Aligning Driver & Customer Expectations Outweighs Pay
Shippers are having ever more difficulty finding drivers, regardless of their fleet or delivery type. A starting point is to establish a good business practice for finding and hiring drivers to increase delivery capacity. Here, we explore hiring considerations and recommendations.
Hiring Horses For Courses; the Right Driver for Customer Shipping Quality
Advertising for drivers often leads with compensation, but fit between the driver and the delivery need should come first. The Brits use the expression “horses for courses” and that is how you should search or advertise for your delivery requirements. What is the customer expectation for the delivery and who best is able to fulfill the need completely?
So, don’t throw money away finding drivers or courier services that are just chasing dollars.
Use the resources at your disposal to identify drivers and services that conform to your requirements and the delivery expectations and needs of your customers.
Fitness for the total job first; pay second.
In today’s gig economy, where many workers enter and leave the workforce anytime they want, companies must create a compensation package and work environment that provides the flexibility that gig workers want while offering the incentives that retain the best performers.
Although local and regional delivery routes can offer drivers the ability to get home and sleep in their own bed each night, hiring companies must find drivers who have expectations that align with the carrier, shipper, and customer.
DeliveryCircle’s software provides the driver analytics that measure on-time performance, ability to hit delivery windows selected by the customer, etc.
Driver Retention Improves Quality & Protects the Shipper’s Brand
This gig economy makes it harder to find drivers with longer-term employment stability, but consistency in delivery helps protect your company reputation and quality expectation of your brand, which includes delivery performance, such as achieving the delivery window on-time.
Some deliveries have special requirements, such as equipment, lifting, or operating procedures, that can make finding qualified drivers even harder but add great value to the delivery tasks and to your brand’s ability to provide a complete experience. It is clear how deliveries for heavy furniture, appliance installation and removal, or catering set-up could be more involved for the driver than just unloading a cardboard box.
Same-Day,Last-Mile Deliveries Have Their Own Challenges
Local delivery drivers and regional couriers know that although local is different from long-haul, it is not necessarily easier.
Local and regional drivers must deal with traffic, they frequently have critical customer interaction, and often have special delivery requirements, like set-up or installation, or heavy lifting as a key component of the job task.
Appearance, demeanor, and people skills are important when interacting with the public on the behalf of a brand, not just being on-time. Some local fleets have drivers that work the same routes or service areas all the times and know the customers and their delivery expectations.
Describing the company’s role and the driver’s role in providing excellent service, meeting delivery expectations, and completing set-up or installation to offer extra value to the customer and maintain brand quality. Offering drivers an insight into the value of the delivery can help narrow done job candidates to those that care.
Clearly, healthcare is an industry where doing a delivery job right really matters to keep people healthy. A person with an inherent service ethic will yield better delivery outcomes and bring vital delivery or just happiness to customers.
Typical Hiring Criteria for Same-Day, Last-Mile Couriers & Drivers
- Experienced and Competent (driving skills)
- Clean Driving Record& Good health
- Alignment of Shipper, Carrier, & Driver expectations
- Conscientious,Competent, Safe, and Reliable
- Able to use a mobile phone or device for tracking shipment visibility and vehicle routing
- Special operational task details, such as set-up, installation, or equipment operation
- Can meet any physical demand like lifting
- Willing to take deliveries in the needed geographical service area
- Polite, considerate, and with a desire to see the delivery job done right.
Available to pick-up and deliver from a warehouse, distribution center, fulfillment operation, delivery station, or retail store to a destination, which might be an end customer or might be another business or distribution point in the supply chain.
DeliveryCircle Gives You Same-Day, Last-Mile Delivery Service Capacity
DeliveryCircle gives you access to delivery capacity, the right vehicle, and qualified, vetted (background checked) drivers in the delivery area where you need them.
Then, the DeliveryCircle software gives you driver performance metrics to help you maintain delivery service level quality and protect your brand reputation by meeting or exceeding delivery the expectations of your customer.