Carriers Outline Efforts to Retain Drivers

SAN DIEGO — Necessity is the mother of invention and, for trucking companies today, nothing is as necessary as obtaining and keeping drivers. So two trucking company executives told their colleagues about their efforts on the labor front.

CEO Reggie Dupré said Dupré Logistics switched from a per-mile to a per-hour payment system, and Rodney Rader described the multipronged approach at Prime Inc. involving fringe benefits and driver outreach.

The two men spoke here Oct. 6 at American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition.

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Dupré, whose Lafayette, Louisiana-based tank-truck carrier services the oil and gas and petrochemical industries, said the horror and crushing sadness of attending some driver funerals during a short span in the 1990s jolted him into action. He said the drivers died in rollover accidents, and those tragedies led him to analyze why the company was not running as safely as it should be.

Dupré said in trucking, “the scarcest resource is good people to run your business with.” Therefore, his drivers are guaranteed 40 hours of work a week and get paid overtime after that. Under ideal circumstances, he said, they work 50 to 55 hours a week.

Rader, director of technology for Springfield, Missouri-based Prime, said the company has cobbled together a mixture of bonuses, a health-and-welfare program, a driver-recognition program and communication through a smart-phone application to keep drivers onboard.

“We really try to make it a total package, but regardless of what we do [for drivers], they deserve more,” Rader said.