedback, and we’re, we kind of sit down and regroup and see where we’re at. It’s kind of like a checkpoint, perfect.
So that is a great transition into we’ve been talking about, you know what’s leading to the churn and some of the hardships in the space. Let’s talk a little bit about what you do to attract these drivers today, and then once you find them, how you’re keeping them. So there’s really three areas that I want to focus on. There’s recruiting, compensation and technology, and we’ll tackle each one of these, one at a time. And let’s start with the recruiting and maybe talk a little bit about what you and Angie’s transportation have done to make this process work for you and really attract the people that you’re looking for.
Yes, this is a big one, and I say, keep it simple. Keep it very simple, because it can be extremely intimidating and daunting. So one of the things that we have done is that we have a direct phone number, a cell phone number set aside, and also a cell phone that potential new hires can text or call when they’re starting out. So instead of them having to call the office and be redirected or whatever, it cuts all of that out. So they have this phone number. They can text, they can ask questions, send, you know, a picture of their medical or whatever it just it keeps it a lot more simple and a lot more direct and a little bit more personal too. Yeah. And then also just with orientation is, I know it’s extremely important, and you want to make sure that they’re being trained properly and up to date on all the safety. But some of these orientations are a little bit overkill, so I just have to figure out how to make it a little bit more simple as well, but getting your message and your information across at the same time,
great. And so then for compensation, there’s obviously the basics, and I know you’ll you’ll hit on that, but then talk about some of the other kind of smaller things that maybe are, you know, less obvious, that you’re doing as well to not only, you know, entice people, but it also just keeps them happy once they’re on board. And you talked a little bit about some of the gift cards and different programs that you’ve got that’d be great to that’d be great
to cover? Yeah, of course. So that’s the same thing. How I feel about salaries as well. Don’t over complicate it. Keep it simple. Don’t Don’t confuse anyone. If your drivers are confused and having to call you every week, every Friday, on payday, asking to explain, you know what, they’re what this is that’s an issue because they that’s also setting them up for failure, and it’s it’s going to make them frustrated. Have it be transparent. We pay by the mile, and owner operators are paid percentage on top of that. We do, you know, bonuses, anything little for feet, from safety bonuses to bonuses for birthdays. Yeah, there’s a lot of different things you can do. Great.
And then the last one is technology. So we we talked about this in two ways. The first one was really about how you use that to train some of your drivers, and we talked about the use of cameras, for example. And I’d like you to talk a little bit about that, and then also talking through some of the technology you have with your driver app, and how they use that, how that makes their life better.
Yeah, absolutely. So, um. We’re always investing in technology is the future, and it’s the question I always ask help when we’re doing something new, is, how is this going to make my driver’s life easier? They already have extremely hard job. What can how can we use this technology to make their lives just a little bit easier. So, for example, we have a driver app that our drivers can look at their settlements any time of the day. They can go back as far as they want. They can also see their pre assigned loads. They can rate shippers and receivers, and we kind of have the criteria on there, and it can rate it based off of just like cleanliness, friendliness, in and out times. They can also, they can also message us through this driver app. The driver app also works directly with our transportation management software, so it just gives them everything at their fingertips, really, and not just that, but their electronic log book. It is also ended with our transportation management software, so the minute they arrive at a ship or receiver that automatically knows that they’re there within when they get within one mile of that shipper or receiver. So then it notifies us, on our side, on the transportation management software, that they have arrived. So then it kind of eliminates all those, you know, just the redundant calls, the check calls, etc, that you have to do to your drivers. It’s just about making their life easier and simple and using, you know, the dash cams too. We have road facing dash cams. We do not do the driver facing one, but with the road facing dash cams as well. Anytime we have like a safety meeting, we provide real, real life, real time data from our company, and we show them videos, you know, so then they can, it hits a little bit closer to home, and they can say, we can say, Look, this is, you know, your co worker, or whatever. So it does put a little bit of, I don’t know, just like I said, it hits a little bit closer to home, and it’s a little bit more realistic, versus using some other data or other, you know, information. But yeah, I definitely think technology we’re constantly investing in that, and it’s just about, how can we do this without over conflicting everything but making our drivers lives and jobs easier and because they already have. It’s hard already as it is.
