Transportation Premium Content: Driver / Dispatcher Relationship Training by Dan Baker
The most important relationship in any trucking company is the driver / dispatcher relationship. Unfortunately, the communication between drivers and dispatchers is often strained. Dan Baker’s program features down-to-earth, real-world information to improve the relationship between your dispatchers and drivers. This program has helped hundreds of companies across the nation improve communication and understanding between drivers and their driver managers.
How the trucking industry is changing:
- Fleets are no longer operated by truck drivers who’ve grown up in the industry
- New drivers are a shrinking pool of applicants
- Dispatchers are no longer former drivers
Today’s generation of drivers and dispatchers
You’ve lived through the period of high driver turnover, driver shortages, and relentless recruiting. Drivers available today have heard all the marketing gimmicks and been left with broken promises after accepting a job. The question is no longer, “What do I have to do to recruit more drivers today?” The question is, “What do we have to do to become the kind of company a driver wants to work for?”
Common traits of new drivers and dispatchers:
- Have a new set of expectations
- Have very little trucking experience
- Smart
- Extremely high-tech
- Often, poor people skills and low attention span
In today’s transportation industry, dispatchers are sitting in cubicles, dispatching drivers they’ve never met. New dispatchers don’t understand the life of a trucker and need to be better assimilated into the culture of the trucking industry.
About Dan Baker, Infinit-I Workforce Solutions Expert
Dan Baker is a nationally recognized speaker, teacher, and consultant to the trucking industry. He travels extensively throughout the United States and Canada, working with numerous trucking companies of all sizes. He speaks at driver safety meetings, award dinners, national conventions, and company seminars and symposiums. His mission is to speak to the “people” side of trucking. Though presentations are well known for his famous “Bull Jokes” and down-home humor, Dan never departs far from his main message: In this business, it’s People first, Trucking second.
Dan began his career working years ago as a Methodist Minister in San Antonio, Texas. After leaving the ministry, he evolved into a professional speaker and, since connecting with the trucking industry in the early 1980s, has dedicated the majority of his time, effort, and interest toward helping truckers communicate better in their complicated world.
A 3-year training program for driver / dispatcher relationship training
This weekly online training program teaches how the driver’s world affects the way each driver perceives their individual work environments. Dispatchers must understand this world in order to effectively manage drivers.
The program includes:
- 156 weekly “Dispatch Gram” videos (up to a 3 year program)
- Facilitator Guide
- Dispatcher Guide
- Dispatcher Workbook
This program is designed for:
- Dispatchers
- Trucking executives
- Accounting departments
- Anyone at your company who interacts with drivers
This program is designed to help you retain drivers through improved understanding and relationship building discussions. The program can be purchased for one, two, or all three years. Additionally, many companies opt to repeat the training year after year as new dispatchers are hired or as a refresher training.
How Driver / Dispatcher training improves driver retention
Recognize the cost of driver turnover
Trucking companies spend a lot of money trying to attract new drivers. It’s tough and expensive to advertise for drivers and then to recruit, process, orient, train, and coach a new driver…all before assigning them a dispatcher. The average cost for this process is around $10,000 per driver hired.
Solve one big reason drivers leave your company
Many trucking companies are spending money to recruit and onboard new drivers, but failing to see the bigger problem…fixing why drivers are leaving to begin with. The Dispatcher / Driver Relationship program has helped some of the greatest trucking companies improve their driver retention rates simply by improving relationships between their dispatchers and drivers.
Empower your dispatchers with relationship skills
The Driver / Dispatcher Relationship Program begins with relationship building first and then gets to the truck driving function as part of that relationship. A good dispatcher is part teacher, part counselor, part organizer and, perhaps most importantly, a central part of the company for the driver. Being a great dispatcher is a person-to-person process. It includes, and goes far beyond, the instructional and technical aspects of the job.
Companies using the Dan Baker Driver / Dispatcher Training Program report:
- Reduced Driver Turnover
- Reduced Recruiting Expenses
- Increased Dispatcher Retention
- Increased Dispatcher Productivity & Efficiency
- Improved Dispatcher Driver Relationships
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