WorkHound, a software platform developed to help carriers reduce driver turnover, has published a case study with Southern Refrigerated Transport (SRT) detailing the effectiveness of its driver feedback system. The bottom line: WorkHound over the last six months has reduced SRT’s driver turnover by 16% and resulted in $580,000 in savings, according to the report.
Since its founding in 1986, SRT has grown to over 900 drivers. Terri Lafayette, Recruiting Director at SRT, sees the company’s family atmosphere as influential to its success.
“If it costs $4,000 to replace a driver [at SRT], and you’re losing 10 drivers a week, that’s a lot of money,” Lafayette said.
SRT began using WorkHound in February 2016. With WorkHound, drivers use their smartphones to share anonymous feedback, praise, problems, and ideas with carriers. WorkHound then aggregates that data and turns it into actionable insights to help carriers manage and retain their drivers.
“What I liked about WorkHound was that it was simple,” Lafayette said. “It was easy to understand, gave the drivers an outlet, and it wasn’t going to be difficult for the drivers to use, unlike some of the other solutions we had researched.”
Indeed, the ability to get started quickly is crucial to the platform’s ability to help carriers retain drivers, noted Max Farrell, co-founder of WorkHound.
“In trucking, it is really important to understand and address urgent issues at the speed of business,” Farrell said. “[Carriers] may survey drivers and sit on the information for three months, but they’ll lose a lot of people in that time.”
According to American Trucking Assns., turnover continues to skyrocket around the industry. In the fourth quarter of 2015 alone, driver turnover rates at large truckload carriers climbed to 102%.
“WorkHound was a very worthwhile investment, and I think other companies are going to have to do the same thing,” Lafayette said.
The case study is available for download.
