Professional Associations for Drivers - Where Are They?

Most every other industry has at least one professional association for its practitioners. In the tech industry we have dozens of them - an association for project managers, one for business analysts, various general IT groups, the list goes on. What's great about these groups is that it gives people a place to go (whether physically or virtually) to hang out with their peers. They can find other people doing similar jobs at other companies and have a way of sharing war stories, learning from each other, and generally improving the overall state of that particular discipline.

In trucking, there doesn't seem to be any of these for drivers. In Ontario we have a council for driver trainers, which is a great group and the kind of association I'm talking about, but it serves driver trainers and not drivers. We have the various provincial associations, but their primary focus is the trucking companies. There are a couple of groups that lobby on behalf of owner operators, and there are unions in some sectors, but those are lobby groups and they're fragmented. Where is the North American Association of Professional Drivers?

This occurred to me a little while ago and I started doing some research to see if I was just missing something. I haven't scoured every corner of the continent, but I sure can't find any industry association dedicated to drivers.

Perhaps through the Ontario apprenticeship program something like this will start up. It won't be long before there are a good number of drivers who have completed the program and it would be nice for these people to have an association that allowed them to share information and best practices, learn from each other, and just have a place to go, outside of the carrier, to hang out with other drivers. Ideally, the association should be open to any driver, not just apprenticeship participants, but that would be a start at least.

It seems to me that with continual changes in the way the trucking industry works - new technologies, changing regulations and cost pressures, etc. - that an industry association focused on drivers could really help.

 

Have any of you come across anything like this?

Big Comfy Chairs

Well, TruckWorld 2008 has come and gone. After 3 long but excellent days at the show, I have very little feeling left in my legs.

While walking around the show, I was noticing the various carrier recruiting booths. They were pretty much all the same "popup tradeshow booths" with information about the carrier and the current pay pack.

One carrier, however, stood out. Adco Logistics, who happened to be right next to our booth, had one of the coolest setups I've seen for recruiting. They had two overstuffed reclining chairs, a large, ornate coffee table, and two wooden elephants. It turns out that Adco, in addition to hauling auto parts for the big 3 automakers, also imports handmade Indian furniture.

What I found really cool about this setup was that it looked so relaxing. Walking into that booth felt more like walking into someone's rec room than a job interview. They had literature about their pay package and owner-op requirements like the other carriers, but it still felt very inviting and distinctly different from all the other recruiters at the show. 

The booth itself sent a message about the company - they didn't have to say what kind of environment they were trying to create, or how they treated employees, or any of that kind of stuff. The booth said it for them. 

I think this is a great example of letting your values speak for you. If a picture is worth a thousand words, capturing the sense of an environment has to be worth ten thousand.

It's also a great example of standing out by being different. After walking through 5 halls of vendor exhibits, it gets hard to remember exactly who was who. However, everyone remembers "the guy with the comfy chairs". That kind of edge can go a long way.

If you're planning a recruiting event in the next little while, what can you do to be different and stand out? What can you do that demonstrates why your company is a great place to work? It could be the difference between a so-so event and a roaring success.

I know I'm looking forward to seeing Adco at the next show - my aching feet demand no less!

You Should Read Chris Harris' Blog

Many of you know Chris already. For those who don't, he's a safety services guy at Old Republic, very knowledgeable in the ever changing regulations we're subjected to, and an all around great guy as well.

Chris has started up a blog covering truck safety issues and you can find it here. Lots of good info and an enjoyable read as well. 

I'm still trying to get over the fact that after a whole day of walking around TruckWorld, Chris did a CN Tower stair climb, then came back to the show the next day! 

I feel really old and out of shape  :-(

How Much Does a Free Lunch Cost?

In the tech world, there's an unwritten law that new employees get taken out for lunch on their first day. Since people in this industry tend to work long, irregular hours and often forsake normal sustenance, the 'first day lunch' has evolved as a kind of tradition that helps the new hire get integrated into the department, get to know coworkers a little bit, and generally feel good. The lunch never happens at any place fancy - most often it's the local Montana's, Applebee's, or whatever similar chain is in the area.

Cost to company: About $100, depending on the size of the team involved.

Value to company: Very high, since it speeds the ramp up of the new hire and gives existing staff a bit of a treat as well.

Seems simple enough, right?

