New Stay Metrics Study Examines Drivers’ Pre-Turnover Thoughts

Posted on |

Notable trends emerge for drivers who are thinking of changing jobs

Share:

South Bend, IN. Feb 26— Stay Metrics, the leading provider of driver retention tools, announces new research showing the differences in pre-turnover thoughts by drivers for key demographics and segments in the trucking industry in 2018.

Read the full report at no cost by clicking the image above!

Stay Metrics published the new research as a Stay Data Story, adding more insights and benchmarks to the recently launched Stay Days Table. Together these two reports help carriers understand industry trends so they can counter the driver shortage and early driver turnover.

“In response to the industry-wide driver shortage and high early turnover, understanding which types of drivers are the most at-risk provides carriers with a powerful tool to address the underlying issues,” said Tim Hindes, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Stay Metrics.

Observations show that pre-turnover thoughts of drivers are often a precursor to actual turnover. To discover what types of drivers are more likely to consider leaving their carriers, Stay Metrics analyzed 16,065 responses to one of the questions on the in-depth Annual Driver Satisfaction survey. The responses from drivers represented 75 carriers in 2018.

The survey question asks drivers how strongly they agree or disagree with this statement: “In the last six months, I have considered leaving my carrier.” The study breaks down responses by gender, age, industry experience, driver type, and equipment.

In response to the industry-wide driver shortage and high early turnover, understanding which types of drivers are the most at-risk provides carriers with a powerful tool to address the underlying issues

Key findings are summarized below:

Gender: Female drivers tended to disagree more strongly that they had thought about leaving their carrier. This result is consistent with a previous study in 2018 by Stay Metrics that found women are more satisfied overall than men with their carriers.

Age: The 41-50 and 51-60 ranges are most likely to agree or strongly agree that they thought about leaving in 2018. Generally, the data show the tendency of drivers to be thinking of leaving is fairly consistent across all age groups. The only group that drops noticeably is drivers over 60.

Industry experience: Drivers with less than one year of industry experience and drivers with 7 to 15 years of experience were the most strongly to agree that they considered leaving.

Driver type: The only major area of difference noticed in this data set was that owner-operators seemed slightly less likely to have considered leaving than other types of drivers (company, subcontractors and lease/purchase).

Equipment: Refrigerated and flatbed drivers were noticeably less likely to have considered leaving their carrier. Intermodal drivers were the most likely to have thought about leaving.

The factors in the Stay Data Story may be contributing to the early driver turnover that is tracked by the Stay Days Table. This recent report by Stay Metrics serves as a “survivor” chart in the trucking industry that shows the number of drivers hired by carriers each month and the percentage remaining at specific milestones after their date of hire — 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, etc. The table allows Stay Metrics to follow specific cohorts of drivers and show how well carriers are retaining them over time.

The Annual Driver Satisfaction survey is one of several products in the Stay Metrics toolkit that gives drivers a safe and effective way to provide honest feedback to their carriers at critical stages in the employment lifecycle.

The Stay Data Story series will be an ongoing series of data releases by Stay Metrics. It will be published periodically when significant trends are found in the company’s data that are useful to the transportation industry at-large.

The Stay Data Story on Driver Intent to Leave in 2018 is available free of charge at http://go.staymetrics.com/staydatastory

About Stay Metrics

Stay Metrics helps motor carriers realize Retention. Not Regrets. Its industry-leading retention toolkit includes onboarding, exit, and annual satisfaction surveys as well as a fully featured online rewards platform. Robust reporting tools, targeted driver intervention opportunities, and insightful client support teams all give carriers actionable data on what is causing turnover in their driver workforce and what changes might reduce it. These tools help drive down expenses, foster fleet growth, and improve the lives of drivers.

Stay Metrics is based at Innovation Park at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN, and was recently named a “Best Place to Work in Michiana” by the South Bend Tribune.

What to read next