So that’s a perfect segue into the next slide that we’re going to talk about. We were talking about recruiting compensation technology to keep your drivers and find them. The other thing that I think you do a great job at is perks. And so you have a quote, it’s you believe that a truck driver truck is their home away from home, and you go a long way to focus on the details, to make sure that your driver’s lives on the road are easier. And so I think this is probably in conjunction with the other three topics that we were just talking about, with the recruiting, compensation and technology probably one of the most important aspects of what you you’ve done to really differentiate yourselves. And if you could be so gracious as to just talk through some of the perks that you’ve got for your drivers that you think are unique and really just again, add value to their job and make them feel valued so that they stay with your organization.
Yes, absolutely. So you know, we want our drivers to be comfortable. Who doesn’t you want your driver to be comfortable? I take pride in knowing that my drivers are driving in style. I you know, this is their home away from home. It’s impacting their quality of life, their livelihood and their productivity. So some of the things that we have made sure to make sure our trucks are outfitted with are that they have bunk heaters, inverters, refrigerators, the E logs with navigation, they are professionally cleaned each time before a new driver gets into it. They have the double bonds, extra storage space we do. We do both automatic and manual options. Also on top of that, we’re running newer trucks. We don’t have anything older here at land, 2018 so I know, you know some people, some carriers, might say, oh, new truck. That’s a big expense up front, but not really, because then you’re paying a lot less in maintenance, and you’re having less breakdowns. Drivers are having less breakdowns. Drivers are happier, then you have better fuel economy. And on top of that, I want to just. Wrote in here to that a little bit about my background is that my dad is a My dad was a truck driver. He’s retired now that he was a truck driver, and he was up until two years ago, even with us. So everything that we did, not only did we have our drivers test out, but I wanted to make sure my dad was comfortable. My dad was my number he was our number one advocate for our drivers. He was on our driver’s side all the time, and he was, you know, if it was good enough for him, then it was good enough for our drivers as well. I want to make sure my dad was comfortable so so we make sure our drivers are comfortable as well.
So also, talk a little bit about some of the special things you’ve done for a few of the drivers, letting them pick their own trucks or colors of their trucks.
Yes, yeah. So you know it’s Trucking is can be pretty, pretty serious and a little bit hard at times. So we like to have a little fun here too. We definitely let them pick out truck colors. Obviously, this is also based on the longevity of certain drivers. So when we’re when we’re ordering trucks, and we have, you know, drivers that have been here for years, we do let them pick out the colors of their trucks. So I do have a pink truck. I mean, it wouldn’t be a woman owned business without least one pink truck. So we do have one of those super proud of it. And then also we, for example, one of my drivers, he’s been here with us for about three years. We’ve got a few trucks coming at the end of this month, and he really wanted a purple truck, so we made sure to order him that purple truck. We do both all the time on, you know, like I said, the colors, and try to make it as fun as possible. And we try to have them, you know, give them some control as well, and have let them have a say, and as they should, then make them be a part of this as well, and have their voices and opinions be heard. Yeah, thank you.
So one more thing on this too, is is, I’m sure there are people that are listening right now thinking, This sounds really expensive. Sounds like a great plan, but it’s going to cost me a lot. One of the things you pointed out when we talked it was how this not only impacted your driver’s willingness to actually do more loads for you because they’re happy. Also kind of contrast this with the expense and cost of you losing drivers and having them churn. Because I thought that was a really great take on really the that that leads you to to see how necessary some of these things are to really drive efficiency and better productivity in your business,
absolutely so yeah, in the long term, this is going to save you much more money and increase productivity, and you’re going to have happier drivers and that are going to be dependable and reliable on on your loads, basically. And on top of that, when we when our trucking company was smaller, I was the one that was doing all the recruiting and all the safety, and I saw firsthand how much money we were losing on recruiting, on spending money on ads, you know, just all the onboarding and just order, you know, ordering and VRS, PFPs, drug tests, and then how much time was spent on orientations, which took away my time on other mat, on other important matters. And you know, your safety and HR should be focused on safety and just keeping up to date with files. You shouldn’t be constantly hiring people. It’s just it’s a waste of time and money, and you want stable, long term drivers that are dependable and reliable, and if you take care of them, they will take care of you later on, 100% believe in that, and you’re going to save so much more money in the long term.