A colleague of mine recently started work at a tech company in this area, and wasn't taken out for lunch on the first day. The other managers were either busy with other things and skipped lunch, or had other plans already. In fact, no one brought up the subject at all on the first day, or any day since - it hadn't crossed their minds that they might do this. 

The company ended up saving the hundred bucks and managed to get a little more (short term) productivity since more people were working through lunch.

However, what did it really cost them?

My friend got a very clear picture of what this company's priorities are, and how much they value their employees. He certainly DIDN'T come home feeling like part of a team, and could barely remember the names of his coworkers. Not a great way to start a relationship with a new company.

After spending several months filling this position (and probably several thousand dollars as well), this company now has a new hire who's disenchanted and skeptical after working there for all of 8 hours. How long is he likely to stick around? What are the chances that he'll do extra work evenings or weekends? What is he going to tell other people?

This company is at a big disadvantage with a new hire that they presumably had a lot of faith in (after all, they did pick him over other the candidates). They may be able to turn it around, but first impressions matter and they're going to have a tough job to overcome those.

What will most likely happen is my friend will stick around for 3-6 months until he finds something better and then he'll be gone. The company will be scratching their heads wondering why and complaining about how tough it is to find and keep good people.

This particular story strikes me as a case of incredible stupidity, since everyone in tech knows you have to provide a free lunch for new hires! I'm stunned that there are companies out there that have missed that.

Of course, in the world of transport you're probably not taking drivers out to lunch on the first day. It's not a bad idea, but probably not feasible logistically. However, this story is still a good example of how small things can make a big difference. There are lots of little things can be done pretty easily and cheaply that can dramatically impact someone's impression of their workplace. By getting in the habit of doing those things, we can see some big differences in overall employee attitude, retention rates, and productivity.

Which Simpsons Character Are You?

This week's post is compliments of Peter Carter at Today's Trucking. Our VP of Product Development, Jane Jazrawy, has contributed a couple of guest columns to Today's Trucking over the last little while, and she's working on another one now. As part of the back-and-forth between writers and editors, Peter forwarded a copy of a PowerPoint presentation which helps you figure out which Simpsons character you're most like.

You can get a copy of the presentation as a PDF here.

The presentation is basically a Myers-Briggs type assessment applied to Simpsons characters. For any of you not familiar with it, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a personality assessment tool that uses a series of characteristic pairs to identify different communication and behavioural preferences. For example, Introvert vs. Extravert is one pair. I'm not doing it justice with this description, but you can find out lots more by Googling "Myers-Briggs".

I've done MBTI assessments before, and I'm a big fan. It's a great tool for identifying communication preferences within a team and helping to understand how people react to different situations. 

What I really like about this presentation is that it adds a bit of fun to the exercise as well. These HR things can sometimes be a bit dry and it can be tough to get people to complete them. However, by adding the Simpsons element, the whole thing becomes much more interesting on a personal level, and much more of a conversation piece among participants as well.

If any of you are planning driver meetings over the next few months, this might a be cool exercise to go through as part of the meeting.

By the way, it turns out that the Simpsons character I'm most like is Lisa. 

I have a feeling I'm going to be mocked for this.

What Drivers DON'T Know

I was reading about a pilot project conducted by Ontario's Ministry of Transport. Through this pilot they surveyed 300 drivers across about a dozen different carriers. In this survey drivers were asked about their knowledge of current laws. In the initial replies, 75% of the drivers thought they understood the laws "very well". However, subsequent testing of those drivers found that only 25% were consistently able to answer questions in this area correctly.

That floored me.

A full 50% of the drivers in that survey thought they understood the laws "very well" but didn't. I don't know about you, but if those were my drivers that would scare the hell out of me! As many as half of the drivers think they know stuff that they don't. I'd sure be losing sleep wondering which drivers in my fleet were the ones that didn't really understand.

You can't blame the drivers, though. Probably all of us have areas where we think we're pretty knowledgeable but aren't. The drivers are out there doing their best, trying to keep the freight moving, and trying to keep up with the alphabet soup of new regulations that are dumped on them every 6 months or so.

I'd be interested in seeing the results for the rest of the surveyed drivers. If 75% thought they understood the laws, then 25% acknowledged that they didn't. Were those drivers correct in their assumptions? How did they do on the subsequent testing?

Understanding what drivers know and what they don't know is a critical part of an effective training and development program. After all, you can't fix something if you don't know it's broken. The trick, of course, is figuring out where the gaps are before it's too late.

How do you know when a driver needs extra help?