Heroes of the Hound: Storey Trucking Company

WorkHound Customer Q&A

When you visit the homepage on Storey Trucking’s website, the company’s philosophy is immediately front and center. The carrier prides itself on being “The Human Side of Trucking.”

In business since 1966, Storey Trucking has long been committed to the people who make the business run. That’s led to decades of growth, increasing from a two-truck organization to a fleet of more than 100 trucks, and continued progress toward a workforce that’s truly valued and satisfied. That workforce includes a much higher than the average community of female truck drivers at a company, a noteworthy accomplishment that we’ve highlighted in a past blog. 

So what drives the company forward?

Beth Hamilton, Business Development at Storey Trucking, offers some insight in our latest Heroes of the Hound interview.  

WorkHound: How has having a feedback tool like WorkHound helped Storey, particularly during the pandemic?

Hamilton: I think, if anything, what I’ve seen is an increase in connectivity. Even though WorkHound is an anonymous platform, it’s helped us really continue to have more dialogue as a company. 

Almost every time a driver provides us feedback on WorkHound, they reveal themselves and then turn around and call us to tell us what they shared. To me, that speaks volumes to the level of trust they have, not only in the platform, but also in us as a staff — that we’re going to treat that feedback with respect and address it with care.

This is a tool that’s allowed us to have way more transparent conversations with our drivers, which ultimately builds trust.

WorkHound: What makes Storey Trucking so unique? 

Hamilton: Around 35 percent of our drivers are women. We have a lot of team drivers, and a lot of those are husband and wife teams or team partners who come from the same household. 

That speaks volumes to me. We’re able to gain a level of trust with two people who are earning for the same household. 

Our retention rate right now for this year is 70 percent. Put another way, we’re on pace to retain 70 percent of our drivers this year, which is incredible. Our retention numbers, compared to the average with other over-the-road carriers, are quite high. 

WorkHound: What would you say is the reason Storey has such success in the industry?

Hamilton: I think there are several things we’re doing to help move that needle in a positive direction, and a lot of these spawned out of feedback we received through WorkHound.

We have a driver committee that represents every driver and every position we have. There’s a meeting every month, where drivers get to bring us concerns and issues they’re seeing. We’re able to bring staff into those meetings, as well, so we build relationships.

Something else we’re doing: When we onboard drivers now, we have a “goals” segment, where we spend a lot more time interacting with the driver on a personal level. We talk through personal and professional goals, preferred schedules, and a number of other factors. 

We invest a lot of time on the front end to make sure we meet their expectations and that they meet ours.

WorkHound: What is Storey’s vision as we move forward into 2021 and beyond?

Hamilton: In order to answer that, we have to look backward first. We feel extremely fortunate that we’re not sitting right now with empty trucks. 

In this last year and a half, we’ve not only maintained our fleet size, but we’ve also had a net increase in drivers. We’re really proud of that. It’s an indicator to us that we’re doing something right, that we’re using the tools we have access to — WorkHound included — to make that happen.

But the last thing we’re going to do is let our foot off that gas pedal. We’re going to continue to put our focus and emphasis on the people. We’re not in growth mode for the sake of growth. What we consider growth is a better alignment with people and better satisfaction, which leads to better productivity and higher retention rates. 

When we look at growth, it’s not necessarily about growing fleet size. Our growth is going to be internal. Are we going to grow in our relationships with drivers? Are we going to grow in making it a better experience? Are we going to grow in giving anybody who chooses to work with Storey the best work/life balance possible? That’s where our growth initiative is over the next year.

Storey Trucking 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.