Intense competition for drivers has a few motor carriers trying out an idea they might have dismissed in the past as foolhardy: what if we let drivers chose their own loads?
Companies with owner-operators have been doing this already, but some are now giving company drivers the same freedom and removing a friction point with management. By all accounts, drivers respond positively when granted more control and predictability over their work schedules.
USA Truck (USAT) Capacity Solutions received the 2021 CCJ Innovator of the Year award for a program it created last year called “Drive Your Plan.”
The program was an extension of an internal load board and mobile app developed in late 2018 for leased contractor drivers. It proved to be a hit. Driver productivity increased and turnover fell.
Entering 2020, USAT leadership wanted to act on feedback it had been receiving from weekly driver pulse surveys. Company drivers were requesting more control over their work-life and home time.
[Related: USAT Truck gives drivers authority to plan, self-dispatch loads]
