Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/339482
46 | Overdrive | July 2014 carriers' crystal ball L oad One's retention improved 27 percent with the introduction of Stay Metrics' program in July 2012, says John Elliott, the fleet's president. The Taylor, Mich.-based expedited carrier was Stay Metrics' first customer. Elliott has been pleased with the program, which has helped drive turnover to below 40 percent, where it has held for months. Load One has about 375 trucks, four out of five controlled by owner-operators. Going with Stay Metrics meant not only getting more data from the vendor's driver surveys, but also instituting its rewards program. "I was surprised by the direct correla- tion between involvement in the program and retention," Elliott says. Drivers' preferences also came as a surprise. "Everyone assumes pay is the number one driving factor," he says. "I think it was number five." Respect came in No. 1. Getting driver feedback on not just dispatchers but also maintenance, administration and safety "opened peoples' eyes a little bit more," Elliott says. "When drivers saw they were not always the only ones under the microscope, that it was a two-way street, it in- creased the level of awareness and respect." The rewards program "is not based on taking one more load, to coerce him to do something he didn't want to do," he says. "We tailored it to 'Here's the thing you're supposed to be doing, and if you do it to standard, we want to reward you for it.'" Achievements such as turn- ing in maintenance reports on time and reaching six-month anniversary dates produce points that can be redeemed for items like electronics or jewelry. Identifying and reaching out to dissatisfied drivers is effec- tive because, Elliott says, "so many times, until the question is asked, the driver doesn't say anything." The Stay Metrics system concentrates on drivers' atti- tudes during their first weeks with the carrier, including their buy-in to the rewards program. "We already know, across the board, that drivers who don't engage their employees' recognition programs are twice as likely to leave," says Tim Hindes, Stay Metrics' CEO. Regarding turnover, 44 percent usually occurs within the first 90 days of employment. Interviews are done at day seven on the job and again at day 45. The first mostly is about recruiting and under- standing of the company culture. The second checks to see if promises made during recruiting have been fulfilled. If those surveys show a serious lack of engagement, "those drivers go back to the recruit- ing department," Hindes says. Another survey is done annually. It covers "everything that happens to a driver – pay, quality of equipment," he says. A key part of the surveys is the dispatcher relationship, says Tim Judge, a Notre Dame faculty member who works closely with Hindes. "People who are satisfied with their dispatchers are 57 percent less likely to leave than people who are dissatisfied," Judge says. One Stay Metrics customer fired two dispatchers after seeing how drivers felt about them. Another fleet was about to increase pay rates, then learned that non-pay issues were affecting their satisfaction levels more, so those were addressed, Hindes says. Another fleet, paying 33 cents a mile plus a 10-cent safety bonus, thought the pay was high enough. When sur- veys showed drivers didn't see it that way, the structure was killed, and base pay was set at 43 cents. Retention improves for 83 percent of the fleets that have been in the program a year, Hindes says. The average im- provement is 15 percent. " What if your score is wrong, un- fairly labeling you as disloyal and blemishing your reputation? " — Eric Siegel, author of "Predictive Analytics." To hear a podcast of Siegel discussing the ethics of predictive modeling and its safety and human resources applications for trucking, google "itunes Overdrive Radio." Load one uses Stay Metrics, whose program uses driver feedback to improve retention. It does this by tracking engagement in a rewards program and evaluating results of periodic satisfaction surveys and exit interviews. It targets fleets of 100 to 1,000 trucks and has clients such as Maverick Transportation, ProFleet and P&S Transportation. Load One improves its retention rate Predictive_Analytics_0714.indd 46 6/26/14 9:51 PM