Tag Archive for: training for truckers

Want to lower driver turnover? How a good training program impacts driver retention

A driver stands in the sun beside his truck cab | Lower driver turnover

Truck driver turnover hovers around 90% on a good day. This costs trucking businesses a small fortune, from onboarding to maintaining safety standards, to delays that a short staff will inevitably cause. With such a high demand for talent, keeping your drivers means keeping your business on the road without interruptions. The question all trucking companies are asking is, “how can I lower truck-driver turnover?”

Why is driver turnover so high?

According to our data, most driver turnover happens within the first 180 days of employment, showing that newer drivers have a hard time acclimating to the lifestyle. Secondly, long-haul routes see higher turnover. The longer the route, the shorter the tenure.

The High Cost of High Turnover

The average cost to replace a truck driver is $8,200, and the average tenure with one employer is one year. On top of that, the cost of replacing a driver is roughly three times the average cost of turnover in the U.S. 

Replacing your entire workforce every year adds up, and with profit margins already slim, trucking companies can’t afford to pay for that revolving door year after year and stay in business. 

How do you lower driver turnover? Well, first, we need to address the solvable root causes.

Addressing the Causes of High Turnover

Being on the road is hard; we all know that. Many newer drivers don’t fully grasp the impact of life on the road until they are in the thick of it. Long hours alone and separation from loved ones can be difficult to deal with if a driver is unprepared. And many drivers struggle to engage with their coworkers and peers because of distance. Add to that the level of responsibility and constant situational awareness that a driver needs to have top of mind at all times.

A truck driver is responsible for not only a 1,000-pound vehicle but tens of thousands of dollars of cargo. Add to that the responsibility for maintenance and safety. A truck driver must always be up to date on safety training and always cognizant of other drivers on the road. 

This level of responsibility, coupled with limited human engagement, is taxing on an individual, and many give up.

Solving for Human Connection, Engagement, and Responsibility

Trucking companies mostly understand the need for driver training and engagement. The rules and regulations of the road are many, and truckers are held accountable for every misstep and even every perceived misstep. Not only does this reflect on the driver’s record, impacting their ability to work and make a decent salary, but it also reflects on the trucking company. If a driver gets a negative CSA score because of maintenance or other issues, so does the company. 

The pressure is high on both drivers and companies, and many trucking companies have renewed interest in safety training programs. An investment in safety training is an investment in the company. And it could also help lower driver turnover.

“You are not in the trucking business. You are in the people business.”

Noted industry icon, Dan Baker, is famous for this line. No matter the age or generation of a truck driver, one thing always stays the same: people need to feel like they belong. This is why the trucking business must be about people first. 

Drivers stay with a trucking company, not because of pay or benefits, but because they feel like they belong and that they are appreciated. Many drivers feel like they are a business’ lowest priority because they are on the road, and it’s important to go the extra mile to prove that they matter to you. To learn how to build a great culture of belonging, check out our webinar.

But how do you solve the lack of human connection when drivers are on the road? And how can this lower driver turnover?

Appreciated employees are retained employees. You need a training program that recognizes drivers for their good work, not just their CSA scores. It also helps to give drivers morale-boosting experiences, like wishing them a happy birthday or happy service anniversary. 

When a new driver starts with your company, roll out the red carpet. Make a big deal about them and go out of your way to show them that you’re happy they’ve joined the company.  A little bit of recognition can go a long way in increasing morale and lowering driver turnover.

A Win-Win Solution 

The best way to reduce driver turnover is to keep the drivers you already have by creating a company culture that inspires drivers. Infinit-I Workforce Solutions has a cultural relations training program to help you build company-wide relationships that help all employees understand their role in company culture. To learn more about building that culture, click here.

Training and Engagement to Reduce Driver Turnover

Infinit-I Workforce Solutions has a customizable, mobile training tool that solves all the root causes of driver turnover, helping you retain your workforce and keep your business rolling.

With brief, easily-digestible training modules, drivers can complete training without eating into drive-time or off-time. In fact, most of our drivers complete their training during load times! Brief quizzes at the end of each module automatically store results, ensuring your company stays up to date with mandatory safety training requirements.

Best of all, the tool has a built-in employee appreciation function. Even while your drivers are on the road, they will know that you value them not only as drivers but as human beings. That will go a long way to lower your driver turnover. Because when the competition for talent is fierce, differentiating your company even in small ways can make a big difference.

Infinit-I Workforce Solutions takes care of all of the administration for you. We know that even if your intentions for employee recognition are great, the administration of a recognition program for tens of thousands of drivers is beyond your capacity. That’s why we built it in. 

