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To help satisfy the ever increasing curiosity of my readers and growing fan base(yes fan base, I receive lots of emails from readers wanting to know more about me, so I consider these emails fan mail). I often get asked questions encouraging me to share about myself. To save time, instead of answering each email individually, I have broken them down into the three most popular questions I receive from fans and will post them here.
1. Who do you think you are?
2. I've been doing this for 20 years, if this worked, I would have heard it about it by now. What rock did you crawl out from under?
3. How are you even qualified to make such a statement?
Now, before I continue, I would like to tell everyone the title of my new book. I would also like to preface this by saying that my new book outlines my new program to reduce driver turnover(increase retention-this explanation provided for my fans) in the over the road trucking industry. As we all know, driver turnover has reached an alarming and critical level in our industry. The title of my book is "90 Days to 75% Retention".
I do occasional consulting projects for trucking companies for a variety of reasons related to trucking and transportation. In meetings to discuss my consulting services, I'm often asked about the title of my new book. More often than not, it is met with laughter. And not polite laughter, but real, hearty laughter. When people glance at me after the laughter erupts, and realize I'm not laughing(I never laugh about retention), the polite ones usually stop, and present sympathetic looks akin to glances the dumb kid in class gets when he gives the wrong answer in a classroom. ("He just doesn't understand, this is an unsolvable problem. We must live in and accept our problem, we must tell him to accept the status quo, and be energized by our problem, not to keep seeking a solution.")
Has turnover become so accepted in our industry, that a 25% turnover rate is thought to be so unattainable that it prompts laughter? It's that outrageous? The ones who laugh the loudest are usually the ones who haven't done much self-examination recently and have the highest turnover, and have trouble grasping the concept that 25% turnover is achievable. It takes me back to the days of my youth, when my one of my brothers(for the sake of family harmony, I won't identify which brother) and I were given a BB gun from my grandfather. We charged outside, BB gun in hand, and held a heated debate about who was going to shoot it first. It was finally concluded that I would be the first to shoot it and my brother in all his wisdom, would hold an empty aluminum soda can in his out stretched arm as the target. So it was decided. I walked off 10 paces in the backyard and turned around to see my brother holding the can in his hand, I aimed and shot quickly. I missed the can completely and the BB struck my brother in the chest. He looked down at his chest, looked back up at me and proclaimed in a taunting voice, "You missed, moron!"... My grandfather, heard the commotion, came outside took the BB gun back as we explained what happened. He turned to my brother and said, "Well, If your gonna dumb, son, then you gotta be tough".
The retention problem is large and It's not going away.
Our retention issue is a cancer that has been growing since the early 1990's. Twenty years of a growing tumor on our industry, never in remission, but only a few short periods of slowed growth with a slowing economy, followed by rapid growth in turnover fueled by an expanding economy.
All of this is yesterday's news, as they say and I don't expect anyone to be surprised at any of these comments.
Have trucking companies just given up and accepted their turnover rate as the status quo?
I don't believe so. Trucking Executives are some of the best executives in our country, never to be ones to give up, quit, or not to find a better way.
This retention issue is one that has never been faced before in history. There has been no training available, not a clear successful plan to follow. It is massive and growing. Whenever there is no history of success to follow, innovation must prevail!
Innovation and new approaches are always laughed at, criticized and scorned at the beginning. But, it must be said to the detractors, that in the history of the world, there has never been a statue in a town square built in honor of a critic!
There is not an industry in the history of the United States, dare I say the world, that has experienced this! I defy anyone, a college professor, a Harvard MBA, anyone to find an industry who has experienced such a shortage of employees during a poor economy that keeps getting worse.
Trucking companies are willing to pay just about anything to get a driver in a seat. Find any industry in the United States! Any industry in the world! Not just this century, any century! Why? because the trucking industry is unique and so is our problem.
1. Trucks have wheels - carriers aren't defined and limited by a physical location, and neither are drivers. This creates a large pool of potential drivers and a large pool of potential employers, ready to transact at a moments notice. This is why broad economic theory is effective in this situation.
2. The CDL is unique in the amount of time it takes to be licensed and the amount of experience needed before a solo driver is deemed safe.
We must employ not one concept, not two concepts, not one economic theory or practice, but many applied together in a unique manner aimed at the trucking Industry. We must call on the genius of Henry Ford and Keynes! We must apply a personal approach unique to an employee who is always working but never at a physical workplace! We go home and he is still in his truck, driving, sleeping, loading, unloading. When he does arrive at the terminal, it's usually off hours and we are at home. If we are there, he is in a hurry to go home to his family anyway, and doesn't want to enjoy a hot dog with us at the driver appreciation BBQ.
So what exactly am I suggesting here? That you read and study the economic policy of Keynes? That you study Henry Ford's trial and error approach to retention? That you spend the next twenty years trying different things to keep drivers from leaving your company until you figure out the best path to successful retention for your company? I have done all of this already for you in a simple, fast moving process that will walk with you to successful retention in 90 Days.
Please join our Discussion Groups on LinkedIN. Both "Negotiating with Freight Brokers" and "90 Days to 75% Retention".
