How to keep your fleet drivers happy

A happy fleet driver is a better performing one. Here are several strategies for fleet managers to help look after the wellbeing of your drivers and keep them happy.

Hiring new drivers for your business is a time-intensive, stressful and potentially expensive experience.

You might not be the only business manager to think, “I’m sure hiring people used to be a lot easier”. And that’s why it’s so important, and far more efficient, to keep the fleet drivers you’ve got. Staff retention isn’t as simple as remembering to pay people regularly; it’s about paying attention to the wellbeing of your fleet drivers and keeping them happy as well.

So let’s look at some staff retention strategies for fleet managers. How do you keep your fleet drivers happy?

Communicate with your drivers

As a fleet manager, you and your drivers perform very different roles, so it’s important to find ways, and the time, to reach out to them and show you’re willing to hear their concerns. Take an interest in how they feel about their roles and their workload, and they will feel appreciated. A cold, distant, uncommunicative boss is not one people want to stay working for.

Reward and recognise

If your fleet drivers are being kind to the machinery and looking after the cars and trucks in your fleet, they’re going to last longer. As a bonus, rewarding staff who are doing so will make staff feel special, and encourage the right behaviours. So why not offer a monthly reward for good driving? Choose the driver with the best driving record and either take them to lunch, reward them with a voucher, give them bonus time off, or a trophy.

Give drivers the right tools

No one wants to turn up to work and drive a vehicle that’s dirty, poorly maintained or worn out, so making sure your fleet is in tip-top condition is one way to keep your fleet drivers enthused about their work, and proud of the vehicles they’re driving.

Managing the load

Feeling overworked and under-rewarded is likely to have staff looking for a way out, or a better job somewhere else. So be sure to monitor how many hours your staff are working, whether they’re racking up the overtime, and make sure they are taking appropriate holiday time, rather than backing up their leave days (which is bad for them, and bad for the books of your business). Monitoring levels of stress and exhaustion is vital to ensure your fleet drivers are happy.

Make your employee’s life easy

Another simple way to keep your fleet drivers happy is to make the basics of their lives as simple as possible. Consider providing a Shell Card so they can fill up with no hassles at one of more than 1,500 Shell Card accepting sites. You can also reward your drivers with Flybuys.

Don’t hold back on the praise

A simple and very effective way to boost an employee’s work satisfaction is to offer praise. The valuable skill of offering praise in the workplace is one many of us need to refine. Research carried out by Christopher Littlefield at Harvard Business Review found that while 88 per cent of respondents felt valued after receiving praise, nearly 70 per cent felt embarrassment or discomfort in the process of both giving and receiving a compliment.

Offering feedback that is both authentic and specific is the key – don’t just praise for the sake of it, have a good reason. And be sure to give explicit details about why you’re impressed, paying particular notice to the effort taken as well as the results.

^Disclaimer

^{Viva Energy Australia Pty Ltd (“Viva Energy”) has compiled the above article for your general information and to use as a general reference. Whilst all reasonable care has been taken by Viva Energy in compiling this article, Viva Energy does not warrant or represent that the information in the article is free from errors or omissions or is suitable for your intended use.}