Playing the cards right in driver appreciation

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Playing Card SetsThe big boys of the American Trucking Associations have made an interesting little driver-appreciation item in the pictured playing card set, tied to their longtime National Truck Driver Appreciation Week (September 16-22 this year). It’s one among many NTDAW-related items available for purchase at their site, and while coming from a company owner to his/her drivers it might make a nice gift, for my money playing the appreciation cards themselves right might be a more laudable gesture.

As Michael Komadina, writing on BigTruckTV.com Aug. 1, noted, “It’s not the bonus, nor money that makes people happy and content with their work, it’s the personal relationships.”

He went on, “In the words of Leslie B. Salter, ‘Every normal man and woman longs more keenly for love, for warm friendship, admiration and human responsiveness from his fellows, than for anything else in life…'”

Here here. (And supporting calls for a national holiday honoring drivers couldn’t hurt.) I’ve heard similar thoughts from David Owen of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies in recent memory. Speaking at NASTC’s new-entrants seminar last month about the importance of good drivers to any small fleet’s business, he had this to say: “The only reason you guys can compete with large carriers, the only reason why you’re in business today, is your ability to find, hire and retain million-mile drivers…. It’s the [owner]-to-driver relationship in small trucking companies that makes it like a family affair. This relationship allows small companies to find, hire and retain million-mile drivers.”

Personal relationships, of course, are always a two-way street. If you’re a company driver or leased, take a moment and put a shout out here in the comments to the trucking company owner in your life, he or she who did the best job of truly appreciating his/her drivers.

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