Why drivers are 'loud quitting' and how fleets can be proactive

Jason Cannon:
This week's 10-44 is brought to you by Chevron Delo 600 ADF ultra-low ash diesel engine oil. It's time to kick some ash.

Matt Cole:
The loud quitting TikTok trend is impacting trucking. How can fleets keep their names out of the spotlight?

Jason Cannon:
You're watching CCJ's 10-44, a weekly webisode that brings you the latest trucking industry news and updates from the editors of CCJ. Don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell for notifications so you'll never miss an installment of 10-44.

Hey everybody, welcome back. I'm Jason Cannon and my co-host on the other side is Matt Cole. Loud quitting is a relatively new trend of employees venting their frustrations with their employer, often on social media platforms like TikTok. Contrary to the name of the trend, it's not always associated with an employee actually quitting, but rather just an airing of the grievances with the company, whether it's over working conditions, pay, or other issues in a very public manner.

Matt Cole:
The loud quitting trend is happening in many industries and trucking's no different. Drivers who aren't happy with their current employment situation for any number of reasons will get on social media and put their company on blast. Max Farrell, CEO of WorkHound, joins us this week to talk about the trend and how it's impacting the industry.

Max Farrell:
So WorkHound is a communication platform. We focus on creating a feedback loop in real time between workers and their company, and we got our start in trucking, where as a lot of us know, there's a big challenge when it comes to turnover. And what we saw is that a lot of guys quit because they don't feel respected, they don't feel like they have a voice. And historically, the only options have been exited interviews or annual surveys. So it's either too late or too slow.

And so with WorkHound, we said let's help companies be proactive instead of reactive to understand and address the issues of their people and really roll up their sleeves to take action before people walk out the door so that they can not only improve their retention, but build a better company. Because ultimately, if you're listening to your eyes and ears on the front lines, they're going to give you the answers to some of your biggest problems. And so that's been our focus at WorkHound since we started close to eight years ago. We've got tens of thousands of workers on the platform across North America and are able to help companies figure out what's the good, the bad, and the ugly in their business, and do something about it.

Jason Cannon:
As the name might suggest, loud quitting is the opposite of quiet, quitting. Like with loud quitting, quiet quitting might not mean an employee is actually leaving their job, but they're basically quietly mentally checking out on that job.

Max Farrell:
In regards to the quiet quitting shifting to loud quitting, there's an argument to be made that this is the next phase of the great resignation where many workers, especially those in the youngest end of the labor pool that are likely to use a tool like TikTok, have shifted from this quiet quitting, where it's just steadily phasing away, to being more vocal about that frustration. And so what's interesting here is that you have different pockets of how people are approaching work right now because there is a shift in the markets, there's an increase in layoffs and in a lot of industries, especially places like the tech sector. And then in trucking, there is an increasing focus on efficiency.

And so for a lot of people there, they still want to value the work that they're doing and be a company that they really value, but they want to go where there is mutual respect, but also there's a focus on stability. And so if there are frustrations or worker's not able to get what they need, they're going to go look for greener pastures. And if you've rubbed somebody the wrong way as a company, they're probably going to be more vocal now than they have in the past to say what's on their mind, right, wrong, or indifferent.

Matt Cole:
There are a number of reasons why truck drivers are loud quitting. Max tells us what some of those are after a word from 10-44 sponsor, Chevron Lubricants.

Jason Cannon:
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Max Farrell:
For a lot of the posts, there's some themes that stand out on social media around mental health challenges or the feeling of exhausting or a lack of support, and then just a general sense of negativity. And it's understandable because it's a really hard job to be a professional driver. And if you're not getting that support from your company and your network at home is far away, it's tough to feel supported at all. And often, when people have their back against the wall, they have two choices. They can either fight or leave, and often it feels like leaving is the easier choice.

So then where I think you see some of this quit talk happening is where a person just feels completely neglected by the companies, like, well, I'm just going to say what's on my mind because they never listen to me anyway. And that's where we are seeing more companies turn to workforce listening or they are committing to listening to feedback so they don't create quit talk moments and they're able to better control the message by getting feedback and taking action on it before somebody walks out the door. So those are some of the shifts that we're seeing.

Jason Cannon:
When a driver loud quits on TikTok and puts their company on blast, it not only hurts the relationship between that driver and the carrier, it can also impact the fleet's recruiting and retention efforts.

