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Tag Archive for: training
If you’re in the trucking business, you definitely want to stay out of the courtroom. But with millions of tons of truck on the road every day, that’s hard to guarantee. Driver training, maintenance, and good management help you mitigate that risk as much as possible. But what are you to do when one of your drivers fails to live up to regulations, and the worst occurs? This is where the Infinit-I Workforce Solutions steps in to protect you and help mitigate legal trucking liability.
Added safety training doesn’t have to take your drivers off the job. Get all your drivers in the classroom, every time, by making the classroom virtual. The benefits are practical and meet some of your toughest challenges.
With more trucking jobs than drivers, you’ve got to stand out. What’s your strategy? You can’t always offer the most money, the best hours, and benefits that beat the rest. So what makes you stand out?
Branding and marketing can help you find the right truckers.
You may not be convinced! The fact is, truck drivers are not attuned to a sell. They are way more interested in a great gig and a company that understands their needs than they are in a slick website, your signage, or your search engine savvy.
So how do branding and marketing matter in attracting quality drivers?
Maybe you’re eager to experiment. Maybe you’re thinking: Logo on letterhead is as far as I go, pal! I’m about substantial business, not frills.
If you don’t think branding and marketing really matter that much, or you think they might but aren’t sure how to read on. It’s way more practical than you might think. And it integrates with what you’ve already got going…
Applications: “Dress your best”
Get creative and up the ante on how you reach out to people who apply for jobs with your company.
From emails to PDFs to supplementary materials (and more on those below!), when these materials are all branded with the company logo, match corporate colors, and look like a direct extension of the company itself, truckers are getting a full-on, seamless response from you, right away.
Truckers aren’t sitting there analyzing your tactics—your brand is working on the level of the subconscious. It’s like “dressing your best” for an interview. And in this job market, the pressure is on. It’s up to you to make the first best impression.
First Contact: Screen truckers with on-brand material
Imagine applying for twenty trucking jobs online. From most of them, you’ll get an immediate response thanking you for your interest and asking for next steps. But what if, from one company, you also got a custom video module, testing your knowledge of the job you’re applying for? What if you also received a custom-made “Day in the Life of” video or documents showing exactly what you can expect from day-to-day in this job?
What are you thinking?
This business isn’t messing around.
They’re professional. They follow-up.
They don’t want just anyone. They’re trying to get the right person.
And then, you might either continue the interview process or not, depending on whether you can tell you’re suited for this job at this point.
But wait — I don’t want to turn people away from an interview! I’m short enough on drivers as it is.
Yes. But the fact is, you do not want to hire the wrong drivers for the job, ever. What you think you’re saving yourself in understaffing, you will easily lose in negotiating the problems that come with an unsuitable employee, including quitting, firing, and more frequent re-hires. That’s time and thousands of dollars that could be better spent.
Onboarding: Attract drivers by standing out
Where do drivers first interact with your brand?
There’s a psychological principle that says when you need something, your eyes are only tuned in to those things that are going to help you get what you need. When drivers encounter your brand on Indeed.com, they’re looking for salaries, hours, job descriptions, locations—the absolute basics.
Now, if your company’s a total mess and your brand can’t provide a cohesive, basic impression that you know what you’re doing, that may turn prospective truckers down. But that’s going to be the rare case.
The better question is: where do drivers first interact with your brand where it makes an actual difference?
The answer: onboarding.
Even though it’s not the first stage in the game, you know how quickly recruiting goes. Onboarding is still a very early stage in a trucker’s relationship with you. A mistake here can cost you. But a branded onboarding process can really help you find and keep the right people. Orientation starts within just a few days (or less!) of that first application, and you’re still making your first impressions. Drivers want to know they’ve made the right choice.
In onboarding and training, you respect your new drivers by not wasting their time. And don’t waste yours! A truck parked is lost revenue and a client waiting on freight. You want to get new employees onboarded as soon as possible, but:
Are you just jumping through the hoops? Or are you taking time to see that they have as high quality an experience you can offer?