5 Things to Remember About Lowering Driver Turnover:

  • • Life on the road is hard, and a little appreciation can go a long way.
  • • Training is necessary but needs to be retained for it to be effective.
  • • Brief training modules with videos work well when time is of the essence.
  • • An appreciated employee is a retained employee.
  • • A training program that combines state-of-the-art training with employee appreciation will lower your driver turnover.

Reduce Truck Driver Turnover

/0 Comments/by

Rising Insurance Premiums for Transportation Firms: What are the Causes?

A driver leans against his truck tire as he takes a break | Rising Insurance Premiums for Transportation Firms

In the last couple of years, insurance premiums for transportation firms have been skyrocketing, and there’s no end in sight. The best trucking companies with the best CSA scores see a 20 to 30 percent increase, while other companies can see a double and even triple increase. Why are we seeing rising insurance premiums for transportation firms and what are the causes?

Causes and Effects of Rising Insurance Premiums for Transporation Firms

Rising insurance premiums for transportation firms can potentially affect the nationwide economy, as costs are passed from insurance companies to trucking companies, and down the line to consumers. A big part of these rising premiums is litigation and the increased frequency of nuclear verdicts.

Nuclear verdicts are settlements for $10 million and up, and 2019 was a record year for them, topping out at nearly $300 million for the record-breaker. With that kind of money going out the door on a regular basis, insurance companies are having a harder time insuring trucking companies. In fact, many insurance providers have completely exited the trucking business altogether. These rising costs impact the insurance companies’ loss ratio, which then results in rising insurance premiums for transportation firms.

How is a loss ratio calculated?

Insurance companies calculate loss ratios to determine profitability. They calculate money lost in claims vs. money paid in premiums to determine their loss ratio. When the ratio gets narrow, premiums increase.

Risk Exposure

By being in the trucking industry, you accept a certain amount of risk. However, every trucking business owner should take an honest inventory of what risks they can actually control, then develop a strategy to address those risks.

Insurance companies are looking for reasons to increase your premium, so you need a tool to help mitigate that risk and demonstrate to your insurance provider that you are insurable and maintain a culture of safety.

With insurance premiums rising so sharply, there is an opportunity to lighten the risk exposure with quality safety training for drivers. Safety programs have been shown to help mitigate the rising costs of insurance premiums and reduce the instance of nuclear verdicts.

Safety First

A high-quality safety program must be accessible for drivers and have flawless, immediate reporting. Driver scores completed modules, and ongoing engagement go a long way toward proving to an insurance company or a courtroom that you have an airtight culture of safety.

Infinit-I Workforce Solutions is a customizable, cloud-based tool that helps you create and enforce your unique safety program. With short, engaging videos, drivers can engage on their phones without impacting drive or rest time. Each module has a quiz, and scores are recorded in real-time. 

In an environment of high risk and low profit margins, you need to do all you can to mitigate rising insurance premiums and litigation. Our safety training solution can help.

What do I need to know now? | Rising Insurance Premiums for Transportation Firms

  • • Insurance premiums for transportation firms are rising rapidly, sometimes doubling or tripling year over year.
  • • Your transportation firm can mitigate rising costs by implementing our customizable training solution.
  • • Documentation could save your company in the courtroom and make you more insurable.
/0 Comments/by

How Reporting Reduces Insurance Costs and Litigation Risk for Transportation Firms

How Reporting Reduces Insurance Costs and Litigation Risk for Transportation Firms

Nuclear verdicts are on the rise, now more than ever. With these verdicts totaling $10 million or more each, this presents a real threat to your business.  In fact, the rise of nuclear verdicts has resulted in many trucking companies going out of business, and many insurance carriers are exiting the trucking industry completely. With insurance costs and litigation risk for transportation firms soaring around every turn, it is more imperative than ever to enforce safety policies and procedures, and have clear documentation.

And while the national inflation rate is about 2 percent, insurance rates are actually increasing by 50 – 100 percent year over year for trucking companies, due to nuclear verdicts. 

What is litigation risk?

Any roadside incident presents the opportunity for litigation. With the appetite for litigation at an all-time high, it is important to train drivers on how to avoid these incidents by using your safety protocols—the more robust your safety program, the smaller the risk for litigation.

Nuclear Verdicts and Their Impact

In October 2019, Country Wide RV Transport (CWRV) was one of the latest trucking companies that fell victim to a nuclear verdict. The second-largest RV and motor-home transportation provider in the country, they employed nearly 600 drivers and contractors, all of whom were informed right before the holidays that they would no longer have jobs. The driver who caused the accident was an independent contractor, but the company was still held liable for damages to the tune of $26.6 million.