Max Farrell:
Perception is reality, and in the absence of clear information, we're all humans and we're really good at filling the void with our worst thoughts and fears. And so for a company, it becomes a lot harder to control the message if you don't take care of worker issues on the front end. And it's really in your best interest to be proactive and get this feedback before these guys start to get frustrated to the point where they say, "Yeah, I'm willing to burn the bridge here," which is a surprising step because a lot of times what we see in trucking especially is that guys may leave a company, but the grass isn't always greener. And so there's this hesitation to burn a bridge like that. And so for more professional drivers to be sharing in the industry like, "Hey, I'm walking out the door. Here's how I feel, and I don't care if they ever call me back," and they're willing to burn that bridge, that's a surprising evolution there.

Matt Cole:
Trucking is traditionally an industry with long hours and extended periods away from home, and those issues are often at least part of what drivers are venting about on social media. Max says there are ways fleets have gone about addressing those issues in recent years.

Max Farrell:
It's been really interesting to watch shifts happen in the industry, where you had companies that were like this, where they're like, "This is the job, take it or leave it," and then the data shows, drivers are like, "Cool, I'm going to leave it and go somewhere else." But then in the past I'd say five years, we saw some really interesting trends, where companies realized, "Okay, guys want more home time and we need to meet them where they are." So, they started to create this triangle between operations, sales, and recruiting to say, "This is the kind of job that people want. Go get the kinds of customers that can support this," versus just taking what you could get, assuming that people would take the job.

What you see now is a lot more strategic routing and lane selection for companies, where they've gotten way more strategic to the benefit of the driver, where home time lengths have increased, where people are able to get home more frequently. That's a big win. I'd say, the other frustration in trucking for all has always been inconsistency, especially when it comes to pay. It's 2023, but trucking still has the most maddening and inconsistent pay structure out of any industry in North America. And so, drivers are rightfully continually frustrated by it. What we've seen though is that while a lot of drivers will be frustrated about pay, the vast majority of people are saying, "I don't understand my pay," or, "I feel like my pay is incorrect."

What we've seen is companies take that data and realize, "We need to make our pay simple and more predictable." What's really interesting right now in these bumpy times is that you see drivers that are looking to say, "Where can I find stability?" And so, those guaranteed minimums start to become pretty compelling because people know that it may be bumpy, but they want that sense of safety, and so they're seeking that out. Those are a couple of the things that we've seen, but we've gotten, gosh, hundreds of thousands of comments at this point. So, we've seen the good, bad, and the ugly.

Jason Cannon:
Max says WorkHound not only offers a way for carriers to receive feedback from their drivers, they also help companies take action on that feedback that keeps drivers happy.

Max Farrell:
What's interesting is that getting feedback's the easy part. You can go use a Survey Monkey or forms online. You can use a suggestion box at a terminal. That's the easy stuff. The hard thing is understanding that data and doing something with it, and that's where WorkHound is a really great partner for companies because we'll help you analyze this data to figure out your blind spots in the business and identify where are the micro issues where you can make a macro change. What was it? Last year, we helped companies retain over 12,000 workers across North America, and that's because we're able to help them catch issues before they walk out the door and communicate with people in a way that they hadn't historically. As a company, you have a choice. The feedback's going to happen one way or another. It's going to go on Facebook or forums or TikTok.

You can either let it happen there, or you can do your part to control the message and be proactive about those issues and work to address them before somebody's fed up and quits and you have an empty truck. That's what we're seeing, and I'd say one of the really cool things that our team has continued to roll out is just new ways for companies to connect with their workforce. Recently, we just rolled out two-way anonymous communication, where if somebody has an issue, they can have a back and forth with the company to get the issue addressed. It's led to a significant spike in engagement, where companies are able to really go in and start to resolve issues at a fast rate while still helping drivers ease the concern of the fear of retaliation by maintaining that anonymity, or if drivers want to reveal their identity, they can. But ultimately, that power's in the hands of the driver. So yeah, it's been a lot of fun to continue to evolve and find new ways to understand data and do something about it. We'll keep chipping away.

Jason Cannon:
That's it for this week's 10-44. You can read more on ccjdigital.com. While you're there, sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date on the latest in trucking industry news and trends. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know in the comments below. Don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell for notifications, so you can catch us again next week.