How to retain truck drivers: 8 effective strategies

Maintaining a fleet of truck drivers can be challenging, especially when turnover is so common within the industry. Finding and training new drivers takes time, which puts more pressure on your current drivers to get orders done.

If you’re wondering how to retain truck drivers, we discuss eight effective strategies you can implement below. 

1. Offer better pay and benefits

Compensation and benefits are always going to be significant retention factors. Trucking is a hard industry that requires sacrifices, so proper compensation is crucial. Many truckers jump from fleet to fleet because they get better offers.

If a direct raise isn’t an option for your company, see how you can use benefits to provide better compensation for drivers. Impactful benefits include:

• Childcare benefits
• Dental insurance 
• Flexible scheduling/scheduling variety
• Further education benefits
• Life insurance
• Health insurance
• Mental health resources
• Pet insurance
• Retirement plans
• Truck terminal amenities
• Vision insurance
• Wellness programs

2. Provide better training

Safety is always at the forefront for every driver, no matter how much experience they have. Retain drivers by showing you care about their safety, too.

Make your priorities clear through comprehensive training sessions. Do drivers want to fine-tune their driving skills and be prepared for anything they might encounter? A driving simulator makes a huge difference - especially one that offers a variety of scenarios like the offerings from Driver Training Solutions.

Our simulators offer a built-in scenario library and allow you to create custom scenarios based on driver feedback.

Other training sessions could include:

• A refresher course on driving laws
• How to safely drive through intersections
• Common mistakes drivers make that lead to accidents

You could also offer various communication courses for speaking with dispatchers or loaders.

No matter what, ensure that training is engaging and that the value is clear to your team. 

3. Supply better equipment

Equipment is crucial to a trucker’s job, and its quality can be the difference between retaining and losing a driver. Talk with drivers and see what equipment needs to be fixed, updated, or replaced.

This is essential with long-haul truckers since equipment secures their safety and comfort. It also wouldn’t hurt to research new equipment to make your drivers’ jobs easier. 

Here are some suggestions:

• Emergency kit
• Ergonomic seats
• First aid kit
• Gloves
• Hygiene products
• Mechanic toolkit
• Portable cooking equipment

4. Offer career advancement paths

Prove that you're invested in your drivers’ careers by offering avenues of advancement. Offering these opportunities shows drivers that you care about them as people. It also shows them that their current job doesn’t have to be labeled as “dead-end,” a common misconception within the industry.

Don’t be afraid to talk to your drivers about their career aspirations. For example, one driver may enjoy mentoring and want to take that to a higher professional level. They could learn to become an official trainer that guides new drivers. 

5. Create a positive work environment

While drivers don’t generally spend as much time in a shared workplace as workers in a lot of other industries, the environment still matters - when they come in to start hauling, when they interact with each other in trainings, and when they talk to dispatchers. Reinforcing a positive culture makes a difference.

Ask for feedback, either directly or through anonymous surveys. Ask your drivers what can be improved about the current culture. Do they have suggestions?

To ensure you get quality feedback, reassure drivers that there won’t be any repercussions for critical input. You’ll also have to let them know you hear their complaints and concerns and are actively working on improving current conditions.

Once you have enough information, start applying what you learned. Start by making small, easy changes, but consider what it would take to implement more significant changes that make a big difference to the environment.

6. Recognize hard work

Truckers work hard and deserve to be recognized. Simply saying “Good job!” or initiating programs like “Driver of the Month” can make your drivers feel appreciated and impact retention. 

7. Listen to feedback

Are you accessible and willing to listen to feedback, no matter what it is? While you may not be able to address every concern and complaint fully, genuine listening can go a long way toward retaining your current drivers.

You can collect feedback in a variety of ways, from in-person meetings to anonymous surveys.

Once you collect feedback, be proactive about addressing what you can. If something’s not working, it needs to change. If some fixes require more time or can’t be easily solved, communicate this with your fleet. Acknowledging the problem gives you more time to fix it. 

8. Actively look for the best routes

Routes play a huge role in a trucker’s workday - if you can cut time off their day with better routes, they’ll appreciate it.

The best route for each driver depends on their needs. Does one trucker have a family they want more time with? Give them shorter routes. Is there someone who is looking to make a lot of money? Give them the longer routes.

You should also use current trucking technology to ensure drivers have the simplest routes, no matter how long they drive. 

Retaining drivers doesn’t have to be difficult

The best strategy for retaining your drivers is to listen to their needs and address them. While it’s impossible to please everyone, you can prove that you’re listening and trying to improve things.

If safety or training is a problem area, invest in a driving simulator. A Driver Training Solutions driving simulator can solve your training problems. Between offering physical feedback that mimics a commercial truck and a sliding scale of difficult scenarios, one simulator can be customized to your entire fleet’s needs.