Drivers are at the heart of your business, but how greatly do you value them? And, how well do you know them?
This week’s Big Story (p6-7) shines a spotlight into the dark corners about driving. While you may hope that nothing like that happens to you, history has shown that even the best, well run and most respected firms can have incidents where the driver is directly responsible. And, worse the employer could have prevented it.
Raise the subject of drivers with operators and it’s common to be told that there is a driver shortage; it’s almost impossible to get good drivers and that retention is hard.
It is true that these days younger people place greater value on their social life and having a ‘nine-to-five’ job, rather than the shift or out-of-hours work that coach driving entails. It’s a cultural change that we have to live with.
But what about employers? Paying ‘above the going rate’ might be attractive, and certainly some drivers will move company for another 50p an hour, but there’s more to retention than that.
A respected operator in an area where we are told there is an acute shortage of coach drivers, tell us: “There’s not a driver shortage, just a shortage of decent companies to work for.” He then explains the nature of work that his firm will accept and the types of duties they don’t expect their drivers to do.
Other benefits can be more obvious, such as joining the increasing numbers of operators who are providing workplace benefits, such as membership of the Transport Benevolent Fund, as part of the employment package. Clearly, new thinking is required.
