Expert Insights for Retaining Top Trucking Talent in a Competitive Job Market
If you’ve been tuning into the hotshot trucking podcast Driven Too Far, here’s your chance to revisit all that riveting content! Check out these transcripts of the show and relive all the memorable moments from our interview with Jackie McManus of KJ Media.
Welcome to Driven Too Far: The Truth About Trucking, where we dive into the real issues facing the trucking industry. Today, we’re discussing a topic that’s on every trucking company’s mind: driver retention. And joining us is Jackie McManus, the expert behind KJ Media, who will share some valuable insights on how to retain top talent. But before we get into that, let’s explore a common challenge for drivers – where to find the best driving jobs in a sea of advertisements and opportunities.
Hello, I’m Andrew Winkler, and this is Driven Too Far: The Truth About Trucking, a podcast that helps over-the-road truck drivers balance, their careers, and families. Hey Jackie, it’s great to see you. Appreciate you joining us on the podcast today. Wanted to jump right in and talk a little bit about where drivers can find the best driving jobs. There’s so much advertising out there and so many opportunities for drivers. Where do they go and how do they know what to look for?
Truck Driving Retention
Jackie McManus:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, Andrew, first off, thank you so much for having me on the show. Absolutely love the podcast and being a part in educating drivers on where they can find better opportunities when they’re looking for new employers. So with that being said, the landscape has really shifted over the last three to five years, and the pandemic was a big contributor to that. Before the pandemic, there were a lot of companies and carriers that we would work with that a lot of their drivers would find their company through word of mouth. But because everything really shifted during the pandemic instead of that face-to-face interaction, which was very limited obviously, it became a very strong online digital presence.
So really what we saw as a marketing company where we help truckers find and carriers match to find opportunities, we really found that carriers now really looked at how can they not only recruit new drivers but how can they retain their current drivers. As you know, the driver turnover rate in the industry is between upwards of 70 to 90% industry-wide. And if you’re looking at all industries across the board throughout the United States, the average turnover rate is about 45%. So we’ve got some work to do as an industry as a whole. And so really I think it’s a very exciting time for truckers and for carriers because carriers are now finally stepping up to the plate to see exactly how can they not only again recruit that driver, but how can they retain drivers and keep them happy so that they can grow and promote drivers within their own organization. So nowadays there are just multiple ways that carriers are really going about doing that.
Andrew Winkler:
So are you suggesting, the digital advertising piece has been out there for a while, but now are you suggesting that carriers are finding a way to digitally work on their retention and retain drivers as well? What does that look like?
Jackie McManus:
Absolutely, yeah. The power of this good old-fashioned smartphone. When 15 years ago, I think it was a 50-50 split on folks having the smartphone versus the good old-fashioned flip phone. But now about 95% of drivers do have a smartphone. And so there are quite a bit of company out there that are helping carriers constantly survey their current drivers and find out exactly what they’re happy about, what’s working, and then more importantly, what’s not working, and how can we shift that and how can we change that?
A big push we saw too is that carriers started developing driver advisory boards within their organization. And so let’s say a carrier is running in all 48 states, for example. Not every driver is going to be in the same office as each other. That’s something that will typically not happen, but with the power of social media, a lot of these carriers, what they’re doing is they create these driver advisory boards and they’re saying, “Listen, we want to hear not only from the executives, because we’re not out there moving the freight, we want to hear from the drivers themselves and we want to understand exactly what’s working, what’s not working.” And with these boards, they’re creating Zoom calls, group Zoom calls or group Facebook calls and meeting with the executives to find out exactly how can they make their position better for drivers.
And that’s a really great spot to see the industry in, where carriers are really looking at it. Not only do we need drivers, but how can we make our position a better position for the current drivers that we have? And that really looks at exactly who are our customers, how are our customers treating our drivers, and how are the shippers treating our drivers. And it’s pretty exciting to see that carriers are really taking that initiative. And so through online and social media with the power of a smartphone, that’s where we’re seeing a lot of our clients developing these advisory boards and tactics so that they can strengthen their overall trucking company.