In the largest nuclear verdict of 2019, and, in fact, in history, a jury awarded a $280 million verdict in only 45 minutes of deliberation. Was the accident tragic? Absolutely. Was it the truck driver’s fault? Absolutely. Was the verdict inordinately high? Absolutely.

Fatalities are decreasing, yet nuclear verdicts are increasing. 

Each year for the last decade has seen significant increases in litigation resulting in nuclear verdicts, with an extreme uptick in the last two years. Plaintiffs’ lawyers have discovered a gold mine in cases against trucking companies, and you better believe they are hard at work mining every dollar, or in this case, every million that they can possibly get. So while your company is hovering at a 5% profit margin, you’re funding plaintiffs’ lawyers’ fancy vacations. 

You can’t afford it.

Insurance costs are rising rapidly, even for squeaky-clean trucking companies. Insurance providers understand the litigation risks associated with the industry and lose a great deal on nuclear verdicts. Many insurance providers don’t even cover trucking companies anymore due to litigation risk.

What can you do about it? 

With nuclear verdicts and insurance costs on the rise, you can’t afford to take any chances. This is not going away and, in fact, is only getting worse. 

The best leg you can stand on in court is your culture and history of safety, with airtight documentation. Juries, judges, lawyers, and insurance companies become very interested in your culture of safety and history of documentation when a settlement is on the line. 

Learn more about building and maintaining a culture of safety

To get the most out of your safety program and prevent excessive insurance costs and litigation risk, you need a program that is easily accessible to drivers and offers real-time, cloud-based documentation.

Not sure where to start?

Check out our whitepaper on controlling insurance costs, which will help you understand:

  • • What part of your risk exposure you can control
  • • What you can actively do to mitigate your risk exposure
  • • How your company can proactively work to establish a culture of safety that can help reduce accidents, improve defensibility in court, and give access to the best possible insurance rates

Download the Controlling Insurance Costs whitepaper now!

Increase our defensibility in court

/0 Comments/by

Three Tips to Better Manage Accident Risk for Your Transportation Firm

A close-up of a driver holding a steering wheel | manage accident risk

In May 2019, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published its 2017 Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts. And let’s just say: sometimes facts are scarier than fiction. So, how can you manage accident risk for your transportation firm?

According to FMCSA, there was a 9-percent increase in fatal accidents involving trucks or buses between 2016 and 2017, and there was a 4-percent increase in crashes resulting in injury. Total, that’s over 120,000 crashes involving trucks or buses in one year. And with over 1,500 clients with 300,000 drivers collectively, we aim to help you manage your firm’s accident risk and protect your human resources. 

After the Accident

Those 120,000 crashes resulted in even more people and families whose lives were affected, and many resulted in lawsuits. Additionally, valuable time was lost, and delivery schedules were delayed, costing shipping, receiving, and trucking companies hundreds of thousands of dollars. And ultimately, many trucking companies were assigned a DOT Compliance Review.

What is a DOT Compliance Review?

Similar to a safety audit, a DOT Compliance Review is an onsite examination by the FMCSA.  Major accidents, poor CSA scores, complaints, and violations can trigger a DOT Compliance Review. 

DOT Compliance Reviews will examine records closely, so it is imperative to have reliable, date-stamped, cloud-based storage for all your driver training records.

Before the Accident

What if those accidents could have been avoided? How many lives could we save, and how many hours could we get back if we could prevent accidents instead of solving “after?” As the old saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

What would it take to prevent accidents? We’ve compiled a list of our top three tips for managing your transportation company’s accident risks.

  1. Maintain and deploy your company’s policies and procedures on a regular basis. The best policies and procedures don’t mean anything if not used effectively. In a DOT Compliance Review, your policies and procedures will be requested, and you open your company up to serious compliance risk if they aren’t followed. How do you effectively deploy policies and procedures to your workforce? There’s an app for that.
  2. Hire and retain the best drivers. The trucking industry has a high turnover rate, and transportation companies need to stay competitive in today’s market to retain great drivers. Recognition, engagement and ongoing, user-friendly training help keep your drivers on the road and delivering their best results.
  3. Use Infiniti-I Workforce Solutions’ online safety training. Most of your drivers have base-level safety knowledge. Still, Infinity-I Workforce Solutions goes above and beyond with great safety training modules that are quick, easily digestible, and mobile-friendly, to ensure that every driver in your fleet has high-quality training they can easily access and use.

In today’s high-risk, high-turnover environment, you must provide safety training. We can help customize your training plans to avoid the dreaded DOT Compliance Review and other associated risks of the road. Contact one of our experts today, and together we can build the plan that’s right for your business needs.

