TULSA, Okla. — Driver iQ, a provider of background screening and driver monitoring services to the trucking industry, says carriers taking part in its third quarter 2018 Recruitment & Retention Survey are seeking to offer innovative packages to attract and retain drivers.
“In addition to offering additional driver compensation, 60 percent of the carriers are offering scheduled pay increases, 25 percent are offering a guaranteed weekly compensation and 30 percent are offering some type of guaranteed transition pay for new hires to make up for the lost productivity when they change jobs,” said Lana Batts, co-president of Driver iQ.
Batts said that while 60 percent of the carriers expected to see an increase in the number of applicants, 55 percent expect that the quality of the applications will be worse than it was last year.
“Furthermore, 43 percent expect that the quality of future applications will worsen next year,” she said. “As a result, 45 percent of the carriers have lowered their hiring standards.”
Other details of the survey include:
- Driver turnover costs the truckload industry over $10.6 billion per year.
- Over one-third of fleets expect driver turnover will increase or remain the same.
- The largest cost of driver retention is for incremental pay increases and training (59 percent and 50 percent, respectively).
- Only 15 percent of the carriers has someone dedicated solely to driver retention.
- Over 53 percent of the drivers have been with the company for over three years.
- For 40 percent of the companies, women make up more than 50 percent of their recruiting staff, while for only 9 percent of the companies do minorities make up more than 50% of their recruiting staff.
The third quarter Trends in Truckload Recruitment and Retention Survey from Driver iQ is the latest in a planned series of quarterly surveys designed to better understand and measure recruiting and retention experiences and expectations in the truckload sector. The results of the survey are coupled with observations of Driver iQ personnel engaged in the background screening industry.
The survey represents the views of recruiting managers who operate over 75,000 trucks and the majority of the responses came from dry van carriers with over $100 million in gross operating revenues.
Driver iQ is the transportation division of Cisive, a worldwide provider of HR technology and background screening.
For more information, visit www.DriveriQ.com.
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
