Uptime

A few years back, a carrier I know was struggling under US DOT scrutiny. None of his trucks ever got a “wave through” at a roadside scale.

What the carrier didn’t know was that his fleet had exceeded its allowable threshold for mechanical defects and driver violations and had been flagged for full roadside inspections. The result? The carrier lost an hour, on average, at each scale its trucks crossed.
Inspection problems run deep. On top of excessive charges for roadside repair (have you ever had a repair bill for less than a few hundred bucks?) a violation citation carries its own sizeable pricetag.

Then there are the soft costs. A full inspection takes approximately one hour. Who’s paying the driver? Who’s paying you? Ongoing delays mean your customers lose confidence. You lose business. Furthermore, paid or not, drivers simply don’t like getting the full treatment
and morale will eventually plummet.

What would you say if I told you could turn this around for as little as $100 per roadside check?
And no, I haven’t lost it.

Here’s my pitch: Implement a driver-incentive program that pays a monetary award for every clean roadside inspection a driver turns in. I know of several progressive fleets that have done this. Even an incentive of $100 gets a driver’s attention.

Daily pre-trip and post-trip efforts will be more thorough. You will see an increase in repairs in the short term, but soon, your drivers will become more cognizant of necessary equipment repairs sooner and begin working more closely with your maintenance staff.

They will pay more attention to due dates for annual ministry and company inspection intervals.
Here’s how to do it right:

Make a splash when you start. Every driver must know how the program works and how much he or she can expect to win.

Make another big splash when you announce the winners. A pat on the back in the form of a carefully written letter goes a great distance in building morale. So does a photograph in the company newsletter.
Mail the prize home. If the driver’s better half knows about the achievement, your program will get even more support and encouragement. If there’s money to be made, you can count on the driver’s spouse to mark the next date for a safe driving awards ceremony on the kitchen fridge calendar.

Change the program when necessary. Modify criteria or add new categories–accident free trips, customer feedback, those kinds of things–to ensure your program remains current
and effective.

Keep the bar reachable. Gone are the once-a-year safety-bonus banquets. Payouts and rewards must happen more frequently, such as on a quarterly basis (better if monthly) to keep your drivers focused on achievements.

Make the program cumulative. Implement incentives that recognize five or 10 or 20 years of trouble-free spot checks.
Be creative. I know one fleet whose drivers collect points for safe driving, clean roadside inspection reports and a number of other measurable achievements. They can redeem points for great prizes, ranging from a swanky dinner for two to a trip to Vegas.

Make the rules clear. Goalposts cannot be open to interpretation. Examples of specific achievements include: accident-free quarters, customer compliments, clean roadside inspections, and violation-free driver’s abstracts.

Benchmark. Measure the program against the desired aims. Fortunately, it’s usually easy to figure out if the programs are doing what you want them to do, whether it’s decrease driver churn or just minimize downtime. The results should be clear so you’ll know how much to invest in the program in
the future.

There’s no end to what you can accomplish by rewarding people for a job well done. s