Marketing is working for you during onboarding and training if:
- On-brand materials are consistent, complete, and clear
- Your whole process is quick and professional
- Training methods and requirements are all relevant
- No unnecessary in-person meetings, no needless repetition, and no overlap
Branded materials unify a driver’s first experiences with you. They professionalize them. And, if the content is good and worthwhile, they reinforce a good feeling about your company. Don’t just get it done. Seek to impress!
Brand identity: Get clear on what you’re offering
Finally, when drivers are clear on who you are, they’re clear on what kind of job(s) you’re offering. Branding weaves hiring and training into your marketing strategy and less room for guessing what kind of company and job this is. It looks great. It shows your safety training is sophisticated. It shows you care about meeting drivers where they are, making sure the success of your business relies on their confidence in working for you.
Infinit-I training modules change the way trucking does business. We move the majority of your safety training and onboarding online, and all our videos and resources that go to employees will match your logo and corporate colors for a seamless connection between training and branding. Take initiative. Stand out. Try a free demo!
How to Use Your Training Program to Reduce Driver Turnover
Driver turnover is a significant issue in the trucking industry, with levels of turnover at 80% or higher across the industry. For many reasons, drivers are leaving companies or leaving the industry all together. Even high-paying companies struggle to keep drivers.
The reasons for drivers leaving range from poor communication to not feeling valued. The decision to stay or go can come down to a single make-or-break type problem, to a build up of frustrations over time.
There are tools you can put in place to reduce your company turnover though. Infinit-I Workforce Solutions can help you put those tools in place so you can go from playing defense to being proactive in gaining crucial insight into driver dissatisfaction.
Infinit-I also has the tools you need to implement real change immediately. This starts with six ways you can reduce driver turnover.
1. Make Use of Exit Interviews
Do you know why drivers are leaving your company to go somewhere else? Getting the answers you need is as simple as asking. Asking these questions during exit interviews is an important first step to making real changes.
Share the information you get from these interviews with Infinit-I’s client success team to get help turning those issues around. You can use the system to host custom management training based on the issues that come up the most with drivers.
You can set up training solutions based on your reports to provide material based on driver questions and concerns. Take the guess work out of it. Get solutions immediately instead of waiting until you’ve lost twenty more drivers over these same issues.
2. Take Advantage of Custom Content
While ready to use training material is useful, you will get more out of your training if you speak directly to the drivers in your company too. You can try individual or group meetings with drivers, but that means parked trucks and drivers unavailable for those meetings. To understand their needs, you must have real access to the drivers.
Infinit-I can work with you to develop custom content so you can speak directly to your drivers. With online communication and training tools, you can reach 100% of your drivers, no matter where they are, without disrupting their work schedules.
Using the information you gather to reduce driver turnover, you can develop content based on the issues important to your company, layout a timeframe to make changes, provide practical steps to meet these goals, and share what is needed from drivers and management.
With the tracking tools available, you can keep documentation of all training and communications provided. You can also access reports to show completion of employee training, so you know your message is getting to everyone.
3. Provide Solutions for Effective Communication
Your dispatchers will have more interaction with drivers than anyone else in the company. This means it’s important to have positive communication between dispatchers and drivers to keep drivers happy and reduce driver turnover.
Your drivers come from diverse backgrounds, including a range from baby boomers to millennials. Dispatchers need to understand how to communicate across these diverse backgrounds, and Infinit-I allows you to provide the training necessary to improve those skills.
We can help you teach them the skills they need with practical tips, important dos and don’ts, and increasing their awareness of what drivers need to thrive.
4. Increase Driver Confidence
Taking advantage of the communication and training tools provided through Infinit-I gives you better access and cross-communication between drivers, dispatchers, and management. Providing solutions that speak to real needs also shows that you:
- Pay attention to driver concerns
- Take the time to meet drivers where they are
- Want to ensure drivers don’t feel alone and disconnected
Drivers who feel taken care of are drivers who will stay. Making it your goal for 100% of drivers to receive clear, effective communication will help reduce driver turnover. You show them your company is listening to your drivers and can meet their needs.
