Why People Leave?

In a recent study, there were five reasons identified as to why people will leave a job. Here they are in the order of importance:

1. They don't feel good about what they do. In other words, they either don't believe in the product or service the company offers, or they don't feel they are making a meaningful contribution to the world. They feel it is just a job and nothing more.
2. The next reason people will leave a job is because they don't feel important. They look at themselves as just a cog in the wheel. They perceive that what they do at their place of employment really doesn't matter. Dr. Marshall Goldsmith reinforces this concept with his belief that "as leaders, we need to do less criticizing and look for ways to do more praising of our team members performance." As I have always said "praise pays."
3. The third motive is they don't feel they are growing. Like the saying goes, "When you are green you grow and when you're ripe you rot." At the point of departure from their company, they are feeling like they are going nowhere with the position they are working in and they want out.
4. The next cause for people to leave to a job is because they don't get the support they need. When requests are made for better equipment or tools to do their job, they are told things like: there is no money in the budget; it is not a priority, or given some other lame excuse. I know of one engineer who wanted to take some additional company paid training that would increase his skill sets and allow him to do his job even more effectively. When he inquired about being allowed to take this training to help him increase his value to his company, he was told he should already have those skills, and if he felt he still needed to acquire them, he should refer to the (outdated) online tutorials. He is now seeking employment elsewhere.
5. The final reason for a member of your team to leave is they don't feel they are getting paid enough. Are you surprised this is last on the list? You shouldn't be. It has been this way since the beginning of people being paid to do a job. This doesn't mean that there will not be people who use that as the only reason for parting ways with your company, but for the most part, it is the factor that is usually of lesser importance than those mentioned above.

So, in order to lead your company and to produce the profitable results you are seeking, make it a priority to understand your people. Be a transactional leader. But more importantly, be a transformational leader. Doing so will build your people, and in turn they will build a successful company.

Kimberly Clark Doing Their Part-Facility Upgrades for Driver's Benefit

Kimberly-Clark Corp. KMB -0.40 % , maker of Scott toilet paper, has a plan to reduce potential headaches from a nationwide trucker shortage: more bathroom breaks for drivers.
The American Trucking Association estimates the industry needs another 35,000 to 40,000 drivers to keep up with demand. When drivers are scarce, shippers get hit with increasing transportation costs and delays.
To ensure it gets its pick of drivers, Kimberly-Clark is upgrading more than 20 distribution centers, including better-maintained restrooms and rest areas to serve the hundreds of drivers who pass through every day, said Scott DeGroot, the company’s vice president of transportation.

The goal: to make the company’s loading areas attractive to trucking carriers. That way they won’t skip Kimberley-Clark, which also makes Huggies diapers and Kleenex tissues, when they don’t have enough drivers to make all their contracted stops. When that happens, the company must turn to the spot freight market, where trucks can be hired on-demand but at volatile prices, Mr. DeGroot said.

“Thousands of shipments aren’t moving...because of the lack of qualified drivers in the marketplace,” Mr. DeGroot said. “We have to overcome this driver shortage.”

 

Mr. DeGroot said Kimberly-Clark’s executives have stepped up efforts in the last two years to train people in their distribution centers to be more aware of the driver’s experience. Previously, the company’s distribution centers sometimes only had portable restrooms available to drivers, and they weren’t always well kept, he said. The company’s rest areas now also have chairs, tables, water fountains and snack machines. The company tries to minimize load times and the number of miles it asks drivers to go so they can spend less time away from home.

Restrooms are among the top complaints of drivers, who are sometimes barred from using these facilities in loading areas even after 10 hours on the road. Drivers, who like to be able plan their shifts so as not to be stranded far from home, also complain that some companies leave them waiting in line for hours, said Gail Rutkowski, executive director of the National Shippers Transportation Council.
“They’re treated like second class citizens,” she said, adding that with the driver shortage shippers are catering more to truckers’ needs.
“The shift in shipper attitude is new, it’s still emerging as shippers are realizing this driver shortage is actually happening now,” Ms. Rutkowski said.
Meanwhile, Kimberly-Clark is also urging customers to make similar improvements in their unloading areas, because earning a bad reputation among drivers can leave a shipper stuck when demand surpasses supply.
“Truck drivers I think many times are mistreated,” Mr. DeGroot said. “We want to make sure that doesn’t happen on our sites ... We’re about 70% there.”

2nd Time is a Charm

 

Tonight we hosted our 2nd Driver Briefing.  We used a new form of technology to host the webcast and it worked very well.  Our telecommunications team of Joey Jones, Sean Pasay, and Julie Darrell provided a wonderful platform for our drivers to access this information on their smartphones, tablets, or desktop.  We also had the ability for a driver to call in and listen to the audio.  The best part of the functionality of the tool is that the call was recorded for all our drivers who were busy servicing our customers.