Key Takeaways for managing accident risk:

  • • Accidents are more frequent than ever before, and trucking companies must mitigate their accident risk to keep their companies profitable and keep drivers safe.
  • • Hiring and retaining the best drivers make a huge difference to a company’s risk profile.
  • • High-quality training and updates on policies and procedures are a must in today’s high-risk environment. Infiniti-I Workforce Solutions can work with you to customize your driver training tools—keeping safety standards high and costs low. 
/0 Comments/by

Three Ideas for Improving CSA Scores

three semi trucks driving toward the camera | poor CSA scores

Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) shouldn’t just be a priority for your business, but a core value as well. So we’ve compiled our top three ideas for maintaining and improving CSA scores, to help your business develop a culture of safety and keep your drivers on the road.

Keeping your drivers on the road is a top priority, and it’s the only way your transportation company stays in the black. But with 5 million other drivers on the road every day, it’s crucial that drivers maintain a proven track record of safety. That’s why the DOT keeps and maintains CSA records—to ensure that all drivers are safe on American roadways. 

How are CSA scores calculated?

CSA scores measure safety violations, inspections, violations, and crashes for every driver and transportation company.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a division of DOT, records behavioral data to calculate CSA scores.

Drivers and carriers alike are held responsible for keeping CSA scores low. Noncompliance can result in warning letters and even investigations from the DOT. 

Tips for Improving CSA Scores:

  1. Keep trucks properly maintained. If a company’s documentation reflects consistent maintenance problems on its trucks, that company’s CSA scores will reflect it. Make sure 100% of your fleet gets regular maintenance, tire changes, and always keeps fire extinguishers on board. Those are just a few maintenance must-haves to keep CSA scores low.
  2. Hire and keep the best drivers. CSA scores are publicly available and should be part of your screening process for new hires. And once you hire great drivers, it’s always a challenge to keep them on board. Our online tools can keep them engaged and appreciated while they’re on the road. 
  3. Invest in training. High quality, easily accessible training is the key to promoting your company’s culture of safety, which goes a long way toward improving CSA scores. Download our whitepaper for tips on training your entire fleet to maintain safety while on the road. 

Compliance Doesn’t Have to be a Four-Letter Word.

With our easy-to-use online training tools, drivers can stay up to date on the latest compliance issues, make sure they have the tools to succeed and keep your business profitable and in good standing with the DOT. We make it easy for drivers and companies alike to stay in compliance and mitigate safety-related costs such as litigation and rising insurance premiums.

Key Takeaways for Improving CSA Scores:

  • Keep trucks properly maintained
  • Hire and retain the best drivers 
  • Train and equip your drivers with CSA best practices using our online training tool

Use our handy guide for improving and maintaining your CSA score

View our clients CSA score improvements

/0 Comments/by

Why Enhanced Safety Culture Is Your #1 Money Saver

enhanced safety culture

You’re probably working on the budget about now. Looking at 2020 with tight margins, what do you do? Where do you cut? Do you negotiate better prices on tires? Fuel? Do you start eliminating positions or cutting back hours? The solution is not saving in dribs and drabs. You need to break through the pattern of diminishing industry returns. A decisive, comprehensive commitment to enhanced safety culture does this. Save money while reducing accidents and incidents and saving lives.

Ignoring Safety = Revenue Loss

Most owners and managers don’t tend to think of safety as something that saves them money. If “Keep the customer happy, cut corners, and pray” is how you’re doing business, it’s time to change. In a highly safety-conscious era, you’re paying too high a cost.

Putting “savings” before safety means:

Accidents and incidents get worse and more frequent. The average truck accident with significant damage easily costs $200-300K. If this doesn’t hit the threshold for insurance to kick in, you’re paying out of pocket. You’re paying damages and repairs in the best scenarios, lawsuits, and high human costs otherwise.

Insurance goes up. CSA scores are part of determining your insurance premiums. If your rate only goes up 10% this year, you’re lucky. Industry-wide, they’re going up 20-40%. And insurance companies are getting pickier about who they insure. Some major companies, like AIG, no longer insure trucking companies at all. And if you become uninsurable, you’re out of business.

Reputation declines. With a poor safety record, you won’t be able to attract the best employees or the best clients. You can even lose clients and drivers who don’t want to ship with an unsafe carrier or a carrier who can’t protect them. 

Inspections, fines, and fees increase. When a company has a poor safety record, they get targeted for more inspections. Your chances of paying fines and fees go up. Drivers are put out of service more often. This pattern drains money and discourages drivers from wanting to work for you.

