More volumes enlivened, more drivers. This time of the year puts a strain on transport operators, especially at controlled temperature, a market made vibrant by a demand that moves with important peaks during summer.
General Councilor Anita currently at second term, very passionate and deeply expert in engines, always side by side with drivers, Antonio Torello with an innate interpersonal skills takes care of relations with stakeholders. The world of engines, and everything that goes around that, amazes him so much that he can guess the developments before they happen….
We can feel the effects of a one year work, especially if this year coincides with an international war emergency and the general rising costs, so the problem of drivers availability becomes even more serious.
It’s not hard to understand how the situation has put companies like us in front of important questions: well-prepared and responsible drivers are in short supply, factors of production costs are rising and this even touches the final prices of products. That’s what the markets say dictating their own rules.
It’s not easy to find the right resource.
We’re talking about a professionist that represents the company and its competitiveness.
Despite being a job that has a component connected to seasonality – transport has a peak that coincides with the start of summer and it returns to normal only in September/October – ours are not seasonal workers.
In this type of segment the client selects based on quality and quality means working in compliance with the rules. It’s important to find who appreciates the punctuality of the service, the ability of identifying a solution for every logistic problem and organises loads in the best way possible.
It’s a logistic activity that needs particular attentions that has to be integrated and supported by so many factors. We can’t allow to lose drivers we spent energy and resources and, the fact of not hiring seasonal workers is already an important motivation; for them because we can keep with us expert drivers and for us that can attract new valid resources. How do we deal with that? With training.
Driver training has a specific iter.
The commitment of training expert drivers brings into play a series of activities characterised by a theoretical phase and a practical phase.
Before assigning a complex carrier we submit the driver to a series of tests and security processes about the job, the vehicle and the transported goods. We need to know if the person knows the payment method of the gates (cards for toll), knows how to use our App for transport tasks management (that allows the driver to communicate with no costs with the logistics operator), the correct compilation of travel and platforms documents, the procedures to follow within the square, the overall control of the vehicle (cleaning, fuel…), health and hygiene and safety standards. The theoretical part is the starting point to the practical phase. It is fundamental, dealing even with delicate transport as the one with controlled temperature, knowing how to use a series of tools and control any possible alert about temperature changes.
We made available tutorials, printed and digital ones, that can be used in every moment and accessible to smartphones. All the materials produced can be found in the driver manual and it is updated in real time.
Time management becomes fundamental in terms of reduction of transport costs, waiting time and… CO2!
While dry goods have no binding timetables about loading and unloading, goods transported at controlled temperature are subject to more and more time slots to receive them in predetermined times. The respect of timetable is fundamental not only for the client but also for the driver who reduces waiting times for goods loading/unloading and as a matter of consumptions (- consumptions, – CO2 released).
The risk of making mistakes and losing clients’ credibility is very high. The difference is made by the company performance that can be calculated monitoring an endless series of data that intersect driving style, driver performance, punctuality.
Training a person means incurring costs that justify the certainity of efficiency.
Drivers are not simple carries but ambassadors of the company for clients.