 Heather Wright and Brad Garrard gave great insight to our trailer issues, service demands, and new technology our drivers can expect from Truckload.  Shelley was a wonderful facilitator of our intimate gathering of Truckload employees.  But, the hit of the show was our Professional Drivers!  We had great questions and feedback that will make us better.  Here is a sneak peek of our immediate reaction from our folks:

I want to be a tester for the CAT Scale app!...................Rodney Collins   COLR11

Nicely done tonight......Kim Kaffka 

 

 

I watched the webcast.  It was awesome.  You guys did great.........Andrew Riddles DCS Pricing

 

 

Thank you for the corporate connection.  I'm a new driver without OTR experience to compare other companies to from a pro/con perspective.  However, I have grown frustrated at many issues.  Many of my issues have been brought to your attention and others I am confident in your concern and ability for change .  Time is everyone's priority and values....Eric Young....YOUE0

 

 

My name is Ken.  I am currently an IM Fleet Manager, but I am also a former driver.  I am very happy that you are discussing scale tickets.  I am very glad we are working on a solution to this problem since we have similar issues in IM.

 

 

Just listened to the meeting, but didn't get to say this is a good company......Paul Lojewski  LOJP

 

 

Canned message #12 doesn't have any format for reporting where a bad trailer is such as name and address and what is wrong with the unit.  We just want to report it and make sure you know where it is so it can be repaired....Carl Forney..FORC15. 

 

 

Forgot to mention on the call.  Many P & G facilities have their own scales on site.  Having an open account at these sites would be beneficial. 

 

 

Need direction regarding lack of mechanic info and inspection data on our new trailers.  Night and Weekend staff also needs access to this history..........Todd Harris

 

 

Miles and Eta's.........Leon Palmer

 

 

Money.........Pamela Shrout-Wente

 

 

 

   

Get Ready! Call our Hotline at 844-588-8785 for the latest!

 

We want to send out a quick reminder to all our drivers and staff concerning our 2^nd quarter Truckload briefing.  We will be conducting this briefing tomorrow, or Tuesday, July 21^st at 6:30 PM central time.  Our goal with these briefings is to educate our team on the financial results of the company and the truckload business unit.  We also want to make sure all our teammates know what improvements we are working on to make the experience better for our customers and our driving professionals.  Finally, we will recognize some of the fantastic achievements of our employees, contractors, and carriers.

You can take part in the webcast using your smartphone, laptop, or desktop and signing into your account on  my.jbhunt.com.  If you want to listen only, you can simply call into 888-876-9864.

We had over 400 participants during our last briefing and expect to have a very good turnout tomorrow.  As always, you can reach me via survey at jopr1862, email me at steve_rogers@jbhunt.com, or text or call at 479-236-7849.

To put to use, especially to make profitable of effective use of an asset.

Do we care about utilization on our floor?  See for yourself:

 

 

Comments say we flat ran out of freight in VA/RL/SU Markets yesterday by 1300. This driver completed his last assignment yesterday at 1223. He is preplanned on a load that picks up today at 1200 ( need to try to get it early!)..it is only 206 miles and shows to deliver tomorrow. However it appears we can deliver as soon as we can get there.

Here is where we need to get after it:  you need to get this guy rolling asap, get a good tight ETA on him for the earliest possible time he can get there! Hopefully this evening! Lets get another assignment on him ASAP based on our good ETA! This is a really short load after a long wait. However, if we execute we may just be able to do something good. (Am I seeing this wrong?)

Lets get him going with a good ETA. Lets see if we can make up for a little lost time.

 

 

Think Big......and Carry A Big Stick

Some folks talk a big game.  Others deliver the goods.  Check out a note we saw from Operations Manager Mike Agnew at 11:15 PM tonight.  I love the energy and the creative thinking to help fill our trucks and build relationships.  Oh yeah, he is thinking about service too-read the bottom concerning Boston Beer loads!  Mike doesn't like the limelight.  He is not a "look at me type of guy."  But we all could benefit from this enthusiasm.  Read below:

Tomorrow I say we bring in breakfast and go on a pipeline welcoming blitz. I will show you all where I am getting the information I used last week to try and get the SEA show rate up this week (if you don't know already). We can split up the workload evenly. We can identify two FM's from each region that can multitask. We will then delegate the drivers that everyone will contact. When I suggest "everyone" I think we as leaders have just as many to contact as the FM's do if not more. We need to coach FM's on what to say. I made it clear to the drivers last week that I was an operator and not a recruiter. I answered questions, concerns, dispelled rumors, or cleared up what I thought to be inaccurate information given to them by CDP, but I didn't make it sound grim as if we couldn't get the results they needed. I made sure to tell them what to expect for real and closed by giving them my contact info so they could get in touch with me if things weren't going as "I" said they should expect.

We also did the same exercise on our unassigned drivers (including Leave Of Absence drivers). We cleared two drivers that were on LOA this week just by calling. We have another that is headed to the doctor tomorrow to get cleared. In addition we got 4 drivers back to work that were unassigned and MIA.

As a result of all of the above we went from 26 open trucks to 8 open trucks in about 10 days. Our utilization has improved by 7 miles this week. We aren't even close to being where I would like us to be, but I am not satisfied until it is.

 

And just so you know.....We show to be good on the delivery of the 4 loads shown below as of now.
 

 

EX26522

EX26402

EX26866

EX26345

Industry News-Turnover

Truck driver turnover for larger fleets declined 12% in the first quarter of 2015, falling to its lowest annualized rate in four years, according to the American Trucking Association.  Fleets with more than $30 million in annual revenue saw an annualized rate of about 84% in the first quarter, marking the first time it has been below 90 percent since 2011.  The turnover rate for smaller fleets-companies with less than $30 million in revenue-also declined 12 percent to 83%.