Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/734262
October 2016 | Overdrive | 33 trip to the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas, where Eric showed his Detroit Series 60-powered 2015 Peterbilt 389 glider in Overdrive's Pride & Polish National Championship competition. They brought the entire driver corps with the exception of one hauler who stayed behind to take care of ongo- ing business. On the weekend prior to GATS, "every last one of us worked both days so we could make it here," Stacy said at the show in Dallas. "Guess what? No one complained about any- thing – it's what we had to do to get the job done. We're all team players." Retention issues are not so sim- ply handled by other small fleets, if Overdrive's spring 2016 Operational Survey is any indication. Retention was named by more than six in 10 respon- dents as one of the biggest issues in employing drivers. Stacy Turner's pay, equipment and home-time dictum also rings true for the other three fleets consulted for this story. All have found some measure of suc- cess by paying close attention to drivers' needs. Pay At the 20-truck J&C Investments Inc. based in Garland, Texas, and with a location in Nebraska, owner Jeff Hardage says compensation is probably his biggest tool in keeping drivers happy. Paid on a mileage basis and running 3,000 to 3,500 miles weekly with multi- drop dry van freight, his drivers make $60,000 to $70,000 a year, Hardage says. The 16-driver fleet serves a pri- mary customer as its central distributor in an area stretching from Texas into Ontario, Canada. That customer closes down on holidays, so most of those are paid days off for the drivers, he says. Such an income beats the company driver norm. Average income is in the low $40,000s, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, or between $50,000 and $60,000, based on analy- ses of the pay packages of medium- size and large carriers by the National Transportation Institute. It's also near what Schneider National co-founder Don Schneider once famously said drivers needed to make annually in truckload – $70,000 – to alleviate large fleets' recruiting and retention issues. Richard DeForest, of owner-operator busi- ness services provider ATBS, cited that figure in an Overdrive's Partners in Business seminar at GATS this year. However, it was 13 years ago when Schneider, who passed in 2012, said it. With inflation applied, it'd be more like $93,000 today. The situation has been one in which "the rewards don't match the require- ments of the job," DeForest says – and that won't change until freight rates sup- port more income for the most impor- tant part of the supply chain: the driver. Small fleets such as J&C have hit a sweet spot, keeping rates strong with a primary customer and establishing solid relationships with brokers on select lanes for freight such that "they pick up the phone and call us" when an opportunity arises. Contract rates with the customer are good enough that "if a trip out is within a 300-mile radius" of their loca- tions, "it's not worth back-hauling," so drivers often return empty. The 40-truck Fleenor Bros. fleet hauls hazmat explosives and other commodi- ties out of headquarters in Joplin, Mo. Many of its 65 drivers run team. During the 2009-10 recession, "we had to cut everyone's pay, but not really signifi- cantly," says part-owner Kyle Cousins. "We've gotten it back now and even a little more, but we're trending toward more incentive-driven pay increases." Until recently, he says, the company didn't have a safety bonus. The move to tie pay increases to more performance-based measures, he believes, gives drivers recognition when it's deserved. It's helped retention because "drivers like to see that they're getting paid for everything that they do." J&C has moved to a guaranteed detention pay system in which drivers receive $20 an hour after two hours waiting at a dock, regardless of whether Part of the Atlanta-based Turner Transport team: From left, drivers Dane Thomas and Warren Wiseman, owners Eric and Stacy Turner, and Stacy's father, McKinley "Doc" Hayward. Top retention practices Raising pay Establishing regular runs for weekly home time More freedom in choosing/scheduling loads Health insurance, 401(k), other benefits Allowing truck modifications Guaranteeing detention pay, whether collected or not Striking a lease-purchase agreement with a driver Working with CDL training providers to qualify a driver Other Nothing has been successful 33% 28% 20% 9% 8% 8% 4% 3% 14% 28% Overdrive's spring 2016 Operations Survey queried small-fleet owners about practices most helpful in keeping drivers around. Up to three responses were allowed. Todd Dills