Software startups target truck driver shortage

Ask any transportation professional about challenges facing the trucking industry and you’ll soon hear about the chronic shortage of truck drivers.

That specter has been looming over the industry for years, so perhaps it is no surprise that three software startups have offered solutions in the past two weeks:

• Enlistics matches people to jobs by screening their social media data for keywords,
• Stay Metrics has developed a research-based predictive model for driver turnover, and
• WorkHound reduces driver turnover by collecting worker feedback through a smartphone app.

Each app approaches the problem from a very different angle.

Enlistics: Trucking is a University of Chicago startup that claims to help trucking firms avoid massive employee turnover by pre-screening candidates using an algorithm that scans applicants' social media posts for phrases known to predict future success or failure. The product follows in the model of its sister firm, Enlistics: Dealerships, a similar product that helps car dealerships fill sales positions. Both programs avoid privacy concerns by hiding the actual details of any social media keywords it finds in a “black box,” then supplying prospective employers with a simple "retention probability" score for each applicant, Enlistics Inc. founder Austen Mance said in an email.

Stay Metrics recently released its Predictive 2.0 model of a platform that enables motor carriers to retain more of their best drivers by providing employers with specific insights on why drivers leave their companies. The application collects its data through: orientation and onboarding interviews with new hires, an annual driver satisfaction survey, exit interviews with drivers who quit, custom research, and an online driver rewards program that doubles as a data collection tool.

WorkHound offers a software platform developed to help carriers reduce driver turnover by interacting with truckers through their smartphones. Drivers use an app to share feedback and ideas, which WorkHound aggregates and turns into actionable insights to help each carrier manage and retain its drivers. The company may soon offer similar versions to other industries struggling with retention, such as warehousing, manufacturing, and nursing.

And if those high-tech approaches don’t work, there’s always the old-fashioned way of keeping workers around longer—pay them more. Eagan, Minn.-based truckload carrier Dart Transit Co. said last week that it had raised its starting pay for longhaul company drivers along its main freight lanes by 5 cents per mile. Along with performance bonuses, top-performing drivers with the company can now earn over $60,000 in their first year with the company, Dart said.