Expensive technology doesn’t pay. If you’re not harnessing your expensive safety technology to change behaviors, you’re only wasting money. All the technology in the world can’t guarantee you fuel efficiency, better braking, proper lane changes, and hands-free communications if your drivers aren’t doing their job.

Enhanced Safety Culture = Survival

Here’s the fact: improved safety preserves business. The FMCSA is preaching the safety culture gospel for a reason. All your safety issues are linked to business viability. Not only does safety protect the motoring public, but it also makes it possible for trucking to have a future. 

Safety culture is no longer your “goal” — it’s your straight-up, base-level survival; non-negotiable:

  • • You’ve got to have the resources to respond to increased vigilance of regulators and insurance companies. 
  • • You have to start building awareness and changing behaviors in drivers to avoid fines, fees, and lawsuits. 
  • • You’ve got to stay positively connected with drivers in order to reduce turnover. 
  • • To protect yourself in court, you’ve got to document your efforts and do it effectively. 

These are the building blocks of an enhanced safety culture and major savings. 

Cost Savings Breakdown

You can’t afford not to improve safety. But your ROI depends on how you go about it. 

Training costs – Save up to 70%

Safety awareness training is most effective when it’s frequent, consistent, and keeps best practices top of mind. If you’re trying to train by pulling drivers off the road for several hours 4x a year, it’s like expecting your kid to clean his room every Friday because you asked him to once. Repetition and consistency build memory and response. That’s where online training provides exceptional ROI. Our cloud-based safety training solutions can save you up to 70% on training. 

Violations and Accidents – Save a minimum of $80,000/yr

Industry statistics show that training your drivers yields a 70:1 ROI by reducing violations up to 50% and accidents up to 40%. For an average company of 100 drivers (who align with national statistics for accidents), our system can save you a minimum of $80,000 a year in preventable accident costs and reduce the severity of accidents when they occur. 

Insurance – Slow, stop or reverse rising premiums

Insurance companies know that if you have a web-based training platform that allows you an increased frequency of safety messaging and training, you’re setting yourself up for better CSA outcomes. Underwriters see this as a positive checkmark when calculating your premiums, and it pays! Insurance partners and associations trust us to reduce their risk of lost revenue, which often translates into best possible insurance premium rates. 

Safety technology – Get the most for your money

You can invest a lot in safety technology. When there’s an event, an online platform lets you turn it into a learning opportunity. Stop bad behavior, improve CSA, and avoid costly fines, fees, and lawsuits. You can train and remediate based on the data and footage you’ve captured. You can upload custom content, and have the driver who made the mistake teach other drivers, explaining what they did wrong. Train and re-train on the events that occur. 

Commitment to Safety Is the Solution

One of our clients is the 2nd largest contractor for FedEx. After using our system, they’ve upped their game: if drivers don’t do their safety training, the dispatcher doesn’t give them work. That’s how serious they are about safety and about seeing outcomes. They know it saves lives, saves money, and saves equipment. In one year, they saved $100,000 on insurance. They’re committed to enhanced safety culture, and it’s paying off.

Download our free whitepaper to learn more about safety scores and savings and how to get better business outcomes with Infinit-I Workforce Solutions.

Decrease yearly accident costs

/0 Comments/by

Benefits of Low-Impact Training

A truck drives down a road | low-impact training

Have you heard of low-impact driver training? If not, it’s time. It’s revolutionizing driver safety results. Here’s how.

The Failure of High-Impact Training 

Imagine you’re trying to lose weight. You hire a personal trainer. She says she can only see you on a workday. Then she brings you in on the first day, but instead of 1-on-1, you’re in the class with 60 other people, all at different fitness levels. 

Your personal trainer walks in and says: 

“Okay, guys. Today we’re going to hit every aspect of core and cardio because you’re all out of shape. Also, most of you need muscle-building. And a few of you have injuries we’ll need to consider. And Frank, your balance is way off. So today we’re going to work on all of it. For everyone. For eight hours.”

Then she tells you she’s pretty busy, so you’re going to do all the exercises everyone needs for the next three months.

And you’d better be fit in the meantime! If not, she’s going to call you and give you a piece of her mind, because fitness is really important!

And help yourself to coffee and free doughnuts in the back.

Top Training Problems You Need to Tackle

That’s a picture of high-impact training. It’s providing as much information as possible into learning sessions spaced far apart. This is how many trucking companies are still training their drivers!

But that’s not how memory and learning work. Driver training based on experience and adult learning uses a low-key strategy to make the bigger impact by training in frequent small bites over time.

