“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.”

- Lawrence Bossidy, Former COO of GE and Author

Last week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported (.pdf) that firms added 157,000 employees to their payrolls during January. As in December, the construction and manufacturing sectors continued to expand and for-hire trucking employment also grew, increasing by 5000 employees since December.... Read More

Another year has passed us by and like many, some of us will make a New Year’s Resolution to quit smoking, lose weight, get fit, be a better dad, mother, husband, wife, leader and employee. The thing about resolutions is that they are nothing more than good intentions unless there is a careful plan backed by accountability. ... Read More

Truck Driver Ordered OOS Because Of Undisclosed Medical Condition, recently, this headline raised the sound of alarm in the trucking industry when a driver struck a police officer killing him. When the driver was questioned he told the officer that he had lost consciousness. The driver was on a medication that disqualified him from driving a commercial vehicle.... Read More

“I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
And I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again.” The Who... Read More

Let's summarize, shall we? Our friend Jorge has increased factory pay levels from an average of $1.05 an hour to $3.75 per hour, had a short lived success with retention and recruiting, and was now right back to where he started. High turnover and low production due to shortage of factory workers. Now his current rosters of factory workers were all at the higher pay level. Sound frustrating and all too familiar?... Read More

By now, you’ve probably read our blogs on recruiting drivers and driver retention. With topics like the “ZMOT”, and the unmentioned wicked problem of driver retention, we really hope that you gained some valuable insight from them. Now, let’s look at it another way….... Read More

Thought of the Day - When one of your drivers comes to you stating he is leaving for more money, you give him a raise in an effort to keep him, how long does he typically stay?

So, Jorge and his European superiors are enjoying the fruits of the new employee pay increase, production is running at almost 100%, customer demand is being met. Then, slowly, after a few months, one employee after another leaves. This was not a huge issue at first, as there are still plenty of new employees coming in the front door, as the trained employees exit out the back door.... Read More

Regulations for CMV drivers are changing, in particular with regards to medical cards. The changes affect various kinds of drivers differently. The rules remain the same as to which drivers need a federal medical certificate (Fed Med card) while operating a commercial vehicle, but drivers will now have to provide an up-to-date copy of this card to the DMV when they obtain it. ... Read More

We have a lot to cover on this topic, so posts will continue daily throughout the week...

So the new higher pay rates were a huge a success, the next few weeks were chaotic with training, but the plant was back at full production. There was a lot of backslapping and hand shaking as the executives were very happy. This higher cost of labor was fairly easy to absorb in the cost of the product, (when a production line sits idle because of lack of labor, as we all know, it's not good for anyone) and more importantly they were able to meet customer demand.... Read More