Andrew Winkler:
One of the things we did in our company, it’s been a few years ago now, but we created that private Facebook group just for our drivers. And it really blew up and we probably get three to one, four to one type, we get better interaction on that private page with our drivers than we do on our public page. But I think they also feel like it’s a safe place, and it took a while to build that and for them to understand that but they’re welcome to comment. We throw, like you said, surveys and polls out there all the time. How you feeling? What do you think about this? We’ve even got to the point now we’ve got spouses on it, and that’s pretty cool to see too.
Jackie McManus:
Oh, I love that.
Andrew Winkler:
Because even some of the drivers, maybe they’re not so tech-savvy or maybe they’re just scrollers, they don’t really interact on Facebook. But I like the idea that the spouse at home has some insight into what’s going on in our company all the time. So we try to post daily on it if we can. I try my best to have a weekly video on it, just an update of the company, and what’s going on in the background, and it’s all about pulling back the curtain form and being transparent as possible about what’s going on in our company. So it’s paid dividends for us for sure.
Jackie McManus:
And I think really what you noted on is that transparency. And that is something that I definitely … I’ve been in the industry for about 15 years now and I’ve seen carriers now become more transparent than ever before, and it’s critical to the overall company’s mission and goals if they want to succeed in this industry.
About 5, or 10 years ago, a lot of things were still kind of hush-hush, but because of social media, because of digital marketing, and online presence, carriers are forced to be transparent. The power of a review. If you go on Facebook, it’s public of speech, drivers can comment exactly how the carrier made them feel, and what the experiences were like, and that’s something that you could see on Facebook & you could see it on Indeed.
And so one of the big things that I encourage drivers to do when they’re looking for a new opportunity besides just talking to the recruiter and taking their word for it, do your homework, research that company, Google that company, see what other drivers are saying about that carrier. Now, of course, they’re going to be some circumstances where some drivers may not have a good taste in their mouth because of a carrier, but look at how also the carrier is responding to each and every driver. Are they responding to their messages or are they just letting them sit stagnantly? And that is something that is so critical for drivers to look at when they’re thinking about looking at a new job opportunity.
Andrew Winkler:
Yeah, I was going to ask you that question too is what about the negative reviews out there and stuff? And we know they exist and we watch our Google reviews very closely and we get notifications when somebody posts a review. Doesn’t matter if it’s one or five stars, we’ll respond back to them and tell them thanks. And in those few instances where it’s not been a great stellar review when I take the time to thank them, I may not agree with them. And there’s probably more to the story and I know that, but they took the time to give us a review. I could at least take the time to listen and see what I can learn from it.
Jackie McManus:
Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s that two-way communication, it’s so critical. And that’s where I really think that drivers right now, it’s an exciting time to be a professional truck driver because they’re in the driver’s seat, no pun intended. They have the opportunity to look at all these different resources to figure out exactly what’s working for the carrier and how they treat their drivers and what’s not working. So before drivers join a company and they get promised the best routes, the best pay that the top 10% of the senior drivers make, do your research and look online, because the carriers now that have that online presence, 99.9% of them have a pretty good retention rate with their drivers because they care.
And that’s really what we’re saying is that crossover with the carriers up with a great website, they’re promoting their internal staff, they’re promoting their drivers, they’re responsive to their drivers online. And on the flip side, drivers are seeing that, and not only does that help them with their recruitment, but that helps them with overall retention. And kind of back to the families too, it gets their wives involved, it gets their kids involved with exactly … They should be proud of their father who maybe running three weeks out of the four weeks a year, and showcasing all the good that their parents are doing. And that’s really the power I believe, in social media that’s really disrupting the market as we see it.
Andrew Winkler:
Besides the Google reviews, are there any other resources out there you can think of for a driver or maybe a spouse or something to go to, like you said, check that carrier out and try to get a feel for their culture. What else can they do besides just Google?
Jackie McManus:
Absolutely. So the easiest thing to do is go to Google, type in the carrier’s name, and automatically it will pull up their Google reviews, their Facebook reviews, their Glassdoor reviews, their Indeed reviews, and their ZipRecruiter reviews. So right there you have five different platforms that you can cross-reference and look at exactly what the drivers are saying about the carriers themselves.
