Heroes of the Hound: Bay & Bay Transportation

WorkHound Customer Q&A

When Bay & Bay Transportation teamed up with WorkHound to provide its drivers with a feedback program, they had three strategic goals in mind: The company wanted to curb turnover, promote growth, and streamline operations.

It’s safe to say they’ve found success — even while navigating the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated turmoil within the trucking industry, Bay & Bay has reduced turnover and grown its driver count by an astounding 30 percent.

How did they make that happen? Their retention process starts during the hiring process.

Justin Johnson, Senior Vice President of Sales & Operations for Bay & Bay, offers some insight into our latest Heroes of the Hound interview.  

WorkHound: For Bay & Bay, retention starts during the hiring process. What does that look like?

Johnson: Anyone who’s trying to hire drivers right now is not looking for reasons not to hire a driver — they’re looking for every reason to hire one. But what we have found, through feedback via WorkHound and other sources, is that taking some additional steps on the front end helps us with turnover.

Every quarter, we’re reviewing our hiring processes to make sure we’ve got great guidelines in place to fulfill our culture and what we’re trying to find in drivers. Our operations team is doing front-end interviews to make sure drivers know what they’re getting into and that we have a common understanding before they get here.

We’re also having regular meetings with our recruiting team so that they know what job availability we have. 

WorkHound: How has driver feedback helped sharpen your recruiting and retention strategy?

Johnson: It’s about really listening to what our drivers are sharing with us. We don’t have a silver bullet here. It takes an army to attract and retain drivers. One of the big things we’re looking at constantly is: What are drivers looking for?

We run a lot of independent contractors, so drivers are out there talking with other drivers about pay rates. That leads to a lot of comparison, so we are continually looking at driver pay. That doesn’t mean we’re changing pay packages all the time, but it’s definitely something we think is important to pay close attention to. We want our drivers to make a fair wage, be successful, and want to stay with Bay & Bay long-term. This isn’t the only reason why drivers stay, but definitely from an attracting-drivers standpoint, pay is a big issue.

Equipment is also a topic that’s mentioned a lot. Drivers want new and shiny equipment. They don’t want anything that has the potential to break down. We’ve made that a priority. In many cases, our drivers are getting new equipment right when they get out of training and orientation. We’ve seen some recruiting benefits in that area.

Drivers are also looking for a way to have their voices heard. We want to make communication easy. How do we make it easy for drivers to disperse their information or feedback? We work to provide the most direct, easiest way to contact us.

WorkHound: What are the key benefits for Bay & Bay of partnering with WorkHound? What’s been most valuable for you?

Johnson: The No. 1 thing is accountability. We have a weekly call where we review the previous week’s feedback at a high level. Then the WorkHound team takes that information and we go back to the drivers with a newsletter that lets them know the feedback they’re sharing is being addressed. We obviously can’t address every single thing, but this shows we are listening.

Having that weekly meeting is a departure from the norm with most programs — most times, you might have a monthly meeting, and that’s where things get lost.

There’s also the tracking component. We have everything in one central place where we can review comments and see what recieved follow up. It’s in a centralized format rather than in 50 billion different places where we can’t tell what’s been done.

WorkHound also allows us to work together as a team. While you don’t want everybody’s hand in the cookie jar, it needs to be a team effort. The leaders of our business segments are responsible for following up with their drivers to make sure their concerns are being handled appropriately. 

And finally, the program is so easy to use. The easier it is for drivers to operate a system, the more likely they’ll have to adapt and want to use it.  

Bay & Bay Transportation is part of a community of carriers that utilize continuous and anonymous driver feedback to help understand areas of priority and praise for their essential workforce. Want to put this into action for your company? Reach out to WorkHound today to talk with an expert.