Moving Words – Brain Drain
Timothy Brady
“If that employee had unique expertise in a specific area, losing him could be a serious threat to your organization.” – Chris Cancialosi
As a moving company dealing with the pandemic-driven exodus of seasoned and experienced van operators, you need to think ahead to stay in front of your competition. Two of the areas that continually create challenges for managers in the moving industry are one, finding qualified drivers, and two, hanging onto them once they’re on board.
It’s a known fact as the Boomer population ages, many of your experienced, seasoned movers are looking to get off the road and retire. It’s really difficult to replace their experience and knowledge with younger truckers who are just learning the ropes of the moving business. This ‘brain drain’ can create major holes in the efficiency and quality of service within your operation. Is there a way to overcome this exiting of knowledge and skill sets?
Certainly. Don’t let the knowledge go out the door.
Experienced van operators and movers who’ve been at the heart of your moving operation for years are your best candidates for becoming dispatchers. Let me explain. When I first entered trucking back in the early eighties, my first dispatcher was named Carly. He was in his early sixties, and after nearly 35 years as a van operator had come to the point where being on the road was no longer an option. He’d been an exemplary mover with many safety and customer service awards. The agency to which I was contracted knew the value of his experience and knowledge. Office legend had it that if a place existed and a truck went there, Carly had been there. He could tell a greenhorn like me not only how to get to a pick-up or delivery location, but what the challenges I’d face were and how to overcome them. He could tell you how to legally drive and log a particularly difficult schedule. He helped us newbies diagnose a mechanical problem so we couldn’t be taken advantage of on the road. And the best part is, he knew how to make money for both the van operator and the company, having done it for those 35 years. I learned a tremendous amount of what I needed to know from Carly.
Think of it this way. Take a great mover like Carly, who’s been successful in the moving industry on the front lines, along with his immense knowledge of how the industry works. As a lone van operator, he’s really only impacting his own income and the carrier’s revenue as it relates to his performance. Put him into operations as a dispatcher (or, better yet, a fleet manager) and you have exponentially spread his skills and knowledge throughout your entire operation. Instead of having one exceptional van operator, you now have your entire agency utilizing his knowledge.
By taking a ready-to-retire trucker with decades of experience and placing him or her in a position helping the younger up-and-coming truckers, you’ll have a far happier team of van operators, with one of their own watching their backs. He’s also helping improve your bottom line through more efficient use of your van operators’ time, and ensuring they make fewer mistakes handling and transporting your customers’ belongings. This helps solve the van operator retention dilemma, creates a far more efficient operation, and improves your moving company’s bottom line in a single move. Sheer genius? What do you think?
“Brain drain” is the loss of business-specific and/or industry-specific knowledge suffered due to employee attrition. When experienced people leave a company, they take their brains with them – including all their knowledge and experience. – Mark Riffey
