Key Findings From This Year’s Best Fleets to Drive For Program

In an industry that has long held onto its “traditional” ways of managing operations, many fleets in recent years use technology to their advantage.

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After years of evaluating participants in the Best Fleets to Drive for Program, recently completing its 12th year, there have been a lot of industry changes. And, the best fleets in the industry continue to innovate, regardless of market conditions. They’re always looking to improve company culture and improve efficiency. That continues to hold true again this year.

Here’s how some of the Top 20 best fleets continue to adopt or improve.

Improving the shipper-driver experience

Drivers don’t have the patience for shipper delays, nor should they. It costs them money. Since the standardization of ELDs, the need for a driver to maximize their hours of service is more important than ever. The best fleets understand all this, and there have been a number of them that work with their drivers -- creating innovative ways to minimize shipper delays. Or, if they are delayed, compensation is increasing and coming sooner.

Many of today’s best fleets use mobile apps for drivers to enhance transparency between the shipper, driver and fleet. Most of these apps are designed so that a driver can rate the pickup and delivery experience. Drivers can review a shipping yards’ amenities, ease of entry/exit, experience working with staff, wait time and other topics that contribute to a driver’s overall experience while awaiting freight. This allows drivers to report back to their fleet with information that can be considered for future planning with that shipper. Maybe even a rate review if needed. This makes it easy for a driver to provide honest feedback about their negative or positive experiences with specific shippers. It’s especially important during this pandemic when facility access may change from day to day.

Guaranteed pay

Fleets continue to adopt guaranteed pay programs. Nearly every Top 20 fleet offered a full guaranteed pay structure to drivers this past year.

It was just five years ago that Boyle Transportation made waves as the first best fleet to highlight its guaranteed pay program. They helped start the trend.

As more fleets transition to offering base salaries, it may not be long before this becomes the standard form of pay in the industry. The stability of knowing how much is in a paycheck, combined with the benefits some fleets offer when drivers exceed goals is becoming increasingly desired by drivers. Driver satisfaction with a fleet that offers guaranteed pay is higher, which indirectly helps a fleet retain drivers.

Maximizing uptime

On the surface, servicing a truck during a driver’s “home time” seems simple, but when you factor in that even drivers with the Top 20 best fleets average only 34-48 consecutive hours of home time a week, it’s not so easy. Scheduling can be a challenge. Nonetheless, even in the short time frame, we’ve found that nearly all of the Top 20 best fleets have programs in place to perform preventative maintenance during that window to keep drivers on the road while reducing equipment related downtime. It makes a difference in maximizing productivity, so expect to see more fleets make this a core requirement in the coming years.

Development and career growth

In an industry that has long held onto its “traditional” ways of managing operations, many fleets in recent years use technology to their advantage. And, every Top 20 best fleet this year used social media to some degree.

Social media eliminates the many headaches that come with delivering important company messages while drivers are on the road. CarriersEdge research showed that 60% of the Top 20 best fleets used social media tools to supplement or replace their “traditional” driver meetings – Facebook Live being the most popular. And, some fleets regularly reach 100% of their drivers through these channels.

This year, podcasts grew in popularity among fleets as another way to communicate with drivers. Fleets use this tool as a way to share company information and driver “success” stories.

Environmental practices

This year, the Top 20 fleets significantly improved their environmental practices. For a number of years, fleets have upgraded to more fuel-efficient equipment and integrate systems to improve aerodynamics to reduce their trucks’ carbon emissions. But, that was typically the extent of their environmental-based decisions.

This year, more fleets are taking a more “holistic” approach to their environmental programs by improving sustainable practices at their facilities, in addition to adding fuel-efficient equipment. For example, offering compost bins for employees to throw biodegradable items into instead of using trash cans. Many of these environmentally driven programs allow all company employees to contribute and make a difference.

If a fleet is putting forth the effort to improve their environmental footprint, it’s likely they’re improving other areas within their organization as well. It’s a sign of good company culture, and something this year’s Top 20 fleets are doing.

As sustainable practices become more commonplace throughout the industry, improvements from fleets will set the tone for other fleets to follow.

Future outlook

With natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires becoming more frequent and widespread (this survey was conducted in late 2019, before COVID-19 was a concern), all top-performing fleets have contingencies for ensuring their drivers are safe. In fact, a majority of these fleets didn’t have a formal “disaster plan” for the company to follow. That will undoubtedly change next year.

With COVID-19 sweeping the entire globe, fleets are tasked with finding solutions to the many operational challenges the virus poses. Fleets that have never dealt with the impacts from a natural disaster are adjusting on the go. 

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