Are you concerned about the high turnover of your drivers? Retaining skilled fleet operators is one of the biggest challenges for businesses, and recognizing its importance is the first step to solving it. But what exactly is driver retention, and what factors are driving turnover?
By understanding these key insights, you’ll be better equipped to create a work environment that keeps your drivers motivated and loyal. Here’s how to make your business a place where drivers want to stay.
Driver Retention 101
One of the first steps toward improving driver retention is understanding what the commercial fleet industry means by the term.
Businesses of all types and sizes — be they fleet-based or otherwise — define retention as the ability to keep talented employees and reduce turnover
For fleet managers, that means promoting a positive work environment and eliminating (or reducing) the factors that affect driver retention for the worse.
Factors That Affect Driver Retention
Driver retention is a critical issue in industries across the board, but identifying the factors that affect turnover in your fleet can help you develop a program to counteract them.
For fleet-based businesses, the most common negative influences are:
Low Compensation
If drivers feel that their pay rate isn’t commensurate with their contributions to the business and they could be better paid in a different company, they’ll look for other opportunities.
Competitive pay is a core aspect of increasing driver retention in your fleet, but it’s not the only form of compensation that matters. Some employees will accept a lower pay rate if they have access to health insurance, life insurance, a 401k, and other benefits your business may offer.
Examine your company pay packages, compare them to the local average, see what other fleets are offering, and make changes as necessary to show your drivers that you value their contribution to the business.
Poor Work-Life Balance
Lack of work-life balance can frustrate your drivers, push them further toward burnout, and make them want to look for a job that offers them more flexibility.
For example, too much time away from family is a chief contributor to poor work-life balance and feelings of burnout in your drivers. If your drivers are on the road for days at a time, be sure to give them time off between runs so they can spend time with their loved ones.
Work-life balance can take many forms and include things such as time off, breaks, family leave, and regular schedules that allow drivers to be home at night. This may require you to hire more drivers and alternate between them, but the reward can be better driver retention.
Stressful Work Environment
For many fleet drivers, long hours, irregular schedules, and the constant pressure to meet deadlines can create stress and anxiety and affect both their physical and mental health.
And those are just the stressors outside the office. If there’s tension inside the office, their anxiety can skyrocket. Some drivers may be able to handle the stress for a while but, eventually, even the most dedicated employee can succumb to fatigue, exhaustion, and even burnout.
If you’re looking for ways to improve driver retention, start by taking a step back and examining the environment they work in every day. Perhaps making simple changes can dramatically reduce attrition.
Limited Opportunities For Advancement
Opportunities for advancement give drivers a goal to shoot for so they don’t feel stuck in a rut all the time.
As we’ll discuss in more detail in the next section, offering training (either on the job or through another provider) gives your drivers the chance to feel like they’re developing their skills and adding value to your business.
You may also want to consider establishing individualized employee development plans (more on this later) to give your drivers a road map of sorts that shows how they can take on more responsibility in your fleet activities.
Disorganized Management
Poor management practices such as unnecessary delays, micromanagement, and lack of communication can lead to dissatisfaction and distrust between drivers on the road and those in the office.
Of course, mistakes will happen, but fleet employees need to feel like managers are organized, have a full grasp of what’s going on in the business, can solve problems when they arise, and can make prompt decisions when necessary.
Poorly Maintained Equipment
Few things can frustrate drivers more than poorly maintained equipment. When they have to deal with a truck that won’t start or a van that always stalls at stop lights, it adds another layer of stress and strain to their already hectic schedules.
For more on how vehicle maintenance can affect your fleet, check out these articles from the Coast blog:
Driver Health
According to statistics from the National Institute of Health, more than 50% of truck drivers are obese (compared to the national average of 26.7%). Additionally, diabetes is 50% higher, and 87% percent of truck drivers have hypertension or prehypertension (compared to the national rate of 58.3%).
This can be dangerous for both your drivers and your fleet as a whole because it puts drivers at risk of a stroke or other incident while driving, which can lead to accidents.
