Future Drivers

I remember when I got into towing I knew nothing about the towing industry.  Our business was private property towing, which again, I knew nothing about.  I had 5 trucks and 8 drivers and I watched them daily fight over trucks.  My trucks were old so they all wanted the trucks that would run.  I actually had drivers that would sabotage the trucks so they knew when they started their shift they knew they had a truck to get into.

Then I had dispatchers that were getting gifts from drivers in exchange for call in tows.  At this point I was wondering what I got myself into.  My experience in management I learned to form my own opinion and evaluate people based on my experience with them and don’t believe everything you were told.

I was running this company 30 years ago, so the driver of today is different.  The first thing I wanted to do is learn as much as possible about my employees.  I have always preached that your employees are your biggest asset, and I wanted nothing but the best.  Knowing your employees would be a key to building a successful business.  I asked each employee to fill out a questioner about the following based on a scale of one to ten with ten being good:

1. How do you rate your job performance?
2. How do you rate your job knowledge?
3. How do you rate your attitude?
4. How do you rate the moral of the company?
5. How do you rate management?

Here is what I learned from their answers:

1. If they had a attitude about the questions, I could correct it without making it an issue.
2. I could see if I had a management problem.
3. They all thought their performance was outstanding.
4. They all thought they knew everything needed to perform the job.
5. I learned about the moral of the company and what I had to do to make it better.

In today’s world I would not even be allowed to ask your employees these types of questions.  I talked to tower in Minnesota who told me his drivers come in when they want and go home when they want.  One driver has purple hair and it hard to put someone like that in front of their customers.  They expect breaks and salary increases in a timely manner.  With employees like this it is hard to successfully run the company.

When I first got into towing I learned quickly that all towers have tattoos.  I don’t have a problem with them, but I knew what I wanted my employees to look like.  I would go to Sam’s or Home Depot and find some one I thought would fit into my company.  I’d approach them and offer them an opportunity for a exciting career.  These people went through a screening process that I would not have to do.  I could offer them a salary increase, and their appearance was good enough to put them in front of my customers.  I screened 5, 2 of them were hired. I trained them way I wanted them to tow and they turned out to be good employees.

Once I had the staff I had to figure out how to keep them.  They knew they were constantly under review, so they worked hard to do their best.  Here are a few incentives I offered to keep them happy:

1. Raises – You can always make someone happy with money.
2. Bonuses – extra money if they tow a required number of cars.
3. Truck Preference – Drivers love their trucks. If they were exceptional, I would let them pick out their own truck and buy it for them.
4. I offered schedule preferences
5. Extra equipment like tools, chains, or go-jacks.
6. Time off, I encouraged them to spend time with their families.
7. Lunch, movie tickets, and envelope pulls. I had 35 employees, and I would put 50 envelopes on the wall.  Each envelope had money in it.  All employees drew an envelope, so they all got something.
8. Training and certification testing
9. Acknowledgement in from of all their peers.

• Finally, a good old pat on the back to let them know you acknowledge their performance.

Finding employees in todays world is difficult.  You have to be politicly correct about everything.

1. Run classified ads in newspapers if you can find a newspaper
2. Job fairs – This is unorthodox for the towing industry
3. Recruiting agencies – This could cost money
4. Networking – You can’t network because that person is looking for
5. Social media, or websites. Again, this cost money and its hard for owners to use these methods.
6. Mobil apps can be helpful if you know how to find the right app.
7. Employee referrals always works, but drivers will not recommend anyone better than them.

Find drivers for the next ten years will be hard.  There will be no family members to leave your company to.  Employees of the future are always on the phone and are not used to the steps required to a car, or hand equipment necessary to perform a tow.  I run two companies and I always have trouble finding good employees.  They want maximum dollars, they want to work from home, and they want to work their hours.

I would love to open up a trade school for blue collar workers and teach them the towing industry.  We have many good programs out there that could be used to teach future drivers, and plenty of experienced drivers that could teach hands-on when required.  Associations could get together and set up a nice program they benefits all tow companies.  Go to the national association and ask them to get involved.