5. Get as Specific as You Need
Training is never one size fits all. Every company has issues specific to them, and you need the tools to address these issues and needs. Many Infinit-I clients use our system address these specific needs.
For example, what do you do about delivery points at difficult locations?
Imagine you’ve got a driver making a delivery in downtown Manhattan. If you leave it up to the GPS, your driver may find themselves in difficult situations. If you end up needing to call the police and the city to help turn a truck around, you’ve got a stressed driver, wasted time on the road, and extra expenses.
If you know this can be a concern, you can create or source content to help navigate entering and exiting delivery points. This is one of many examples on how you can make the training specific. If you’re giving drivers tough jobs, you need to give them relevant training.
6. Prescreen Drivers During Onboarding
A good onboarding process gives you the best opportunity to determine which drivers will be a good fit for your company. While you can never guarantee every driver who pre-qualifies will work out, you can put some screening tools in place to help you and applicants determine if the employment is a good fit.
You can use the Infinit-I system in several ways to help you recruit the right fit:
Send training material to test preliminary knowledge and weed out those who aren’t serious. Some applicants may fail this test. Others may not even bother to complete the training.
Either way, you know ahead of time this isn’t the person you want. This step shows you’re serious about finding the right person. Getting the right fit in the beginning will reduce overall driver turnover.
Provide “A Day in the Life” videos or documents. This glimpse into your company will give potential drivers a realistic idea of what they can expect working for you. It reduces surprises and helps drivers determine if they will be up to completing the tasks specific to your company.
Just because a person has a CDL doesn’t mean they are going to fit in with the job you are providing. Keep driver turnover down by letting drivers come in prepared for what the job will look like.
Put Together a Training Program that Meets Your Goals
Recruiting and nurturing drivers that are the right fit for your company from the beginning is the best way to reduce driver turnover and meet your goals. Infinit-I Workforce Solutions can provide the tools you need to ensure you get well-matched drivers.
Your drivers need support and connection. Strengthen this connection to your company by keeping everyone on the same page and working towards the same goals. Make the changes your trucking company needs.
To learn more about how Infinit-I can help you meet those goals, request a free demo. Get started getting the results you need.
The biggest savings for trucking companies begin with Safety and Compliance and Risk Management. And, better drivers depend on better training. Earlier this month we posted a blog to help you save time and money on your whole onboarding process. Today we’re going to focus on orientation itself. What’s the difference between onboarding and orientation? And why is it so important to target your savings here?
Onboarding vs. orientation
We’ll roll out the numbers in a second. But first, let’s say a word about the difference between onboarding and orientation. Some may use the terms interchangeably, and that’s OK—as long as you understand orientation as a key part of the onboarding process, setting you up for success or failure in retaining and training the right people.
Be strategic about how they work together: success in one affects success in the other.
How Infinit-I drives cost-savings in onboarding and orientation.
Orientation is a subset of onboarding.
The entire onboarding process, from job posting to the last day of training, is one, long two-way interview. Drivers are assessing you; you’re assessing them. Looking at onboarding overall, your main area of savings is going to be in finding and hiring the right people. It can cost $1,000 or more to hire someone hastily, only to fire or lose them.
Orientation is one big piece of this puzzle. A sorry orientation is not going to impress new drivers or ensure safety, professionalism, or longevity with your company.
Onboarding starts the moment you post a job.
By the time employee orientation happens, a good onboarding process has already set it up for success. Job postings, website, pre-interview questionnaires, and communications have left in your applicant pool the people you want to invest in so you’re not wasting time and money.
Times are tough for finding drivers. But the costs are much higher for not hiring the right ones. Before orientation begins, you need to have determined, to the best of your ability, that these selected drivers are qualified, understand the job they’re being hired for, and understand the kind of company you are.