In-person training sessions alone, no matter how well you do them, is an unreliable method for success:

  • • You’re not getting training to many of your drivers.
  • • You’re pulling drivers off the road, losing their money and yours.
  • • You’re teaching according to methods that contradict experience and research.
  • • There’s pressure to train every driver on all issues (whether applicable to that driver or not) to cover your bases.
  • • You’re often not able to be efficient with driver time (and they know it).
  • • You’re spending money and time on meetings that may not be effective.
  • • You’re spending money and time on remote remediations that may not be effective.
  • • You have to harass drivers with reminders, pressure, and threats between training events.
  • • You’re not seeing dramatically better results. And you may feel like time is running out.

Changing driver behavior, like losing weight, isn’t about stressful “cram” sessions. It’s about changes over time, changing habits, and providing support. The only thing that’s going to do that is frequent, consistent repetition, in much smaller bites. 

Benefits of Low-Impact Training

This is why online training works especially well in the transportation industry. It supports drivers remotely, everyday, in a 3-Step Model for Change:

AWARENESS → RIGHT DECISION-MAKING → RIGHT OUTCOMES

  • • Instead of being inundated with information a few times a year, you’re making it easy and convenient for drivers to have continual AWARENESS of top-of-mind issues. 
  • • Instead of touching base every so often, or building negative experience with the company, drivers are equipped and supported every day to MAKE RIGHT DECISIONS. 
  • • Better safety decisions mean you see more of the RIGHT OUTCOMES. 

When online training is well-designed, supported by automated documentation, and based on a low-impact strategy of short, frequent training sessions, you’ll find the following success factors:

Convenience

Make training available anytime, anywhere, on any device. Don’t pull drivers off the road unnecessarily, when they should be delivering freight. During any waiting time, drivers can log in, watch a video, and complete safety reminders and messaging. 

This also allows drivers to be more efficient with their time. You certainly are being more efficient with their time! Drivers see and appreciate that.

Consistency

Deliver the same content to all employees, whether onsite or remote. People repeatedly need time getting connected to messaging before it starts to take hold. 

And create a more consistent relationship between the company and the drivers. They may not see anyone from the company for weeks or months. Instead of trying to tell them everything they need to know a few times a year, you’re connecting on a regular basis. 

Effectiveness

Use a micro-training strategy of short videos and messages to improve comprehension and retention of material. Effective = efficient. Impact turnover, too! Independent contractors are independent for a reason. You can’t demand that a person who’s not an employee show up somewhere for half a day. When you respect drivers’ time, you respect their paycheck. 

Programmability

What issues always need repeated coverage? What only needs an occasional review? Schedule routine training and best practice safety reminders to come at regular intervals.

Flexibility

Deliver specialized training topics to those employees who need them (i.e., hazmat, fuel efficiency, driver/dispatcher, etc.) Infinit-I Workforce Solutions offers a bilingual learning library of over 850 topics.

Timeliness

Push out training in response to incidents in real-time and automate corrective actions. React quickly! Snow coming next week? Send a reminder right away for those drivers facing inclement weather.

Customization

Personalize messages from the CEO, send birthday wishes, and share holiday greetings. This builds relationships and rapport among remote teams, which increases employee retention.

Low-impact training has a formidable record of effectiveness. And that reputation is only growing. Effective training saves you money in vital business areas, from training and re-hiring costs, to lawsuits and DOT inspections. With a 93% year-over-year client retention rate, we know that our model works in helping trucking companies like yours meet serious business goals.

Request your free demo of Infinit-I Workforce Solutions today and see for yourself.

/0 Comments/by

Implementing Driver Engagement Programs That Work

driver engagement programs

At the end of the day, a driver working is mainly about a good job and a paycheck. But what does a “good job” mean? The answer might surprise you. In this gig-economy, good relationships, and meaningful engagement at work are more of a premium than ever, especially if you want to attract younger drivers who are looking for a fulfilling experience on the job, as well as good pay. Find out how driver engagement programs can help your company stand out from the crowd.

What is an “engaged” driver?

An engaged driver wants to make the relationship work. Why? Because an engaged driver believes they have a part to play in your company. They don’t feel like a disposable spare part that can be easily ignored and replaced but like a team player.

An engaged driver knows:

  • • They have your ear when they need it
  • • You respect them in word and deed
  • • You acknowledge that they have a life outside of work
  • • You’re honest and fair about policy enforcement
  • • If they complain, something gets done

An engaged driver engages by:

  • • Listening/complying when you ask for something
  • • Giving their best
  • • Sticking around
  • • Keeping you in the loop
  • • Being willing to learn
  • • Saving you time, trouble, and money when they can

In other words:

Engaged drivers act like team players because they’re treated that way.