Andrew Winkler:
Right. I’m curious, what does a best-in-class carrier look like? What should a driver be looking for? If I’m scrolling through Facebook or social media and looking at some of these ads, is any of it fluff or are there certain things I should be looking for in an ad? How do I know that that carrier’s legit?
Jackie McManus:
Yeah, no, great question. I think one of the biggest things that have shifted over the last couple of years specifically is, and I’ve heard this from drivers as well, if you’re seeing a really large sign on bonuses, I would ask, why do they need to offer such a large sign on bonus?
Andrew Winkler:
Thank you.
Jackie McManus:
Why are they offering $15,000?
Andrew Winkler:
Yeah, it’s covered something up.
Jackie McManus:
… Our organization. I would run, I wouldn’t walk, I would run. So I would say that’s something I would definitely not click on or apply to because there’s always a catch-22, it’s not what it seems. And so really when you’re looking at, one of the biggest things we do for our clients too is the more transparency the better. So if you’re just seeing ads that say great pay, okay, well what does that mean? Let’s break that down a little bit. Do you have guaranteed weekly averages, which is really big right now with a lot of our customers, if they’re guaranteeing payment for drivers, which is fantastic? If they say great benefits, well, what does that entail? If you’re not really seeing a lot of the detail in the ads, it could be a little bit concerning. Because if carriers have a good job opportunity and not everything gets going to be roses and butterflies and perfect, you want to know exactly what you’re applying to. Just like with any other industry.
If you’re applying to be an IT guy for Google, it’s very detailed what the job description is. They’re not really trying to pull a fast one. And so my biggest advice for drivers is to look at that, how detailed the actual job description is, and then when you go to apply, ask a recruiter, is this for a new driver at your company or is this for a driver that is a senior driver that’s been with your organization for 20 plus years and he or she gets the best routes and has the highest pay? So I would be very cautious and look at exactly what the job description is. The sky’s the limit. So look at the phrasing, look at the wording, and you can trust your gut on what type that response is. But that’s what I would recommend to drivers across the board, really looking at the ads.
And secondly, I’d also recommend looking at, are these carriers that you’re applying to, are they driver-focused. Really you want to be a part of a driver-centric company?
Andrew Winkler:
How do you know that
Jackie McManus:
Getting back to the power of social media. You can see that based off of go to their Facebook page, are they holding awards for their drivers? Are they hosting company picnics? A big piece to is ask to interview two to three of their drivers, see how it’s going, and how do they like it. The carriers really need drivers now. And so that should be something, that information that they can give easily to you. So you can then call fellow drivers that have been with the company and find out exactly what’s great, what’s bad and what’s the in-between. And I think that’s something that I really encourage drivers to do, especially in this market.
Andrew Winkler:
I think about some of the driver ads that we run like you were saying, and I’ve talked about this on a previous podcast. But when the driver gets on the phone, his first question is, what does it pay? He always wants to know the cent per mile, and we coach our recruiter too, you can answer that, but answer that later. Let’s dig down to see what they’re actually looking for. And we focus on gross pay first of all, what’s going to hit the bank account on Fridays? Because that’s what really counts. I could tell you I’m paying a buck a mile, but if I don’t give you any miles, then nothing hit the bank account. So that’s not the best question a driver could ask.
But some of the other things you were saying, I think from my experience, most of the time a lot of the jobs out there are very similar in pay, in compensation.
Jackie McManus:
1,000% Andrew.
Andrew Winkler:
It’s coming down to finding a fit for you. Is the job a right fit? Meaning is the home time right, is the routes right, is it the right kind of truck or whatever it is? So I think that’s what helps make a happy driver. The pay’s always going to be there, but it’s the other things that aren’t with the pay in a lot of ways, that are going to determine whether or not that driver stays or goes.
Jackie McManus:
Yeah, spot on. It’s definitely the soft variables. And one thing that we coach our clients on with specific recruiters, is that if you’re talking to a driver, because the spot on, the pay is pretty similar across the board, it comes down to a culture fit. But if you’re finding that a driver is a young parent and they want to be home, your company can’t offer home time, say, “You know what? Thank you so much John Smith for applying to the position. I don’t think our company would be the right fit, but I happen to have a friend that works at this company.” And be a referral partner to that driver because really what we’re doing, if you look at it as a whole, we’re helping the whole ecosystem of the trucking industry.
