IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlogis/v5y2021i2p34-d568377.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing Causes of Driver Job Dissatisfaction in the Flatbed Motor Carrier Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Ashley Wygal

    (FIS, Jacksonville, FL 02142, USA)

  • Douglas Voss

    (Department of Marketing and Management, University of Central Arkansas, 312 Business Administration Building, Conway, AR 72035, USA)

  • Michael B. Hargis

    (Department of Marketing and Management, University of Central Arkansas, 312 Business Administration Building, Conway, AR 72035, USA)

  • Scott Nadler

    (Department of Marketing and Management, University of Central Arkansas, 312 Business Administration Building, Conway, AR 72035, USA)

Abstract

Trucking companies play a critical role in the U.S. economy but face many challenges. The trucking industry’s greatest challenge may be the persistent driver turnover problem. Trucking companies regularly report turnover rates exceeding 100%. Each driver costs between $2200–$21,000 to replace and new drivers often impact carrier customer service and safety performance. The purpose of this article is to qualitatively explore the challenges drivers face with hopes of uncovering unique methods to improve job satisfaction and ameliorate turnover and retention issues. Results indicate that driver job satisfaction is related to compensation, management quality, equipment quality, home time, and wait time. Proactive managerial actions in the form of pre-planning loads are proposed as a method for carriers to resolve many driver concerns and possibly provide carriers with a competitive advantage in driver retention.

Suggested Citation

  • Ashley Wygal & Douglas Voss & Michael B. Hargis & Scott Nadler, 2021. "Assessing Causes of Driver Job Dissatisfaction in the Flatbed Motor Carrier Industry," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-15, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlogis:v:5:y:2021:i:2:p:34-:d:568377
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6290/5/2/34/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6290/5/2/34/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Judith Semeijn & Barry de Waard & Wim Lambrechts & Janjaap Semeijn, 2019. "Burning Rubber or Burning Out? The Influence of Role Stressors on Burnout among Truck Drivers," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-16, February.
    2. Suzuki, Yoshinori & Crum, Michael R. & Pautsch, Gregory R., 2009. "Predicting truck driver turnover," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 538-550, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Milan Andrejić & Milorad Kilibarda & Vukašin Pajić, 2022. "Job Satisfaction and Labor Fluctuation: A Case Study in the Logistics Sector in Serbia," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-15, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ralf Elbert & Lowis Seikowsky, 2017. "The influences of behavioral biases, barriers and facilitators on the willingness of forwarders’ decision makers to modal shift from unimodal road freight transport to intermodal road–rail freight tra," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(8), pages 1083-1123, November.
    2. Chenming Jiang & Linjun Lu & Jian John Lu, 2017. "Socioeconomic factors affecting the job satisfaction levels of self-employed container truck drivers: a case study from Shanghai Port," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(5), pages 641-656, July.
    3. Zolfagharinia, Hossein & Haughton, Michael, 2016. "Effective truckload dispatch decision methods with incomplete advance load information," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(1), pages 103-121.
    4. Chandiran, P. & Ramasubramaniam, M. & Venkatesh, V.G. & Mani, Venkatesh & Shi, Yangyan, 2023. "Can driver supply disruption alleviate driver shortages? A systems approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 116-129.
    5. Michael R Faulkiner & Michael H Belzer, 2019. "Returns to compensation in trucking: Does safety pay?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 30(2), pages 262-284, June.
    6. Lannoo, Steven & Verhofstadt, Elsy, 2016. "What drives the drivers? Predicting turnover intentions in the Belgian bus and coach industry," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 251-259.
    7. Richards, Timothy J. & Rutledge, Zachariah, 2023. "COVID-19, Truck Rates, and Trucking Shortages," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335435, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Wijngaards, Indy & Hendriks, Martijn & Burger, Martijn J., 2019. "Steering towards happiness: An experience sampling study on the determinants of happiness of truck drivers," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 131-148.
    9. Corsi, Thomas M. & Grimm, Curtis M. & Cantor, David E. & Sienicki, Dale, 2012. "Safety performance differences between unionized and non-union motor carriers," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 807-816.
    10. Trick, Steven & Peoples, James & Ross, Anthony, 2021. "Driver turnover in the trucking industry: What's the cost of reducing driver quit rates?," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    11. Schuster, Amy M. & Agrawal, Shubham & Britt, Noah & Sperry, Danielle & Van Fossen, Jenna A. & Wang, Sicheng & Mack, Elizabeth A. & Liberman, Jessica & Cotten, Shelia R., 2023. "Will automated vehicles solve the truck driver shortages? Perspectives from the trucking industry," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    12. Phares, Jonathan & Miller, Jason W. & Burks, Stephen V., 2023. "State-Level Trucking Employment and the COVID-19 Pandemic in the U.S: Understanding Heterogenous Declines and Rebounds," IZA Discussion Papers 16265, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlogis:v:5:y:2021:i:2:p:34-:d:568377. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.