Drivers at the center of everything we do—it’s a real business strategy with major ROI
Through the first months of 2025, the average number of driver hires per month has climbed from 2024, which itself climbed from 2023, which climbed from 2022, and so on. That’s according to data published by the DOT about pre-employment screenings for professional drivers.
March, the most recent month for which data is available, was one of the most active months for driver hiring over the past five years.
What does that tell me? Even through this years-long freight recession, challenging as it has been for our industry, carriers still face immense challenges in retaining drivers. We aren’t generally seeing meaningful headcount growth outside of private fleets right now, and it’s our contention at NTI that these elevated hiring numbers are driven by replacement demand to try to maintain headcount.
The hard data aligns with what I hear from motor carriers and private fleets almost daily: We’re struggling with retention, and we’re searching for answers. Yes, we can find drivers to replace those who leave, but we don’t want to.
For those internally wanting to tackle turnover head-on and find solutions, convincing leadership to invest in retention programs and strategies can be a hard sell in this market. Applying resources to stymie churn when the perception is that drivers are easily replaceable sounds like a drain. Why? Because the expensive, high cost of turnover is already baked into the expenses of running a trucking company. Our industry has long accepted high turnover and the toll it takes on the time, energy, and financial resources of our companies and our people.
If the vibe at our company is that our people are expendable or replaceable, it’s obvious.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, including and especially in a market like the one we’re in now.
From my perspective, building programs to retain drivers doesn’t mean overspending, aggressive pay raises, or putting your company’s finances on the line. I argue strongly that not investing appropriately in retention is far more costly and erodes the bottom line more than accepting the high expense of the churn-and-replace model.
See also: Bridging the gap: How the trucking industry can attract Gen Z amidst labor challenges
In a market like the current one, which is relentlessly tiresome, it’s tough to find opportunities to provide meaningful base pay gains for drivers, and productivity opportunities that could bolster drivers’ pay have also taken a hit.
We don’t have to be tone-deaf to that environment when we communicate with drivers as part of our retention strategy. What we can do is work to communicate clearly, consistently, and effectively about our values and strive to validate the human being who is working hard for us behind the wheel. In the grind we’re all in, everyone who shows up to work hard and focuses on delivering safely deserves recognition and to be reminded of our gratitude for doing so.
Whether we’re in the best of boom times and we’re trying to double down on retention, or whether people across our organizations are wiped out after years of navigating a downturn, the principles and tenets that create success don’t really change. Selling and re-selling our jobs and our company and reminding drivers why they chose us and why they want to stay—these are habits we can build and sustain (and find success with!) no matter what’s happening outside of our control in the freight market, the labor market, or the myriad of other variables that surround our industry and our companies.
These points hit home for me recently, based on a few conversations within a matter of days. The aforementioned talks with fleet personnel disheartened about retention, and then, in a call with Robin Hutcheson, past administrator of the DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from 2022 to 2024.
While she had spent her career in broader transportation roles that touched trucking, during her time at the FMCSA, she became enmeshed in it, learning from and balancing all the various layers and intricate (and often diverging) interests of our industry. Her key takeaway from running the federal government’s trucking regulatory body for nearly three years? At the root of so many conversations, topics, policies, and functions within our industry is the driver. The center of everything we do is the driver behind the wheel.
What that means to all of us at the fleet level is being deeply connected to what drivers are experiencing, what they need, what they struggle with, what messaging and values resonate with them at your company, and how to define their experience working for your company.
Drivers are at the center of everything we do. That’s not only a feel-good talking point or a concept. It’s a business strategy. The companies that abide by this strategy are the ones that excel and succeed in reaching and maintaining their desired headcount, meeting their customers’ capacity commitments, providing best-in-class careers and jobs, and operating as profitably as possible through any market condition.