Great. And then one of the other things that we wanted to talk about was we were just focusing on the cost and the cost of churn. But let’s also talk about how you’ve used technology to offset some of your operational costs, to even drive more savings with and then also improve, of course, your driver’s life.
Yes, absolutely. So
let me see, for example here, like our technology, our E logs are integrated with the software, so we are able to see and track detention times as well. I know that every trucking company’s issue, I think I can, I can safely speak for everyone and say that is that’s a major. Cost that is hard to keep track of, is detention and making sure you’re billing it appropriately and getting paid out on it. So, for example, our technology, it can’t this is, this is new technology as well. It came out about like a year or two ago, that when it when a driver arrives at a ship or receiver, and it knows that within when they get within one mile of that address, that it will automatically start tracking that detention time. And then you can appropriately Bill people for it, instead of manually having to track that. And then, on top of it, just the technology, it automates certain task. It does save time and money for everyone. And then it just, yeah, it reduces those labor costs too. And then we can do more with your time as well. And just even the cameras that are the dry, whether you have driver facing ones, or road facing ones, or you’re trying to figure out which ones to get right now, you can incent, incentivize that as well. You can offer bonuses to your drivers. Or, you know, I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen, I mean, I’ve seen companies that they didn’t want to get driver facing cameras, because they think it’s a violation of privacy for their drivers. So they offered to those drivers who are willing to have a driver facing camera, they offered them extra two cents per mile, or they ungoverned their trucks and added a couple extra miles per hour. It does help. You know, it does our insurance costs as a trucking company. They’re rising every year, five 10% these claims are, you know, they’re skyrocketing every year. So they do help the cameras do help a trucking company. It limits our exposure and liability and helps us defend ourselves with claims. And we don’t want to as a trucking company and as a person, I don’t want to impose on anyone’s privacy, but you can make an incentive and say, Hey, if you, if you take on this driver facing camera, we’ll do this for you. So you just have to get really creative with this, and that’s just really it.
So I’d be remiss not to ask you a question about tolling. And you’ve obviously been a best pass customer for many years, and actually since you had, I think it was about five trucks. So could you talk a little bit just about how you’ve used that as well, not only for maybe your internal operations, to lighten the load there, but how it’s also impacted your drivers in a positive way as well?
Oh, yeah. So, I mean, it’s just drivers don’t have to worry about, you know, the paper receipts anymore. They don’t have to worry about whether or not they’re going to get reimbursed on that toll this week, they don’t. They cuts down on, you know, paper they don’t have to worry about turning in those trip backs also just, it’s less administrative costs. That’s the last thing we have to worry about. They should be able to just drive through and that’s it. We don’t need to worry about anything else. It just, it saves time and money on both sides with drivers and on our administrative side as well.
How much time would you say that it was saving you?
Oh, gosh, definitely. I would say, Let me think here, let me um, a lot, I would say a lot of time, just because then you don’t have to worry about counting receipts and trip hacks, and then calling about getting toll violation letters in the mail, and then having to fight those toll violations, and then also you get those discounts on volumes. I mean, to me, it was pretty obvious. This is what you need to do. This is the last thing you need to worry about. You should not have to worry about tools. This should be all automated. And also you can on like the best half portal. You can see on there. You know your everything’s transparent. You see your volume, the discounts, and it helps you and your company to manage and plan scripts and routes accordingly as well, and you can see where, where the majority of your tolls are happening. I saved us just a lot of time. It’s, I think this is, I think it’s a pretty obvious decision. I don’t know to go with you guys.
But thank you very much, Angie and Brian. I think, Angie, again, thank you so much for participating today. We certainly value you as a customer here at best path. And I’m sure everyone in the audience valued all of the great information you had to share. I think with that, Brian, we’re probably done with the core part of our presentation today, and if we have questions, I think we’d both be happy to answer.
