Last month, I wrote about my experiences coming back on the road trucking. Having hauled now for more than a couple decades, I nonetheless continue to be amazed how some trucking companies seem geared to view the driver, whether an invested owner-operator or company driver, as an infinitely renewable resource. That is, such companies seem to say, “There will always be more where that one came from.”
I thought with experience and an outstanding safety record, I would not have to deal with such attitudes, yet as noted, I can still be amazed.
For all the talk of improving retention around trucking, how do companies expect to retain the best, safest operators if they continue to overpromise and under-deliver?
The principal issue here, again, had to do with the translation (or lack thereof) of recruiting promises to the operational realities of the road. When I signed on, knowing the cost of the truck lease payment and terms of the pay package, among other information, I knew I needed at least 3,000 miles per week to make it all work to my standards. I was promised as much.
Yet when the rubber hit the road, only once in six weeks did I achieve more than 3,000 miles, and then only because I threatened to walk away. Then, I was once again promised that I would be above 3,000 a week from that point on. But the following week, after picking up a load that would have given me 3,200 for the week, the delivery date and time was changed, landing in the next pay period and leaving me 1,000 short of the mark.
Then: a load to Colorado for a Monday delivery the week of Thanksgiving gave me a little more than 1,800 miles, good progress to 3,000 miles. Since I had elected to stay out and work over Thanksgiving, I expected at least a 1000-mile run that I could drop off no later than the following Friday. Yet once again I sat for two and a half days before a dispatch sent me a little more than a thousand miles, delivering on Saturday and putting it on the next pay period.
[Retired: Want to improve retention? Define 'professionalism' to set the standard, build value]