Solutions to this problem range from offering affordable health insurance options to implementing company wellness programs (e.g., fitness challenges and health screenings) to providing access to telehealth services.
Tips For Improving Driver Retention
1) Compensate Your Drivers Well
Competitive pay is certainly a major factor in retention for any business. To get an idea of what to pay your drivers, research local driver salaries to see what other similar businesses are doing.
That being said, pay is not the only thing that will keep your fleet operators from taking their skills and experience elsewhere.
Other forms of compensation play a huge role in helping your business hold on to its talent. For example, you may choose to offer:
- Perks like flexible scheduling options and career development opportunities
- Health care (for drivers and their families)
- Dental and eye care
- Paid time off
- Incentives like rewards for outstanding performance, safe driving, and tenure
- Fringe benefits (e.g., gym memberships, childcare, educational assistance, etc.)
- Company phone/tablet for use on the road
As far as incentives go, creating individualized employee development plans that provide a path to career advancement is a great strategy to add to your total compensation package.
These plans address the before, during, and after so that your team members know what to expect when they put in the time and effort to learn new skills or improve current skills.
2) Build A Driver Retention Program
If you want to improve some aspect of your business, create a program that focuses specifically on the issues relevant to the subject.
For example, if poor driving behavior is a concern, develop a fleet safety program that provides guidelines, rules, and expectations to help employees operate their vehicles better.
The same goes for driver retention. Build, implement, and maintain a program that will run in the background, so to speak, to support a positive work environment for everyone involved.
As part of your driver retention program, make the effort to celebrate a job well done. It doesn’t have to be a celebration for something large. You can celebrate small accomplishments as well.
For example, recognize when employees maintain safety standards for a certain period of time. Commend them for cleaning out their vehicles. Or just drop a “Thanks for coming into work today!” when you see them in the hall.
If you take the initiative to celebrate accomplishments, large and small, your employees will feel like valued members of the business — rather than just one more cog in the wheel — and your driver retention numbers will soar.
The remainder of the tips on this list will help you flesh out your driver retention program, improve engagement, and keep employees working within your business for years to come
3) Prioritize Health And Safety
Operating a vehicle on American roads is a high-risk profession. Be sure to implement mandatory safety policies, conduct regular training, and offer incentives — such as bonuses or rewards — to encourage buy-in to your safety program.
You can also reinforce a culture of safety by stressing the importance of conducting pre– and post-trip inspections before and after using company vehicles.
While traffic and other drivers are a big part of that risk, they’re not the only factors that make working for a fleet business dangerous. There are certainly other physical and mental risks associated with piloting a vehicle over short and long distances, including:
- Obesity
- Isolation
- Depression
- Lack of exercise
- Stress
When developing your driver retention program, be sure to include rules and regulations that prioritize safety on the road, but also encourage your employees to get into habits that lead to the other physical and mental risks mentioned above.
4) Embrace Technology
When it comes to improving your driver retention, embrace technology whenever possible. Doing so makes their job easier but also gives you insight into the conditions they experience on the road.
One of the best ways to incorporate modern technology into fleet activities is through telematics, a set of systems and add-ons that use the Global Positioning System (GPS) and onboard diagnostic (OBD) equipment to monitor movement on a computerized map.
The system also provides data about driving behavior and the condition of the vehicle that you can use to inform some of the other tips on this list (e.g., set safety benchmarks and maintain the vehicles better).
5) Keep Channels Of Communication Open
Open and effective communication is one of the cornerstones of a strong team and a strong business. How can you improve communication among your team as a way to boost driver retention?
Start by making your own communication as clear, concise, and effective as possible. When your employees see what good communication looks like, they’ll be more willing to make the effort themselves.
But a willingness to try isn’t always the solution to the problem. You may need to take it a step further and provide practical training in effective communication so that your employees know how to go about getting better.
Keeping the channels of communication open — and improving the messages that flow through those channels — may take some time to get going, but the results will be well worth the effort.
Speaking of open communication, if you’re not sure what would help improve driver retention, go straight to the source — ask your team for feedback.
