I’ll leave the rest for some other time. Just realize that pre-hired means less than being pre-approved for a credit card. You could be “pre-hired” by ten companies and not be hired by any of them for any reason they feel like.

“recognition” doesn’t mean being recognized in front of others, it’s about respect from people in corporate who get their salaries from what you do. You might be able to contact someone if something isn’t right, but it’s what they do with that information that makes the difference.

That said, I’m in the process of choosing a company, and maybe my perspective is valuable here. First of all, I don’t care crap for “recognition”, at least on a company-wide level. If there is a driver recognition program, I don’t really care if I get recognized in front of a bunch of people. What is going to be important to me is whether I have someone (non-driver) in the company that I can contact if something isn’t right, if I need to blow a whistle, if I have a suggestion, etc. It would be GREAT if there was someone in the office I could talk to when I need about company policies and so forth.

There are drivers (like me for instance) that will be very sensitive to very particular company policies. In my case, I really don’t want to work for a company where I’ll never be able to bring my dog with me. I’ll pay the multi-hundred-dollar fee plus the ongoing small fee or whatever, but nobody is ever going to tell me that I’m going on the road for weeks at a time without my best friend. I’m sure others have issues like smoking in the truck or whatever, but mine is my dog. He’s going with me, period. And if I hire on with a company that has a pet policy and after I start they remove that policy, they will soon have one less driver. I was pre-hired before I started school with two companies, only one of which has a pet policy. I haven’t even really seriously considered the non-pet company, and I have it fixed in my head that if I hire on with the other and they cancel the pet policy, I’m going somewhere else.

I get the idea that trucking companies tend to change their policies without giving due consideration to the results of their decisions. They should maybe consider just slowing down the pace of change. I’ve been a software developer for nearly 20 years, and one of the things that drove me out was constantly having to learn new programming languages, learn new software and so forth. People can only change so fast, and I had been burning the candle at both ends for a long time. I know that the same thing has obviously been happening in the trucking industry, because I have an uncle who did a lot of trucking back in the 80s and 90s, and by what my instructors say, he wouldn’t last a week in today’s environment. He would be busted for drinking (he liked his beer and wasn’t particular about whether he was driving at the time) or not keeping his log book up or something else.

Anyway, those are the thoughts of someone much less wise than others who have posted here previously. As I said, I don’t have much to offer other than a take from a different perspective.

Paul is correct, just talk to them and listen, help where you can (they may end up helping you). Everyone needs to feel appreciated and recognized occasionally. Drivers will leave for various reasons, in most cases it’s to better themselves and their families.

What can we do? In addition to annual performance reviews, set up a schedule to meet with each driver every 3 months to hear what’s working and what needs improvement. Then, follow up. Have a driver recognition progarm and make a BIG deal out of it.
Thanks for the post James.
Mike

http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/truthabouttrucking

So what would Nokia do that is so substantial that doesn’t involve pleasing the consumer? To me at least, it doesn’t make any sense for a company like Nokia to plan world affairs. And who are the consumers that companies live off of? It is you, me and even ‘Yosemite Sam.’ We are the ones that keep these companies alive and thriving. Stop buying phones, gas, printers/ computer software and there are several companies that, ‘run the world,’ gone from power. Therefore, you, the individual, has the most power.