Orientation is the heart and soul of onboarding, and thus the heart and soul of your initial investment in employees. It’s where:
- Drivers are equipped to get safely on the road.
- Onboarding is most critical and most concentrated.
- Your company culture (healthy? people-oriented?) is on display.
- New employees taste the unique “flavor” of your brand.
- Your expectations are made crystal clear.
- You’ve got to get it right.
Locating your savings target
A typical orientation period lasts from 2-4 days. With online training tools at your fingertips, this is no longer necessary. Online orientation tools revolutionize savings potential without reducing effectiveness and cut orientation by days at a time. It does this by operating in three key savings areas: efficiency, consistency, and branding.
This is your savings target, with a giant bulls-eye. Your budget for every orientation day includes:
- Staff hours (prep and day-of)
- Hotels
- Food
- Mileage
- Paper/printing
- Other meeting costs
The biggest money drain of all? Keeping drivers off the road. Your trucks generate a certain amount of revenue per day per truck. Whatever that amount is, that’s what you’re losing per day by keeping drivers in a room going through in-person orientation they could have done online. Let’s say you orient 200 drivers annually. If online orientation can cut one day out of your in-person orientation, that’s 200 days of revenue being generated because the driver is on the road and not in an orientation class.
That doesn’t factor in the thousands of dollars in risk you take when a driver isn’t trained effectively in driving regulations, safety measures, legal protection, or company policy.
Now here’s how online training keeps orientation effective:
Efficiency
Drivers don’t come into the office to deal with every segment of orientation. Operations, maintenance, HR, and finance will thank you. Save their time and yours and put these trainings online. An online system allows drivers to complete these materials off-site before in person orientation begins. An online system also captures, dates, and archives all orientation materials so there’s no confusion, dropped communication, or paper shuffling.
Consistency
One of the most challenging aspects of training truckers—whether orientation or ongoing training—is consistency. When can I get all my drivers here? Will Rob be teaching them this time, or Angela? Which drivers are doing the alternate orientation day? Who’s keeping track of the paperwork? Every inconsistency in orientation gives you room for costly slippage. Using an online training and orientation tool commits you to a single template and method for training. This ensures all your drivers are getting the same training, same quality of training, and identical information, every time.
Branding
You may not think drivers notice or care about the brand, but they do. Uniformity in branding supports familiarity with your company values and, if your company practices live up to the brand you display, it encourages driver loyalty, too. It also affects the kind of new employees you attract. Your brand stands for something. Online training is a great way to keep it coherent, synchronizing your messaging and technology.
Learning retention
Go ahead and start training modules off-site. Inifinit-I 5-7 minute training videos give complete, concise information and cover over 800 topics related to the trucking industry. Materials can be repeated as many times as necessary, and the short bursts of information have been proven to help with retention and driver performance.
What about in-person training?
An online system doesn’t eliminate in-person training. It never will. What it does is open up time and energy to make in-depth, in-person training efficient and excellent. Save time for what matters. And save money in the process.
Infinit-I’s online training system can be used to save up to $1,000 per new driver hired. Join us at our next Safety Boot Camp to learn more about how Infinit-I can save you time and money when it comes to training.
The primary reason you train your drivers is to achieve a specific outcome in behavior. This means changing habits. But habits can be hard to break. And if those habits are unsafe or unprofessional, they’re costing you money and putting your business at legal risk. They need to change. How do you easily and realistically change driver behavior? Read more
Onboarding is the initial and substantial investment you make in all of your drivers. But it’s also their initial investment in you. With a proliferation of driving jobs and a shortage of drivers, there’s a temptation to do whatever it takes just to fill positions. But in the long run, this wastes your (and your applicants’) valuable time and money. What really reduces onboarding time and costs? Remember: accuracy equals savings. Read more
Trucking is multi-generational. Drivers in their 60s and 70s are seasoned, have navigated hundreds of thousands of miles of road, and have a lot to teach. But a common issue facing trucking companies today is introducing new tech to older drivers. Why is this important, and how do you change minds successfully? Read more
