Q1 Insights Reveal Retention and Hiring Risks for Fleets

Most fleets think they know where they’re losing drivers. I don’t think they actually do. Not because they’re not looking, but because no one owns the full experience end to end. When you ask where the breakdown is, most teams answer fast. But when you really look at what happens after the hire, that’s where things get less clear.The handoffs. The first few loads. Pay expectations vs what actually shows up. Who the driver goes to when something feels off. Nothing is obviously broken, but things start to drift, and that’s the problem. It doesn’t show up cleanly. It shows up later as turnover. I’m seeing two completely different answers depending on who I talk to. Where does it usually break first for you? Recruiting to onboarding, or onboarding to ops?

he secret to fleet growth isn't a mystery. It’s the "Big 3." Historically, drivers are looking for three things: 1️⃣ Pay 💰 2️⃣ Home Time 🏠 3️⃣ Equipment 🚛 The fastest-growing fleets hit the bare minimum of at least 2 out of 3. Combine that with actual integrity, and you'll stop just "hiring" and start growing. Full episode: https://vist.ly/53pxi

40% of your recruiting ad budget could be disappearing without delivering results. The real issue? Many teams don’t know where. In today’s market, you need clear visibility into what’s performing, what’s wasting spend, and where budget should shift. CDLConnect gives recruiting teams and leadership the insight to spend smarter, not just spend more. That's the CDLConnect effect 👉 https://hubs.la/Q04gyH380 #driverrecruiting #recruitingpartner #trucking #truckingindustry

Most operational plans look fine at 8am - but reality starts to materialise at 8:15am. - Volumes shift - Absence hits - Trailers run late - Priorities change The question isn’t whether the original plan was good. The question is: - How quickly can you replan when reality changes and what transparency do you have of the cost and service trade offs before you make any changes? Static planning is outdated. Dynamic, instant replanning is the future. #RealTimePlanning #WarehouseOps #SupplyChainTech

A stop happens. Then someone picks the closest reason on the list, or just hits "Unknown" and moves on. Multiply this scenario by every shift, every line, and every site. After a few weeks, your data will only show how the form was filled in, and not what actually went wrong on the floor. Fix this and the picture changes fast. Reviews get shorter, patterns in your stop losses become clear, and your teams will spend less time reconstructing what happened and more time deciding what to fix next. Our new guide covers how you get there: setting the right thresholds, building a stop-reason list that holds up under real production pressure, and running a 30-day rollout that sticks. It’s right here, and free to download 👉 https://lnkd.in/dFEz8TGR

A transportation company told me: “We’re losing money but can’t figure out where. I found the following: • No KPI ownership • No fleet performance standards • No accountability rhythm • No pipeline discipline • No operational structure They weren’t broken; they were unorganized. We built a simple program, made some adjustments, saved some money, AND grew revenue in the same quarter. Most companies don’t need a rebuild. They need a RESET. You often see things through a different lens when you are right in the thick of it. Look, sometimes all it takes are a few adjustments and you give your team a chance to win!

Want to reverse margin fade? Implement this tomorrow. ·      Assume the “Will to Win.” Start by assuming that every employee wants to succeed until they prove otherwise. ·      Define the Goal. Clearly identify what success looks like today. Is it linear feet of pipe installed and backfilled, cubic yards of dirt moved, tons of aggregate placed and compacted, or something else? ·      Communicate. Explain what needs accomplished today at the start of the shift so the crew knows exactly what a “good day” looks like. ·      Close the Loop. Share actual performance numbers compared to the goal at the end of the shift. A crew is much more likely to cross the finish line when they know where it is. What have you found to be the most effective way to improve production?

Great interview at NTEA – The Work Truck Association with Holman's Nick Caller and Craig Pierce. Some important takeaways: -> The overwhelming majority of fleet cost (97%+) is pass-thru. Choosing the right partner is essential to providing the right oversight, control, and optimization of that spend. -> Holman's strategic management framework is designed to truly understand our customer's business in order to deliver targeted recommendations to drive performance improvement and cost optimizations. -> Holman has a unique supply chain value proposition to offer our customers that can create efficiencies and savings that no other organization can match.

When the plan fails, the question isn't whether you have a backup. It's whether anyone can authorize it before lunch. Resilience used to mean redundancy. With leaner fleets, tighter capacity, and weather hitting harder than forecasted, resilience comes down to decision speed. The math is unforgiving: → Smaller fleets mean less buffer when something breaks. → Weather disruptions hit remote and secondary lanes hardest. → Multi-step approvals were built for a slower environment. Most disruption losses don't come from the disruption itself. They come from delay — and delay almost always traces back to unclear authority to act. Waypost helps you tighten that loop. Our supply chain specialists pre-stage your options, clarify decision ownership at each level, and design escalation paths that hold under pressure. Strategy you can believe in. Execution you can count on. If a critical lane failed this week, how long would it take you to act? #SupplyChainResilience #Logistics #RiskManagement #Operations #Waypost

Even dragons have their endings. 🐉✨ In operations, we face this reality every single day. A delayed vehicle, a missed appointment, a warehouse capacity issue each one feels like a setback in the moment. But over time, you realize: these are not failures, they are transitions. In my day-to-day work: • A missed appointment slot isn’t the end it’s a push to build stronger follow-ups and backup planning. ⏳ • A warehouse denying unloading due to capacity isn’t failure it’s a lesson in proactive coordination and timing. 🚚 • Transporter delays don’t break the process they strengthen communication, escalation, and contingency thinking. 📦 Lessons I’ve learned on the ground: 🔹 Every delay teaches better planning for the next dispatch 🔹 Strong communication can recover almost any broken link 🔹 Flexibility matters more than perfection in operations 🔹 Pressure situations build real problem-solving ability In fast-moving environments, endings happen fast—but so do comebacks. What matters is how quickly you adapt, respond, and move forward. 🚀 Because even in operations—dragons fall, but systems evolve. #Operations #SupplyChain #Logistics #ProblemSolving #Resilience #Growth