CASE STUDY: WRIGHT TRANSPORTATION


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right Transportation is a full truckload carrier headquartered in Mobile, Alabama that hauls dry van and intermodal freight. “Our industry needs


to make things better for drivers,” says Daniel Wright, President. “We need to make it more attractive to drive a truck. Industry groups and many companies are working on this, and we have to continue these efforts.”


Maintain close communication with drivers


“When COVID hit we shut the office down for about 12 months. Drivers could no longer come inside and interact face-to-face with dispatchers and other office staff. When we opened back up in the spring of 2021, we tried to get back to our bread-and-butter of having closer contact with our drivers. We were once again able to see them and talk to them when they came in the office.”


Match drivers to the right driver managers


Keep an open-door policy


“We have an open-door policy and we like to have one-on- one encounters with the drivers. We’re a small company so it’s easy for them to come in and I can spend time with the drivers. I’m a firm believer in the idea that if they take the time to come in your office, you need to take the time to address their concerns and listen to them and be there in the moment and figure out what’s wrong. You need to either make changes or tell them why you’re not going to make changes. The last thing we want is to have in an environment where they’re not comfortable coming in and talking to us and sharing information with us. It would get to that point if we don’t do anything about what they’re asking for. We preach this in our organization to make sure we’re addressing their concerns. But it is a challenge, because when you open your door up for two or three hours of conversations, it can definitely be time-constraining at times, but as a small business, we think it’s important.”


Support drivers when breakdowns occur


“During orientation, our director of personnel and safety spends time with newly hired drivers for a couple of days. He steadily jots down notes about personality. Is this driver a technology person? Do they communicate well? Then he tries to match the drivers with driver managers who have similar characteristics so that they can work well together. Maybe they’re someone who’s tech-savvy and wants to communicate through texts or someone who’s not tech- savvy and is more comfortable on the phone. Knowing this helps us find the right driver manager for them. This interview process has been very beneficial to us.”


Help drivers understand how they benefit from company success


“We try to make our drivers understand that if we can grow, they will benefit. When drivers come in the office and we talk about growing the fleet, we make sure that we tell them how it’s going to benefit them. For example, if we reach a higher capacity with a certain customer, it will result in the drivers getting more miles.”


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“Our drivers loe th McLeo Driver Ap.”


“When a truck breaks down and can’t be repaired quickly, we try to get the driver back to our headquarters in Mobile so that we can put them in another truck and send them back out. The goal is to ensure they continue to get their average pay. We don’t want them to take a step back because the truck broke down. It gets very costly but we feel it’s a cost


that we need to absorb so that we maintain those drivers when the breakdowns are happening.”


Make life easier for drivers with the McLeod Driver App


“Our drivers love the McLeod Driver App. They use it to view settlement data. They can see paid miles and weekly dispatches. They can get delivery information. The Driver App gives them all of the information about the load and it allows them to process bill-of-lading submissions. It allows them to see miles from a payroll standpoint and they can access all of this data 24/7. Drivers’ schedules are all across the board. We may be closed when they want to get information. That was a problem previously, but now they can get many payroll questions answered at any time by viewing data on their devices. If a spouse is asking what the check will look like this week, the driver can get an answer in five seconds.”


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