Heroes of the Hound: P&S Transportation

WorkHound Customer Q&A

At WorkHound, we believe that the key to improving retention is asking for the feedback of those on the front lines — your professional drivers. Over the years, we have seen dramatic changes in company cultures as trucking carriers offer their employees a chance to speak up and take meaningful action related to their feedback.

Nowhere is that more evident than at PS Logistics. The company — which is based in Birmingham, Alabama, but has 26 locations nationwide — prides itself on offering a “full-service logistics solution,” including asset transportation, brokerage, third-party logistics, and supply chain partnerships. 

Part of that comprehensive network of logistics offerings is a flatbed trucking company, P&S Transportation, where Ashley Cunningham, Retention Manager, is making big strides toward better retention and hiring practices. 

Read on as Cunningham shares her story about how WorkHound has helped transform the business.

WorkHound: How has having a feedback program benefited P&S Transportation?

Cunningham: Our turnover was around 85% when my position was created at the beginning of 2020. My goal was to get the turnover rate decreased by half. 

We were able, within the first year, through WorkHound’s help, to get it reduced to under 60%. By the end of 2021, we were able to get it reduced to right at 50%. WorkHound has really been a big, big help.

With drivers able to comment anonymously, we are seeing how they really feel. We want to make sure drivers know we have quick access to any concerns they have so we can get issues resolved. Our drivers have been pleased, so much so that we’ve implemented this in some of the other companies we have under the PS Logistics network.

WorkHound: What changes have you made within your company based on driver feedback?

Cunningham: With the feedback that our drivers have been giving, we’ve been dealing with issues mainly related to equipment, pay, and logistics. The sentiment around equipment is negative. With pay and logistics, sentiment is at a neutral state. But in my mind, when it’s neutral, it’s still negative, so we’re always working to improve.

For one, our drivers were complaining about going to a terminal and finding out that equipment wasn’t there. We’ve made a change to include our equipment availability on the P & S app, so drivers can look and see what they need and where it’s located. This makes it easier for them to have what they need, without having to go out of their way to get it.

Another thing we’ve done is remedy issues surrounding pay. Specifically, our drivers voiced concerns about a lack of holiday pay and the fact that our top pay was low and our breakdown pay was low. We’ve been able to change all of that. We made those changes in April 2021. Drivers noticed the change and what we were doing to make sure they felt heard. It stopped a lot of people from leaving us.

And finally, we’ve implemented a program based on driver feedback. Drivers were being contacted via methods that weren’t their preferred method of contact. They might receive a text rather than a call to learn about their assigned loads, which they can’t answer while they’re driving. Or they may prefer texts to calls, as many younger drivers do.

What we’ve done is introduce a Driver Engagement Program, which shows how drivers want to be contacted and clears up those misunderstandings. Drivers can also access a lot of information through the P & S app, including materials covered in onboarding.

WorkHound: How does WorkHound help you advocate for drivers from your position within the company?

Cunningham: The biggest help is that the WorkHound dashboard breaks out information by rank, mentions, and sentiments. That’s a huge help when you’re speaking to upper management. 

Everybody in upper management loves numbers. They want to see what they’re looking at. This presents information in a filtered way that clarifies the details, and allows you to look at a good bit of information at once.

The Metrics tab is also helpful, so that we can see how many comments we’ve gotten in so many days, how many new workers are commenting, and also our satisfaction score. We also get a Google Data Studio report that breaks all that information down piece by piece and terminal by terminal. That really helps VPs and terminal supervisors see where they rank among other terminals and how they can improve.

P & S 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 learn about the top trends in driver feedback industry-wide? Download the latest Driver Feedback Trends Report here.