As in any job, drivers care about the company they work for! Everyone wants to care about what they do. It doesn’t matter how tough or old-school a driver looks or sounds; they care about relationships, the functionality of the business, and their ability to contribute—not just about the dollar.

What makes drivers disengage?

A lot of turnover stems from a lack of connection with the hiring company. Even if everything generally seems OK on the surface, drivers often feel that they’re left hanging. Why?

One thing that drivers have is time. And it can work against you. With all that windshield time, they can start thinking about a problem that started on Monday; if they’re still thinking about it by Wednesday with no communication, by Friday, they might quit. For you, it comes out of the blue. But for the driver, it’s been stewing a while, with no productive outlet or solution. The key is communication.

Molehills easily become mountains when you don’t offer an opportunity for engagement and feedback. Long-distance relationships are hard, and that’s what this is.

How does a driver-engagement program work?

Drivers with 30 years or more on the road will tell you they have a family at home, and a family on the road. Earn your part in that family, and you will gain loyal drivers.

Be honest about the job.

Your first impression should include a clear, honest, and thorough job description, not a fuzzy description that’s really a desperate plea for drivers. Set applicants up for success. Tell them what they’re getting into.

Find the right people.

Seek drivers who are a fit for the roles. If you use online training, you can send training to applicants to screen them. Find out right off who is detail-oriented, who cares about finding a good job, who’s willing to learn and comply, etc. When you make it easier to recruit top-quality drivers, you reduce turnover.

Set the tone in orientation.

Be top-quality, time-sensitive, relevant, organized, honest about the job, and give drivers a great start. Again, online training is a flexible tool for engagement. If you introduce required online training at this point, you already prove that you prioritize safety and keeping drivers on the road. You can also get a sense of a driver’s attitude and comfort level. You and the driver can both make sure it’s the right fit.

Make it easy to communicate.

Communication goes two ways. Drivers should be able to hear from you without hassle, and you from them. Your technology may need to be rebooted or streamlined, but making this a #1 priority makes you a highly desirable employer.

Some ways to make this work:

  • • Work on communication between drivers & managers/owners
  • • Work on the driver/dispatcher relationship
  • • Make training quicker, easier, and more mobile
  • • Improve driver-driver relationships through driver mentors and trainers
  • • Cut down on in-person meetings as much as possible
  • • Personalize official messages when you can (ex. “Great haul last month” or “Happy birthday!”)

Make it easy to pitch in.

Drivers can assist management in solving business problems. They also contribute to the life, fun, and meaningfulness of work. Figure out why drivers aren’t happy and create training content based on the complaints expressed. Say, “I hear you.” Then take action. Use a safety competition as a fundraiser for a charity. Turn stories of some of your drivers on the road into a monthly e-newsletter. Open the door for engagement.

Give your CEO screen time.

Put together a “state of the company” message and share it with drivers each month. In a large company, a driver might only really know their dispatcher. Use messaging systems creatively to encourage and inspire from the top, as well as remind and challenge to meet goals.

Even if you do one or two of these things, it already sets you apart from most companies who do nothing to improve driver engagement! Wouldn’t it be great to have a waiting list of drivers who want to come on board with you? The driver is the only person in the company who does the work that generates the revenue to pay everyone else. Engage drivers at every level. Build a company where drivers want to work.

At Infinit-I Workforce Solutions, we help our clients get to the heart of driver engagement with online training and communication. It’s integrated, easy to implement, and powerfully effective. Read testimonials or sign up for a free demo today!

/0 Comments/by

6 Ways to Ensure Policy Enforcement and Management

6 Ways to Ensure Policy Enforcement and Management

Trucking company managers and owners must carefully consider policy enforcement strategy for the sake of the law and company interests. The trick is how to do it?

Policy enforcement/management is a linchpin strategy and includes:

  • • Safety training – new hire/orientation and continuous training
  • • Driver remediation
  • • Money-saving practices – ex. braking and accelerating to maximize fuel efficiency
  • • Breaks – frequency and length
  • • ELD regulations
  • • New laws/regulations – federal and state-specific
  • • Company-specific policies

You need drivers to cooperate. But you don’t want to push away drivers with your methods. “Hey guys, get it together!!!” on your message board probably isn’t going to work. (Maybe you’ve tried it.) 

And, threats can work, but they have their place, and they can’t produce a better team of drivers for the long run. You’ve also got a limited budget for bonuses. 

How do you strike a balance between urgency and long-term effectiveness?

1 – Pick Your Top Content

First, identify your priorities. The solution is not to lower the hammer on everything at once. That can be alienating to your drivers and confusing.

