When a truck driver asks, “What’s the pay per mile,” do you understand what they’re really asking?
Carriers are often bewildered when an interview seems to go well, only for a driver to ghost them during the hiring process. Worse, they may even no-show at orientation.
There’s often a wide gulf between what carriers think is important, and what drivers think is important. As a carrier, you’re looking to fill a seat with somebody who is safe, reliable, hardworking and qualified. Drivers, though, are looking for a carrier who will help them continue or exceed the lifestyle they’ve worked hard for. If there’s a mismatch between needs, you’re going to end up with a higher number of drivers who are unhappy, are a poor fit for your company, or both. Worse, you could end up with drivers who simply disappear during onboarding.
How do you resolve this? By realizing what drivers want most of all is to be heard and understood.
This means that, along with a culture of safety and performance, you need to strive for a culture that treats drivers like individuals. How do you make this happen? By creating open lines of communication and keeping them open.
Fostering a culture of communication
Put yourself in your drivers’ shoes. They are alone in their rigs for extended periods of time. Often when they return to terminal, the office staff have gone home for the night. They might not see you, or any corporate staff, face-to-face for weeks. If you don’t have an established process for communicating with your drivers, it’s going to be difficult for them to feel heard or valued.
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This is why you need to establish a strong culture of communication before a new driver even gets behind the wheel, and it starts the moment a driver first makes contact with you, whether it’s an application or a comment on a social post. That’s your moment to show you’re listening. More importantly, it’s your chance to show you see them as an individual. This kind of empathy goes a long way.
If you’re not sure where to begin, it helps to remember that every driver has a financial goal but every driver also has a different idea of how they want to achieve it.
One driver may be looking to pay down their mortgage in a short time. Another might want to put their kids through college. Another may hope to spoil themselves with a fishing boat or RV.
That’s why when a driver asks about pay per mile, they’re actually asking about much more. They want to know if you’re a fit with their life goals. The only way both of you will learn if you’re a fit is by asking the right questions and actually listening to the answers. Unfortunately, that’s something some carriers have made unnecessarily difficult.
Hearing means understanding
Carriers sometimes make the mistake of using a “say and spray” approach when recruiting drivers. They’ll espouse the virtues of their fleet, their trucks and their compensation, totally forgetting they should be having a conversation with the driver in the process. If you’re doing this, you’ll never find out if you’re what the driver is looking for. You’ll also never learn if the driver is a good fit for your needs.
When I was a driver, I only wanted OTR. I enjoyed being out on the road for a month or longer at a time. I preferred to make this clear early to any potential carrier. If the carrier was using the “say and spray” method, though, they wouldn’t actually hear what I needed from them. They also wouldn’t immediately realize that I wasn’t a good fit for their lanes.
Some of your best recruiting can be done by listening. This not only encourages more dialogue from drivers, it also helps recruiters truly understand what those drivers are saying. The result is drivers will appreciate the empathy you’ve shown them as a human being, and not just a potential cog for the wheel.
A great way to ask an open-ended question is asking one that’s actually multiple questions:
• Tell me about yourself. What kinds of routes have you been running? What have you been hauling?
• What would you say are your favorite hobbies? How do you like to spend your spare time?
• What do you see in us that makes you think we could be a fit?
• What could your current employer do to keep you there, and why do you want to move on?
If you understand why a driver answers the way they do, you’ll know how to better target your job postings in the future. And you’ll make better use of everyone’s time, too.
A culture of communication is everyone’s responsibility
It’s not just recruiters who need to make drivers feel heard. Everyone – from your mechanics to your driver managers – needs to foster consistent two-way dialogue. Making that happen starts with you. Set the example, and the rest of your team will follow.
Actually have an open-door policy. Make sure your drivers have an email or social account where they can directly reach your office. While you’re at it, make sure the rest of your staff can reach you there as well.
Regularly monitor your social channels for questions and comments from your drivers, and reply accordingly.
If you’ve grown so big that face-to-face communication has become more difficult, consider launching a company intranet. You can use this to share company news, open chats for your drivers, and communicate in an instant with your entire team. Just keep in mind that tech can’t truly replace in-person communication, so keep that going as much as possible.
Make your drivers feel like they’re actually part of your team. Remember to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, milestones and driver awards. Make sure you’re celebrating them in a way that even your drivers on the road know about them.
Remember, you can’t expect anyone on your team to have empathy for anyone else if they haven’t been shown it themselves. Communication has to be open from top to bottom across your company, and it’s up to you to set the tone.
Most of all, a culture of communication starts the minute a driver makes contact with you. The truth is, no one knows what drivers really want – except the drivers themselves. It’s up to you to find out if you’re a fit for a driver’s needs and vice-versa.
Once a driver realizes you actually hear what they’re looking for, they’re going to be more inclined to join your fleet, and more inclined to stay with you, as we say, for the long haul.