Driver retention is one of the most important, and sometimes most challenging, parts of the recruiting process. With the current driver shortage and evolving recruiting practices, it’s more imperative than ever to stay ahead of the curve and keep your drivers safe, satisfied, and engaged.
One sure fire way to foster a team environment, while improving driver safety and retention rates, is to create a driver mentor program. By pairing new hires with more experienced team members, you can show your drivers that you appreciate their work and are willing to invest in them. In addition, mentoring relationships at any stage of your career can help you achieve personal and professional development goals, such as learning a new skill, strengthening a competency, or becoming more productive, just to name a few. Keep reading to find out why a mentor program could be the best move for your company.
Mentor vs. Manager: What’s the Difference?
You might be asking yourself: what’s the point of a mentor when you have a great team of managers on the payroll? Mentors play a less formal role, allowing management to maintain the necessary level of professionalism. A mentor gives new drivers a chance to ask questions they might not be comfortable asking managers, and takes the pressure off while they are initially familiarizing themselves with company protocols. Mentoring is open and collaborative relationship between a mentor and mentee that is built on trust. The relationship is defined by both parties. It can be formal or informal.
“Engagement is the key to learning and development and being involved in a mentoring relationship can be quite profound as both mentors and mentees make themselves vulnerable, trusting in the process as they confidentially share insecurities, struggles ,mistakes, and valuable learnings with each other. It’s a level of transparency that makes this experience unique and helps accelerate one’s personal and professional development. Having a strong mentoring program not only helps to engage and advance women in the organization, it builds supportive relationships and fosters a culture of learning.”
—Beth Potratz, President and CEO, Drive My Way
What Are the Benefits?
By instating a driver mentor program, you aren’t just helping your newest team members. You are also helping the experienced drivers who become mentors, as well as your company as a whole!
For the mentee, the benefits cannot be understated.
- A low pressure way to learn about company culture and expectations.
- Access to an experienced driver’s tips, tricks, and advice.
- Guidance whenever they have questions.
At the same time, experienced drivers who take on the responsibility of becoming a mentor will experience benefits too.
- A chance to progress their career by developing coaching skills.
- Increased pay or other company incentives.
- The feeling of company recognition for being selected in this important role.
Besides increased retention rates, there are other ways a mentor program can benefit your company.
- Lower your insurance rates with safer drivers.
- Foster a team environment through increased positivity and communication.
- Save money on training seminars.
Changing the Face of Trucking, One Mentor at a Time
Driver mentor programs also offer another benefit, one that will help in developing the entire trucking industry. As more women and members of underrepresented communities enter the field, mentors are a great way to ensure they receive the support and guidance they need while forging new paths in the industry.
Organizations such as Women In Trucking (WIT) offer their own mentorship opportunities, including their Mentor Match Program and online community platform Engage. Through these programs, WIT promotes connection, support, and mentoring for women entering the field and offers a chance for experienced drivers to give back.
Although programs like these are changing the trucking industry, there is no better way to support your drivers than by starting at a company level. A driver mentor program demonstrates to these employees that you appreciate and prioritize them, enabling you to grow your fleet while attracting top talent from diverse backgrounds.
Driver mentor programs are a great way to save money and time while demonstrating to your drivers that their success is your top priority. Mentors also encourage diversity and growth in an evolving industry and are becoming an important differentiating factor in today’s highly competitive market.
We’d love to hear any mentor success stories, or lessons you’ve learned while pairing up drivers, so be sure to reach out to us on social media!
If you’re dealing with high application abandonment, try putting yourself in a driver’s shoes. Most drivers don’t want to spend their limited free time filling out lengthy and complex applications. In fact, this is usually 
Since drivers spend most of their time on the road, they mainly search for and apply to jobs using their smartphones. In this mobile-first world, recruiters and fleet managers need to make sure they’re able to communicate and interface with drivers this way. Otherwise, you risk a large number of drivers abandoning your application.
While you, as a recruiter can create what you think is the most efficient, painless, and all-around great application experience, you won’t really know how it is until drivers start applying. Even when they do start, it can be hard to gauge what’s working and what’s not since gathering data around job application abandonment can prove to be difficult.
When speaking with driver candidates, be sure you’re an expert on your company and the particulars of the job. Know what the day-to-day will look like and give honest answers. Don’t sugarcoat things if you know that your company might not have the world’s best benefits or if the pay might not be at the top of the scale. 
This may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many recruiting departments lack a cohesive plan for how to bring drivers into their organization. While each hiring plan will vary from carrier to carrier, all of them should have two things in common. They should be measurable and repeatable.
Comprehensive CDL Recruitment Solutions
Almost every carrier has some sort of Facebook presence by now. Whether that Facebook presence is actively helping you reach drivers is the bigger question. 
The most important part of strong communication with drivers is good listening. This means you actually take time and effort to hear drivers’ concerns and then address them. Good listening isn’t just reactive. Don’t just wait for drivers to come to you with their concerns. Be curious enough to inquire about their needs and questions.
Sometimes, the medium is the message. Choosing the proper communication method can make the difference between having successful conversations with drivers or leaving them frustrated. Some issues are too long or complicated to discuss over text or email. Calling drivers’ cell phones is the most popular way to communicate with drivers for a good reason.
This one cannot be overstated. None of your communication strategies and methods are going to work if drivers don’t feel that you’re treating them with respect.
It’s not breaking news that print media is on the decline. While ads in newspapers and magazines may have been the primary advertising channel decades ago, readership has gone down significantly. 
You’ve seen these ads everywhere: Ones with 20-30 bullets listing out every facet and minute detail of a job. But the more information available for prospective hires, the better, right? Think again. In that very early stage of the job search, driver candidates are usually just looking for a few pieces of key information so they can decide if they want to learn more about the position. 
To simply call social media popular anymore is a gross understatement. It’s become so entwined with people’s lives that we almost can’t imagine life without it. This is why it’s important for carriers who are looking to reach more drivers through their job ads to build up a presence on these social media sites. 
Like most everyone, truck drivers are all over social media. It’s where they connect with other drivers, share tips for being on the road, and discuss current happenings. It’s also where they look for jobs and research carriers. 
At this point, the trucking shortage has become the normal state of things. It’s widely understood that the demand for truck drivers is much higher than the supply of drivers looking for jobs. Because of this, trucking companies are doing whatever they can to keep current drivers happy and bring new ones onboard. This includes pay increases, newer trucks and equipment, increased home time, and more.