Your employees are on the front line every day and experience all the difficulties that come with operating a fleet vehicle (be it a pickup truck, van, or semi).
They’ll likely have plenty of suggestions for improving certain business processes and building a more positive work environment. Sure, you’ll get some feedback that just isn’t possible, but don’t dismiss anything until you’ve examined it thoroughly and given it plenty of thought.
Then, whatever feedback your drivers provide, do your best to implement solutions to the problems. You don’t have to address them all right away, but your team should be able to see and feel that you’re making an effort to address their concerns.
6) Emphasize Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is essential for driver retention in the current business climate. Without it, your drivers are going to burn out and start looking elsewhere to find a job that gives them what they need.
Whenever possible, encourage your team to use the time outside of work for activities they enjoy so they can recharge and return to work raring to go.
To facilitate this, consider giving them extra days off (e.g., a three-day weekend) now and then.
7) Maintain Equipment And Plan Routes Efficiently
Where drivers are concerned, the fleet vehicles they operate every day serve as their office.
If they’re working in an environment that lacks heat or air conditioning, has uncomfortable seating, and includes equipment that breaks down on a regular basis, they’re not going to be happy to come to work every day.
To improve driver retention, make it a priority to maintain your vehicles and other equipment to the highest standards possible.
Additionally, planning efficient routes for your drivers to take while they’re in the field makes their job much easier and goes a long way toward reducing the stress they’ll face while on the road.
But efficient route planning does more than just improve driver retention. It also helps reduce fuel costs across the board and the impact of miles traveled on the vehicles themselves.
The best way to find the most efficient routes is by examining data from the core components of your fleet tech stack: fleet management software, telematics, and fuel management software.
8) Give Drivers An Easy Way To Pay For Fuel
A simple way you can improve driver retention is to provide them with the tools they need to make their job easier — more specifically, an easy way to pay for fuel.
A smart fuel card like Coast gives drivers the freedom and flexibility to purchase gas and diesel at the closest, most cost-effective station instead of having to stray off the optimal route (and rack up more miles) to find a station that accepts their card.
Smart fuel cards can also help with fraud protection, provide rewards and rebates for the business, and integrate with other fleet tools (like Fleetio, Samsara, Azuga, and QuickBooks) to make everyone’s job easier.
9) Cultivate A Sense Of Team
While fleet operators may spend a lot of time working by themselves, you can still cultivate a sense of team within the business as a whole that will help improve retention.
Encourage your employees to look out for one another, adhere to business values and standards while at work, and develop friendships with their coworkers.
You can provide a framework for this sense of team by holding company events, such as:
- End-of-the-year parties
- Summer barbecues
- Holiday celebrations
- Halloween costume competitions
- Dinners for the team at a local restaurant
When you promote teamwork within your fleet — even if operators drive alone — you make it easier for them to experience better morale, stronger group cohesion, higher efficiency, and a real sense of accomplishment while at work.
Driver Retention And Coast
A strong driver retention program can help you manage your fleet and business better than ever before. But these tips can only go so far once your drivers are out in the field.
To make their job easier, a smart fuel card can help your drivers become more productive, without adding unnecessary friction.
- Seamless and convenient payment experience: Coast eliminates the hassle of cash advances and cumbersome expense reports. With wide acceptance, reliable card functionality, and 24/7 support, your drivers can focus on their work, not payment issues.
- Transparent and empowering spending rules: Coast empowers your drivers with clear, pre-set spending limits and protection against external fraud, such as skimming or card theft. This transparency builds trust and ensures drivers don’t have to deal with fraud issues.
- Simplify expenses with a single card: Coast streamlines transactions by combining multiple expense categories on one card. With precise spend limits by category, a digital receipt and job code collection, Coast keeps things straightforward for drivers on the go.
- Add rewards or stipends for drivers: Motivate your team with customizable benefits, like a lunch stipend. Enable specific spending categories with pre-set limits, giving your drivers a perk that’s easy to use and manage.
For more information, visit CoastPay.com today.
Apply in minutes