Yeah, fantastic. Thanks, guys. Yeah, great. Great job. You too. Again. I know our readers appreciate all this information and relatable,
you know, experience
with that? Yeah, we do have some questions that have come in throughout the presentation, and one actually just specifically asked, how many trucks does Angie’s hat? Does Angie’s transportation run? And I thought that might give you an opportunity Angie to answer that, as well as kind of give some background on how you started and where you’re growing and how you’re growing.
So we started off with one truck almost a decade ago, and now we are running about 6065, trucks, and we are growing. We’ve got quite a few additions coming in this year as well. So that kind of puts some things into perspective.
Yeah, that’s that’s helpful.
Yeah, definitely growing. Like it says In the beginning, one of the fastest growing woman owned refrigerated carriers in your area. So definitely, 60 trucks from one to 60 in a decade. That’s good. You know, some of these questions that you guys kind of covered, but it doesn’t hurt to rehash based on the fact that they were asked, what, what can I do someone’s asking to make drivers happy that, you know, will break the bank or cost me a lot of you know, cost me a lot of money.
So there’s a lot of little things, even I forgot to cover some of them and one of them, one of those things was, you know, making a newsletter for your drivers. They want to know what’s going on with your company. They want to know other drivers birthdays. They want to announcement. So make a newsletter not going to break the bank. We love. Use MailChimp to do emails as well, email newsletters, and we send those out one to two times a week. We do announcements on the E log, birthday cards, gift cards, buy them lunch, you know, like just those are not things are going to break the bank, and those will definitely, little things like that will add up and make them so much happier, and you know, to be recognized doing like a driver spotlight every month. You know, just little things like that will add up and make them happier, and also, you know, join best path too.
So some great suggestions there, on top of what you’ve already talked about today, and speaking of toll management and best pass and toll management systems in general, you know what both of you what more specifics Can you provide on how a toll management system ultimately saves you money?
Angie, do you want to take that? Or you want me to start?
I think you can start. That’s your area of expertise. Sure.
Well, I think, I think Angie answered it really better than, than I could in the in the presentation itself. It’s really, you know, allowing a business like like hers to focus on the business itself, instead of focusing on toll tolls, typically not something that is, you know, a job, per se, at an organization, it typically falls into someone’s lap, and it’s therefore kind of a distraction taking whatever their job is intended to be, whether that’s managing the fleet, running the business itself, you know, the accounting group, it’s taking time away from people’s actual core jobs. And so that’s the big benefit there is really the time savings around that, and what you can do with that time once you get it back. I think Angie did a nice job of, you know, illuminating around that a little bit and doing things like, you know, with that time she was, she was able to get away from processing, making phone calls, tracking violations, and did things like, made, you know, made her routes more efficient because she had time to do that, instead of trying to track down, you know, all the tolling paperwork for two to three hours a week. So, and that was when they only had, you know, five trucks. So thinking about doing that now, when you have 60, that would be, I, you know, I can only imagine how
overwhelming that would be. No, I cannot imagine that, and then your driver aren’t frustrated as well, because they don’t have to question whether or not they’re going to be getting reimbursed for that poll this week. So you know, that’s something they don’t have to worry about either. They don’t need to worry about lost receipts and keeping track of each. Each one individually. And then on top of that, you do get those discounts because it says it’s volume based, so you do save a lot as well on that. And then it just allows you to focus on growing your business, on what’s important, creating a better experience for your drivers and a better work culture and atmosphere and environment. Great.
I’m going to leave it. I’m going to leave that one in right there.
Let’s see someone’s asking just some recruitment heads, what sites are you using for recruitment? For example,
we are definitely using 10th Street. I mean, we’re using indeed as well monster. I’m trying to think Facebook, social media, our website, just kind of various different ones, okay? And then a lot is referral as well that I think your best drivers are going to be referral based. So I am a big supporter of report referral bonuses. I think those are great. Those are going to be I we’ve had really good experiences with drivers who are referral based referral books go a long way.
