Creating a Career Path for CDL Truck Drivers

Do you have enough quality drivers in your fleet? That’s a rhetorical question because we know the answer is no. What if you could reduce accidents, lower the average age of your drivers, and improve retention with one process? You can achieve all of this by investing in a CDL career path centered around safety.

If you are like most trucking companies, the truck driving career path is earning a few more cents per mile, dollars per hour, or percentage of load. That’s it. No new responsibilities, purpose, or intrinsic motivation.

The good news for you is the majority of the transportation industry is pathetic when it comes to providing a defined career path. You have a great opportunity to stand out as a company that invests in your drivers.

When you invest in your truck driver career path, you can attract and retain the best drivers available.

Download  eBook: 75 Strategies to Help Increase Driver Retention >>>

The Four Steps of The Driver Career Progression

We’ve created four steps to the CDL career path that are plug-and-play to implement. They build upon one another and work together to lower your accident rates, recruit higher quality drivers, and improve your retention.

1. CDL Finishing School: This is an eight-week curriculum that is designed to turn recent CDL graduates into professional drivers.

1. LLLC Driver Certification: Defensive driving certification process designed for both your experienced drivers and recent hires.

1. LLLC Instructor Certification: Train-the-trainer model that teaches your instructors to become true teachers and safety ambassadors for your fleet.
2. Leadership Development: Education curriculum for your front-line supervisors who interact with drivers every day and have the biggest impact on retention.

Entry-Level CDL Advancements: CDL Finishing School

It’d be great if a driver who just earned their CDL was actually ready to be a driver on their own. There’s a reason the majority of transportation companies have a two-year minimum of driving history before they will hire a driver – recent graduates need a lot of love and polish beyond earning a CDL. 

With the driving population gaining more gray beards than green beans these days, you need a farm system to create your own drivers. A consistent, structured process led by elite instructors is the safe and responsible way to hire drivers new to the industry. 

Let’s be clear – hiring recent grads doubles the cost of hiring a seasoned vet in the first eight weeks. You do this for long-term gain. This is NOT a quick fix. If you’re ready, you owe it to yourself to see how our trainer certification and trainee tracking program gives you the ready-to-use playbook: CDL Finishing School.

Would you rather have a rookie you’ve properly groomed from day one with a CDL Finishing School program or a one-year vet from the big dogs’ training schools who learned a year's worth of bad habits from a trainer who had only six months more experience than him?

With a program like CDL Finishing School, you can attract more drivers and rest assured that they are actually road-ready.

Safety Advancements: LLLC Driver Certification

The best professional drivers want to master their craft. They value a company that invests in them. Our SEO research shows that drivers search for safe companies. Wouldn’t you want to be on that list?

Additionally, through interviews with the safest, most successful drivers, we found they only want to work for companies that value safety. You need to invest in a safety culture if you want to attract and retain high-quality drivers.

You can become an employer of choice with LLLC Driver Certification.

LLLC Driver Certification involves:

• Professionally-produced video courses
• Classroom workshops
• Behind-the-wheel training
• The most modern and successful driver training methodology

LLLC is a process you can run internally to advance the careers of your drivers, improve retention, recruit better drivers, and reduce accidents.

Career Advancements: LLLC Instructor Certification

The elite drivers of the fleet run your training program. However, just because someone is a great driver doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a great instructor. 

LLLC Instructor Certification gives you a process for those drivers who seek opportunities to coach other drivers.

LLLC Instructor Certification involves a combination of engaging video-based courses, a classroom workshop led by one of our master instructors, and the guarantee of a 20% reduction in accidents.

We train your instructors. Your instructors train your drivers. Meanwhile, you enjoy fewer accidents, better recruiting, and better retention.

Your best drivers will appreciate this chance to advance their careers and knowledge.

Careers Beyond Driving: Leadership Development

Many folks sitting in the dispatch seat or a managerial position know logistics, were formerly drivers or came from another department. The problem is those frontline leaders could be costing you drivers. Former drivers in the dispatch, recruiting and safety seats help build trust and rapport with the drivers on the road because they have empathy for them.

The majority of your frontline leaders (drivers or not) were never exposed to leadership principles, building trust, creating a fair work environment, conflict resolution, or problem-solving. These are the skills that keep drivers from quitting. 

Our Leadership Development Course educates transportation frontline leaders on driver retention and gives them the tools to practice what they learn. If you have a driver who’s looking to get off the road, enroll them in this program so they are ready when a seat opens up.

Grow and Develop Your Employees

Stand out from the crowded, noisy driver recruiting marketplace with a simple offering – we grow and develop our drivers. We have a career ladder for you to climb, and we want you to climb fast. We all win when you grow. 

How many other solutions can you implement that influence safety, retention, and recruiting all in one?