Consider your top priorities for policy enforcement. This is your “top content” for training. What protects your business? What would pull up the most important numbers? These are the specific areas to focus on first.

2 – Prioritize Safety

Include legal and safety issues, no matter what. Tickets, fines, fees, incidents, accidents, and lawsuits all come down to driver knowledge and performance on legal and safety topics. 

If you don’t currently use online driver training, this could be a good time to get on board. Online training lets you release brief, continuous content to drivers that they can finish quickly, remember easily, complete more frequently, and do in their off time. 

Bare minimum safety and legal issues you need to cover: 

  • • Distracted/impaired driving
  • • Speed
  • • Maintenance and safety/road checks
  • • Situation-specific policies, such as driving with HAZMAT

3 – Streamline Info Distribution

Remember the old phrase, “It’s not always what you say; it’s how you say it?” 

  • • Are you communicating in a way that all drivers have the technology to receive?
  • • Are you communicating frequently and dependably, or scatter-shot? 
  • • Are communications always relevant to the recipient?

Make it a mantra of leadership to view compliance as your responsibility. What can you do to make this easier? A reliable organizing tool that helps you streamline training, documentation and communication with drivers can speed up compliance without causing chaos.

Streamlining information distribution, while keeping top content like safety and legal issues #1, is going to maximize efficiency, cut stress, and meet more compliance goals. 

4 – Understand Enforcement vs. Management

Enforcement is a direct method, whether positive or negative, to spur drivers on to policy compliance. Management describes the strategies you put in place to indirectly influence compliance. 

Either of these solutions can work. But they do not equally save you time, money, and frustration. The idea is, the more management you can improve, the less enforcement you’ll have to push.

Methods of enforcement (commonly used):

  • • Positive reinforcement (awards, acknowledgments, bonuses)
  • • Negative reinforcement (pulling someone from the schedule until they comply, warnings, threatening to fire)

Methods of management (not as common):

  • • Make training and remediation requirements easier to fulfill
    • • Send positive feedback to drivers regularly (individually and as a fleet)
    • • Send requests for improvement along with why and how (ex. “We’ve got a short, easy training this week to help you reduce speed violations.”)
  • • Improve driver-manager and driver-dispatcher communication
    • • Give leadership roles to drivers who excel (ex. driver mentors and driver trainers)
  • • Use key drivers as regular point people to learn first-hand about driver experience, complaints, and needs
  • • Connect CEO to drivers regularly (ex. through a short video)

5 – Improve Management Strategy

The lists above are just examples. What methods you actually use will depend on your particular business. But remember, trucking companies tend to rely more on enforcement than management strategies. The examples for enforcement are common, whereas the examples for management are not. 

Just pick one or two of these management strategies to improve, and you’re already an industry leader. Investing in solutions that get to the heart of the problem, instead of spending all your attention on fixing problems—that’s what’s going to make a difference.

Let’s just take one example. If you used some of your star drivers as trainers and mentors for new drivers, and then made changes based on trainer and mentor feedback, you’re already sending a strong message:

  • • You care about keeping excellent drivers
  • • You make training a smooth, positive process
  • • You want drivers to have good relationships on the road
  • • You want to hear what’s going on with drivers
  • • You want drivers to be real and honest
  • • Drivers directly contribute to making your business better

This is the kind of place drivers want to work, and the kind of management they’re ready to cooperate with.

6 – Manage Your Records

There is urgency behind policy enforcement/management, but how often is half the urgency just stress, because you’re not as organized as you could be? 

When you’re sure who’s been trained, who needs training, what topics need to be covered, what topics you’ll need to cover soon, who have complied, and who you’re still waiting on, the battle is halfway won. You can apply pressure where you need to, and not just push all issues to all drivers. Don’t generate confusion and frustration because you’re not sure you’ve covered your bases with documentation. 

Prioritizing excellent management will support your positive and negative enforcement policies to save you time, money, and turnover, and show your drivers you’re in it for the long haul.

Infinit-I Workforce Solutions combines online training with management communication tools so you can connect with drivers like never before. All training is auto-documented in our secure, cloud-based server, giving you a 24/7 accessible, accurate record of driver compliance. Try a free demo!

/0 Comments/by

5 Ways to Cut Transportation Expenses in 2020

A Jack-O-Lantern eats several dollar bills -cut trucking expenses

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. And that’s precisely what it can feel like when you’re trying to reduce spending in your fleet budget. Each year you face similar budget choices, and with rising prices on fuel and insurance, it’s tough to make a big change. This is why you need a budget solution that’s going to tap into several areas at once, reducing transportation expenses not by cutting corners on quality or safety, but by preventing significant problems that cost you money.

Read more

/0 Comments/by