Okay, great, great point. And someone just asked kind of add on here. Do you use Craigslist at all?
Yes, yeah, we do, and I
look at it for just mark it inside as well to see what you’re doing. Okay?
And again, you know, we kind of covered it, but let’s just kind of rehash again, because someone again submitted it. Just ultimately, how do we justify the expense of these driver perks. You know, I think we made the point is, yeah, these are all great ideas, but it costs us money.
So again, what? How do you justify it?
I think if you are in trucking, this is a these are long term goals, and you need to be in it for the long haul. No pun intended, but you do need for you need to be in it for the long haul. And these are long term goals, and these are going to, this is going to save you money in the long in the long haul, it really is. So I mean, you’re not gonna, you’re not gonna see it right away, but you will a few months down the line, you will see, okay,
and just you know, what, what? What kind of trends and driver retention Are you seeing? How has churn changed for you over the past couple of years,
one of the big things that I’m seeing is that a lot of these new drivers board are having automatic restrictions on their driver’s licenses. So if you have some manual trucks, I would definitely consider upgrading those to automatics. I know I hate, you know, there’s I hate saying that, but it is the truth of the matter. A lot of these drivers, the baby boomers, they’re they’re retiring now, once they’re coming in, they, a lot of them are having automatic restrictions on their licenses. So if you’ve got a couple of manual trucks open, you’re going to have a really hard time filling those trucks, so you got to adapt and change with the times. And also what I said earlier, it’s that first three to six months of when a driver comes on board with your organization, that are are the most important, those three to six months give them the best possible experience that you can, and if they make it past those three to six months, that’s when you really know they’re going to stick with your company. So those first three to six months are absolutely crucial,
because a lot of them are leaving within that first three to six. Right. Great point.
Does someone says, Does Angie have CDL?
I do not, shockingly enough, I don’t, but I everything about and around the truck. I grew up. I grew up. I grew up around truck. My whole life. Was a truck driver, so I grew up with him being on the road, and I went on the road too. He made me work on truck. Up growing up. So I know I know enough to be really dangerous, but I forgot,
and just real quick, what did you do? I mean, sounds like you kind of did the gamut of stuff before becoming CEO. But besides driving, but What other things did you do just out of curiosity?
So I have done, basically, I’ve worked in every area of a trucking company that you imagine like a decently good understanding of what it takes, and also, from the I know how to put myself in the position of a driver’s shoes to know, you know what, what’s good and what’s not and what makes you happy and whatnot. But I’ve done everything from I actually specialize in safety and regulations, but on the operation side, I used to do it all. I mean, when you own a business, you wear many hats, and you got to do whatever it takes. And it doesn’t matter if it’s from fixing a copy machine to working in operations and dispatching to doing safety and auditing hours of service and log books. Oh, my but
the operation for every every department.
Yeah, that’s great. Great education, though. Yeah.
And can you just give us a little more information about
how you structure your pay for drivers? I mean, obviously you don’t have to share your specific rate by mile or anything like that, but
how do you do that? Someone’s
asking, we do pay per mile, but we do pay same amount for loaded and deadhead miles, and then we do stops as well. And we’re really trying to focus in on this new driver or this new detention detention technology as well. We’re able to build for more detention or pay our drivers more for more attention. No one likes to sit around and have their time wasted and compensated for it, and I absolutely agree. So right now, that’s kind of our major focus. And detention thing go like getting it’s strengthening that as well. But, yeah, you just have to, you got to look at your market and got to pay top dollar your drivers.
That’s right. And
I know you kind of mentioned you guys use the road facing camera. Someone’s asking how you feel about the driver facing camera.