So you’re not forcing a driver to run a load when he wants to get home for his kid’s soccer practice, and you’re helping them make that shift. What that also does is put your carrier top of your mind in that driver saying, “Hey, you know what? ABC Trucking Company wasn’t a good fit for me, but drivers typically have friends that are drivers. This may be a better fit for someone else.” And so we really coach our clients and their recruitment team saying, not every driver’s going to be the best fit, but being upfront and honest off the top is exactly the way to go and it will benefit in the long run.
Andrew Winkler:
Agreed. When we’re talking about culture and fit and things like that, I can’t help but also think about the safety side of our business and how important that can be. I would think if I had a spouse that was a professional driver, I would absolutely be interested in making sure they found a company that valued safety, valued my husband or my wife, and that’s got to be top of mind. So when I’m fishing for jobs, how do I know what their safety culture’s like?
Jackie McManus:
Yeah, and that’s a great question and safety is absolutely critical. To piggyback off of what we were talking about earlier where pay is pretty comparable across the board, one of the key elements of the culture is safety. How are they handling keeping their drivers safe? And a lot of carriers have different types of incentive plans to assist with providing a safe workforce across the board. So we see a lot of carriers that safety is the number one top priority, and so they’re looking at how can we keep our drivers safe and these are the different programs that we have to offer each and every driver so that it’s a win-win for both carriers. I’d be curious, Andrew, what safety initiatives do Chief Carriers have?
Andrew Winkler:
Well, I was just thinking about that as you were talking about it and how much our safety program has changed just in the last few years, and constantly reinvesting in it. It had started with safety features on the trucks. Not all drivers that we had at the time agreed with that. In fact, there were some of them that were outright against it and they didn’t think they needed it. And in the back of my mind I’m thinking, well, that makes me think maybe you’re not a fit here as well. Because we want to hire those safety-minded professionals as well. And if you can’t see through that, if you can’t see through your own ego, then you’re probably not going to be a fit for us in the future.
We launched a couple of safety initiatives over the last couple of years, and the first one was called a Red Hats program. So it was all about catching drivers in the act of doing things right. And we’re a flatbed company, so it’s important they’re wearing PPE gear, it’s important they’re tying down the loads correctly and safely. And we know over time people become a little complacent with things. So we don’t want to be out in the yard busting on people saying, “Hey, you’re not doing that. Get it straight.” It’s more about catching them when they are doing it right and rewarding them and telling them, thank you, good job. So that was the Red Hats program. And just this last year it’s been a success, and a visit with our management team and our safety director’s like, “Okay, what’s next? It can’t just stop here. We’ve got to keep building on that program.”
So in 2022, we launched a program called Safety 360, and it was okay building on the Red Hats program, but the idea was that it was going to stair-step twice a year. Drivers had to meet certain criteria around safety and they would also get a pay raise tied to it. So it was incentivizing those drivers that are doing things right, and that’s the drivers we do want to reward. The ones that understand risk and they’re doing something about it, they’re doing everything in their power to minimize that risk and it’s really about just building that safety culture at Chief.
Jackie McManus:
I absolutely love that. I think the power of positive reinforcement versus typically the negative reinforcement that happens, goes along with safety. Obviously, accidents unfortunately do happen. Things do happen. Unfortunately, that’s just the way of the world. But instead of just putting the ruler on the hand every time that happens, but giving drivers a round of applause for doing a good job and minimizing risk and keeping the overall company safe, the trucks safe, themselves safe, that only is going to promote that culture within your organization. And that’s something that’s going to be kind of spewing out to other drivers saying, “Hey, you know what? Chief Carriers, they care about safety and this is what they do.” So I think that that’s huge.
