Letter to the Editor: A Driver Suggests
recently read your story, "Executives Say Lack of Drivers Stems From Low Pay Levels." As a former company driver and now an owner-operator for the past four years, I can qualify my statements with what I have experienced for myself while being employed by several companies in this industry.
Suggestion No. 1 for trucking company managers — Tell the truth to your employees, shareholders, customers and yourselves. Stop with the double-talk and “creative” sliding-scale pay plans.
Suggestion No. 2 — Be fair to your company drivers and owner-operators. Pay them the respect and salaries they need to support their families and businesses of being owner-operators.
Suggestion No. 3 — Stop using employee screening services as weapons systems to threaten, coerce and destroy drivers who belong to OOIDA or the Teamsters, or who will not run illegally to satisfy some dispatcher’s unrealistic expectations. If it weren’t for the drivers your company wouldn’t be here now. Encourage and recognize good performance by creating an environment of winning for everyone.
Suggestion No. 4 — Provide some type of minimum health plan to protect your drivers and their families. One unplanned emergency room visit can damage a driver’s salary for seven weeks. A healthy driver is an asset.
Suggestion No. 5 — Put leasing contracts in simple language that outlines your expectations for a lease operator and provides protection from unethical deductions in the weekly settlements. Make sure all parties are on the same level of communication.
Suggestion No. 6 — Provide simple incentives beyond blacklisting or job termination. Try prizes, production bonuses, cruise trips or paid comp days. Try communication face to face. Always end your critique on a positive note, never on a note of anger or negativity.
Suggestion No. 7 — All executives at the terminal level should be required to obtain a commercial driver license and take a week-long road trip with a driver. All dispatchers should be recruited from the driver ranks to ensure that the trips are dispatched correctly. The same goes for trip planners and safety officers.
The position of driver manager should be eliminated for a computerized “self-dispatch” system. It will end the favoritism and frustration of dealing with a person who is “title heavy.”
Suggestion No. 8 — It should not take more than five minutes to get hold of a dispatcher over the telephone. I have several cell phone bills of more than $300 each to show why. Management should test its communications systems from the outside to verify any trouble and correct it promptly.
Many managers need to go back to their fundamentals and go to their drivers and support staff and find out what is happening. Staying up in an ivory tower office is not only hurting companies, but their overall bottom lines as well. It hurts shareholders, employees, customers and those who share the highways with their trucks and vans.
David Ritter
I>Owner-Operator
cMinnville, Ore.