Okay, so you know,
personally, for our operations, I wouldn’t implement that here, but for our organization, I wouldn’t, but personally myself, I do not think they are a bad idea. I have seen them work. And so what is something that’s misleading that many people don’t know about, about these driver facing cameras? They’re not. They’re not constantly recording you. They’re not. No, they can’t. We can’t log on from the back end of our portal and see what you’re doing every second of the day. We cannot see that no it only records you if there is an incident. And that incident must be an accident, hard, breaking or falling too close, whatnot, because it’s paired with your road facing camera. So if there is an incident such as that, and depending how sensitive your camera is, it’s going to capture you within the first, the first couple seconds before, couple seconds or the duration of and a couple seconds after. So it’s not a major invasion of your privacy. No, I don’t think it is, because it’s not like I said, it’s not recording you the whole time. So that’s something that a lot of people don’t know about. I think they are good. I’ve seen them help drivers and companies alike. You know, we’ve I’ve seen before a driver get in trouble. He was in an accident. It was not his fault whatsoever. And the other other vehicle involved, said that this driver was on their cell phone at the time of the incident, that he was recklessly driving, distracted driving, not paying attention. Well, that drive, that driver facing camera, caught the driver at the time of the incident, and he had both hands on the steering wheel, seat belt on driving the speed limit, so it saved that driver’s life and career, and saved him from lawsuit and from potentially losing his CDL, and save that carriers, but as well. So they’re not they’re not as bad as people. Think they are. And I like to tell that, you know, but it just depends. It’s hard to, it’s hard to implement them into your company. That’s why I’ve seen other carriers. They get creative with them. They offer, you know, like some a monthly bonus, or two extra cents per mile, or will increase your will, change your speedometer, you know, like, whatever. So people get creative with that, and I don’t think they’re bad. No, not at all great.
And someone’s just asking, how comprehensive is your driver training program?
We don’t we just disappeared, yeah, forgive me. I just answered. It was, I think
it was asking if you were hiring people right out of schools. Or there was, I was trying to read it and disappeared, but it was about how extensive the program was, Angie, and then if you were hiring folks right out of school, or
if whoever asked that resubmitted, we could address it. Oh, okay, yeah, they were just saying they’re finding it hard
without having a couple years experience.
Sorry. Go on, yeah, that’s okay. It’s back, yeah, it’s back. Yeah. They’re saying they’re trying to new drivers eager to get started, but the smaller companies you know are kind of leery about hiring without a couple of years experience,
yes, so we did not hire straight out of driving school, but that is not our decision, and Honestly, down to your insurance requirements so they allow for it or not. I know that over the past few years, due to the driver shortage and the drive return, that a lot of insurance companies have kind of relaxed some of their requirements and rules. Our insurance requirement, for example, is that we do require one year of driving history, verifiable driving history and experience. So yeah, you know the bigger trucking companies, they are self insured, so they are able to take on more of that risk. And that’s usually where you do have to, unfortunately, get your foot in the door, is by starting off at like a one of the mega carriers. But then after you get your at least a year down, you can then move forward. And you know, you know you have other opportunities and doors open that you can go to different smaller trucking companies, if that’s you know what you’re looking for. But unfortunately, like I said, it comes down to our insurance and what they require. And they’re, they’re kind of our big boss.
That’s an excellent point.
Just from your experiences, what do drivers value more? You know, pay in the form of signing bonuses and the hourly or mileage rate, or, you know, fairness and predictability of weekly pay.
What I’ve seen personally is I think they value a good mileage rate over sign on bonuses. I think that sign on bonuses are a little bit desperate, and they’re not. It’s false advertising. I’m not a bit I support that personally, but I think end of the day, they want to be paid a wage, and they don’t want the whole smoke and mirrors behind it. So they definitely a fair, predictable weekly pay and mileage rate over, you know, all the shiny milk and mirrors of that’s
well said. Well, it is about all the time we have for today.
Again, if there were some questions submitted we didn’t have time to answer. All of these will be provided to our panelists today, and they will get back to you after the event. We hope that all of you enjoyed today’s webinar. It was very informative. I want to again thank Jason Walker and Angie tordawa and best pass for today’s presentation, again, very informative to share your experience.
Angie, as a lot of our attendees today, I’m sure can relate to
your business and your experience. I
want to mention that this webinar will be available. Demand on the heavy duty trucking website, at trucking info.com/webinars,
and thank you everyone and have a wonderful day. Thank you so much. Thank you guys. Bye.