Up Front

Takes One to Know One

One of the participants in this month’s “Say What” feature has been driving a truck for 48 years. Along with his obvious perseverance, what impresses me the most is the fact he says he never stops learning something new about this business.

As the publisher of Over the Road and Pro Trucker magazines and as a member of the trucking community who is interested in learning everything I can about the art and science of driver recruitment and retention, I recently attended the TCA’s annual meeting in Las Vegas. I was particularly interested in two workshops on the subject that drew standing room-only crowds. Both workshops were packed with company owners and top officers from some of the largest carriers in the country.

One message came through loud and clear: The driver shortage is real, companies are genuinely interested in retaining the drivers they have and finding new ones, and they want their own drivers to tell them how to do it. As one company official put it: “We don’t put our driver requirements in our ads. We don’t talk about our pay packages. We ask our drivers what they like about the company, and that’s what we put in the ads.”
Makes sense to me.