Carrot or the Stick?

If you have been a parent, a coach, a manager or in really any type of leadership role, you have been faced with the age old question. The Carrot or the Stick? How do you get the person in question to follow directions and or behave the way you need them too? How do you judge their activity,or do you just have a zero tolerance policy and rule with an iron fist?

In the towing industry, the proper way to work with drivers can be tricky. You want them to drive correctly for many reasons. Maybe it’s to take better care of your equipment because repairs and replacements are expensive, to reduce complaint calls and make sure you keep a positive image in your community as a responsible business.Perhaps it’s to reduce accidents, fuel costs, maintenance costs, insurance costs and as my mom used to say, “because I told you too” or “because I said so”!

When they aren’t doing well, what is your recourse?

The Stick

Berating or firing anyone who doesn’t listen can cause other issues. Good operators aren’t always easy to find and are expensive to train, get certified and this can turn into an endless cycle messing with your company’s culture. It’s not fun to run or work at a business where you are constantly walking around with your boot up someone’s backside. Nor is it an enjoyable feeling like someone is watching you so closely that every little thing you do wrong, someone is going to jump down your throat.

The Carrot

At Azuga, we have developed a part of our software called the driver rewards program for just this reason, and it works like a charm. If you are using Azuga you can access this page, and it gives you a report card on every driver scoring them like you would in school. 100-90 is an A, 89-80 B, 79-70 C, 69-60 D, and you guessed it, 59 and below is an F.

The way the grading system works is it takes into account speeding events and severity, harsh braking events, harsh steering events and other driving events. You, as the business owner, can give weight to issues that may be more important to your business. So, it measures it in a way that specifically fits your business needs.

You can click on that driver’s score, and it will spell out the biggest issues they are having, and if you click down one more you can see the specific driving events that they have had during the grading period. This is very handy for driver meetings and training to use in a manner that will help them “improve their score”.

Now for the fun part. You, as the owner, can load money directly into the page to reward drivers. You can do it as a contest for the top 3 drivers or anyone who scores over an 85, or however you want to set it up. Azuga’s drivers reward program will keep up with all the  data, drivers can check their scores at any time on their app, or you can even set up a TV in the drivers lounge with the updating standings.

Winners are notified on the app, and they can claim the reward directly from there in the form of a bunch of different gift cards, such as: Visa cards, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Walmart, Longhorn Steaks or hundreds more.

No solution is perfect.  With Azuga you can get the data to do either the Carrot or the Stick.  However, research says the Carrot works!