Moving Words – Retaining Van Operators

Timothy Brady

“Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.”—Simon Sinek

Spring is just around the corner. And with spring comes the time when movers’ efforts turn to planning and preparing for the coming moving season. February, March and April are historically when more van operators jump from their current moving company to another one, seeking that greener grass. So what are some ways to keep those van operators feeding off your pasture?

If asked to define the one activity in the relocation industry that will either make or break a moving company, it would be quality customer service. The most overlooked solution in customer service in our industry is how drivers are treated. How a driver feels he’s being treated will determine the quality of customer service the company’s shippers experience. What would happen if moving companies and van lines started using their customer service methods in how they handle their drivers?

Remember Stephen Covey’s book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: “If you treated your employees the way you expected your customers to be treated, you’d never have to worry how your customers are being handled.”

Driver turnover isn’t a given. For example, I was leased to a couple of excellent agents who understood the importance of quality drivers to their business. I was with one agency for over fifteen years, and they had a waiting list of Van Operators wanting to go lease with them the entire time. When I left that agency to haul a different type of commodity, I was a mid-seniority contractor. There was a large percentage of drivers that had been there for thirty to thirty-five years (some of them are still driving for this agent today).

What about the ‘other’ customers the trucking company and trucker have? That’s right, each other. The trucking company provides services to the trucker in the form of finding and dispatching loads, handling payment collection and auditing safety concerns, along with many other services. The trucker, whether company employee or leased operator, provides the services of hauling household goods, electronics, trade shows, and other items to their customer base, maintaining equipment for the moving company, and providing important customer service to the mover’s shippers.

Now let’s take Covey’s idea a bit further. If trucking companies and truckers were to look at each other as their best customer, and spend their time working on this give-and-take approach of service provider to customer and vice-versa, a lot of this ‘greener grass’ job-hopping would cease.

This paradigm shift would be beneficial in several ways. Just like a company spends its energy and time figuring out ways to provide a higher quality of service to its best customers, now van operator and moving company are working on developing greater value in the services they provide each other. This would lead to the end customer receiving a higher quality of hauling service because of the new effort. To keep a customer, you need to give him or her service that is of a greater value than any of your competitors. That value, as we know, is not in how low the price is they pay for our services, but in the value they receive for the price.

For a mover to keep a driver, or for a driver to remain with a company requires the same value approach. In a word, “Consistency.” The moving companies who retain their van operators provide value in what their drivers need by providing them what they want. What do the majority of truckers want? According to a driver retention study way back in 2007 at the University of Arkansas, truckers want “consistency” in weekly pay and “consistency” in time home. From all indications, that hasn’t changed 14 years later. So the moving companies whose drivers know what their pay is going to be every week, and when and how long they’ll be at home are the ones who will have very little van operator turnover.

That same level of “consistency” is both wanted and needed by the moving company from its van operators. Not mediocre, almost-there-on-time consistency, but high-end, beyond expectation consistency. By drivers concentrating on providing the highest quality service in a consistent manner, the company increases its value to shippers. When the van operator’s customers – shippers and moving company – receive the highest quality in service, the value of the service increases in a monetary fashion for all involved; a win, win, win for everyone.

Movers and their drivers need to concentrate on making the highest quality service a habit. As with developing and growing a customer, moving companies and van operators need to approach their relationship in the same manner: know what each needs and fulfill those needs by providing what each wants. In the spirit of customer service which goes beyond satisfaction to raving fan status, van lines, their agents, the independent movers and their van operators need to develop the same level of ‘Raving Fan’ spirit with each other. All of this results in higher-paying loads, putting more money in everyone’s pocket and the satisfaction of doing a great job: meaning you’ll like your drivers and they’ll actually like you. What a concept! The grass will be greener on your side of the fence  – without the bull.

“Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled.”—Anne M. Mulcahy