Andrew Winkler:
I think the last podcast that just dropped in fact was about just that. It was about safety and the two types of approaches to safety. There was the old-school approach where you tried to beat people into compliance, the safety director carried around the big hammer. And then there was the new school approach where you take time to train and educate and you pull those people with you instead of trying to shove them in a certain place, and you teach them why these things are important and what’s in it for them, and their families and stuff. When I think about some of the annual conventions we attend and stuff, and you see the same carriers up on stage every year receiving those national safety awards, there’s a reason. It’s that safety culture that they’ve built around that. And I can guarantee you that none of those carriers up there have that old approach where the safety director thinks he’s the cop and he’s walking around with the big hammer and stick and trying to beat people into compliance. They’ve gone way beyond that.
Jackie McManus:
And I think what you were saying earlier about your management team saying, okay, well what’s next with safety? What are we going to do next to incentivize drivers and promote this culture? It’s not a set-it-and-forget-it mentality. It’s something that really has to be nurtured.
Andrew Winkler:
It’s always evolving.
Jackie McManus:
And constantly evolving. Let me ask you this, does your company have a safety committee?
Andrew Winkler:
When you started off the conversation, you were talking about the driver advisory committee, and we do. So we have six drivers on that. They’re elected, they serve a two-year term, so every year we’re reelecting three. And in fact, this next week they’re having their first meeting of the quarter of the new year. So they’ll be going over, they do accident reviews, if there’s anything to review on that, they help set policy. We had a driver mention something the other day about securement trailers and he had some concerns about things. I say, “That’s fantastic.” He happened to be on the board. Anyway, I said, “This is what the driver committee’s for anyway, is to bring up these topics, have meaningful discussions about it, and let’s see if we need to change something.” And then the final thing they’ll be doing is in the early spring, we always have an annual safety awards banquet type thing. So they’ll be jumping into that, probably putting some final touches on the annual awards show too.
Jackie McManus:
That’s incredible. And what better people to have involved than the actual drivers that are out there, delivering the board the goods? One of the big things I’ll be able to use to recommend to clients that to have a recruitment committee look at a retention committee and then look at a safety committee. They’re three separate committee committees, have your management team in there and then you promote the drivers that you would like to contribute, which is very honorable and very exciting for a driver to be able to be a part of, like you said, assisting with policy. As a driver, you’re really able to help rewrite and navigate for a better landscape for not only yourself but for future drivers. And I think that’s so honorable that your company’s doing that, and those are the companies, drivers, I would highly recommend, those are the companies you want to work with. It’s finding out do they have committees and how seriously are they taking their recruitment, their retention, and their overall safety.
Andrew Winkler:
Yeah, so just kind of bringing it all back full circle, I think we hit on some really great topics today, and we talked a lot about what’s happening behind the scenes to the carriers that are out there doing it, right? And maybe if you’re in the market for a new job and you happen to get a recruiter on the phone, you get past the ads so to speak. But you get a recruiter on the phone, now you’ve got some great questions to ask them. And if you trip up the recruiter, you might know that they’re probably not there yet, but if the recruiters got answers and can share with you what’s happening behind the scenes at their company, then you might have found a possible match.
Jackie McManus:
Absolutely.
Andrew Winkler:
Well, Jackie, I appreciate you joining us here today. I know you are the CEO of KJ Media and stuff. Do you want to tell us real quick what KJ Media is all about and what kind of platforms you offer for carriers and drivers out there?
Jackie McManus:
Absolutely. Yes. CEO of KJ Media, we will be celebrating 10 years in business this upcoming May, which I’m really excited about.
We are a recruitment marketing agency, and so we partner with top-tier trucking companies and help with their overall recruitment process and retention process to get them more qualified drivers and have the drivers stay. And so we utilize all social networks, and digital platforms and every client is completely customizable in our approach.
And so we definitely like to think of ourselves as the true extension of the carrier’s recruitment team to help them succeed and navigate during these challenging times in finding more drivers. So Andrew, thank you so much for having me on the show, and it’s really been a fun time.
Andrew Winkler:
Thanks for joining us. Take care. Thanks for joining us on today’s episode of Driven Too Far: The Truth About Trucking. If you’re looking for a carrier that values you as a driver, safety, and retention, give us a look at chiefcarriers.com.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the Driven Too Far Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or Youtube and we’ll see you on the road soon!
