Truck driver compliance and turnover are related. Compliance can be irritating, confusing and ever-changing, but it’s an essential piece of the turnover puzzle. Few managers are big fans of federal regulations. Our readers have already learned about the benefits of behavior-based safety and why rules and regulations don’t control human behavior. You can also read our white paper, Operational Excellence, which talks about the downside of more regulation. It explains why more rules are created each year despite their minimal impact on driving behaviors.
You can’t fight City Hall. Well-meaning legislators will continue to throw together new regulations and you will have to follow them. Some of these rules are understandable; you can’t have drivers with high CSA scores or who falsify their logs. But sometimes even minor mistakes, such as a ticket for a mechanical defect, can tip a driver’s compliance over the edge and force you to cut them loose. Retaining drivers is hard enough without these problems. So how can you avoid these types of issues without breaking the bank? Fortunately, a fast, effective method for achieving better compliance results does exist.
AvatarFleet has built some low-cost, self-directed, outcome-based compliance courses for truck drivers. These are mobile-friendly, much more entertaining than grainy 80’s compliance videos, and they teach drivers how to avoid compliance troubles. You know your drivers well enough to know they probably have little interest in this subject. Most of them probably figure they know the regulations already. You will need to motivate them and get their attention.
Many of our clients put a small bonus plan in place for each driver who completed the modules and got better than a 95 percent on the final quizzes. Or they include monthly completion of the modules as a part of their quarterly or annual safety bonus. This didn’t lead to a large payout of any kind for the drivers, but it got their attention. More important, it ensured that those who did well took serious notice of the information and better understood how to be compliant. Try something similar with your drivers.
Next, create a team-based incentive program. Divide up your drivers into teams of ten. For each team that can go an entire month without a single violation, give every driver on that team a little reward. One client got his winning drivers all golf shirts with the company logo on them. The team approach motivates driver compliance and creates friendly peer pressure that can be even more powerful than cash rewards. Nobody wants to be the one to cause everyone else to lose the contest.
With these tools, you can seal up one more crack in the driver retention wall. Even better, you can do it without spending anywhere near as much as you would to hire and train new drivers. Not only can you have higher truck driver retention, but you will have a team that better understands and practices superior truck driver compliance. If you want more in-depth tips on how to execute these and other driver retention practices, download AvatarFleet’s newest eBook release, Operational Excellence.
Compliance can be boring and taken for granted. You will need to find some ways to liven up the learning process for your drivers if you want the information to stick.