Innovation that delivers: Transportation at Pioneer Landscape Centers
Innovation always starts with an idea, but it doesn’t always end with some new technology. That’s the kind of innovation that’s enabling Pioneer Landscape Centers to tackle the nationwide trucker shortage.
While most people see Pioneer as a retail operation that specializes in landscape and hardscape materials, we see ourselves as a distribution company. This viewpoint has driven an inventive solution to the driver problem most businesses are facing. That new program keeps Pioneer on top of materials delivery, a crucial differentiator for our firm.
Why is distribution so important to a landscape materials retailer like Pioneer? Because our customers need the materials we’re selling to be on-site where and when they expect them. Landscape contractors – the customers responsible for most of Pioneer’s revenue – are especially hard hit by tardy deliveries. They lose money when they have crews waiting around for mulch, rock and pavers to show up on the job site.
Deliveries are vital to our business and our customers’ plans, but finding the right drivers for the job isn’t as easy as you’d think.
For one thing, the American Trucking Association forecasts a trucker shortage of 64,000 drivers this year. Next year, the ATA’s chief economist predicts the shortage will rise to 82,000. By 2028, ATA expects the U.S. to need 160,000 drivers nationwide.
On top of that, many truckers don’t know how to drive all of Pioneer’s vehicles. We have more than 250 trucks in our fleet, many of which require a commercial driver’s license (CDL) and half of which have manual transmissions. About one-third of the people who apply to Pioneer for a truck-driving job are unable to drive a vehicle with a manual transmission. This isn’t something a driver can simply pick up, either. When tested by a state licensing official, that driver must prove that he or she can drive a manual transmission. If it can’t be proven to the licensing bureau, the driver’s license has a restriction on it.
What’s more, Pioneer’s trucks – especially our semi-dump trucks– are not the kind of vehicles most truckers are used to driving. They’re not dry freight carriers a driver backs up to a loading dock. They’re semi-sized dump trucks filled with up to 25 tons of material. The driver will need to navigate this truck through a construction site, a schoolyard or some other off-road spot and then lift that trailer 30 feet in the air. The difference between a semi-dump truck and a dry freight truck is night and day.
Pioneer also operates small dump trucks that carry up to 6 tons and don’t require drivers to have a commercial driver’s license. In addition, we have tandem dump trucks, which carry up to 15 tons. But those big rigs – the semi-sized dump trucks – are the ones it’s hard to find drivers to manage. Knowing that our deliveries aren’t the norm and even worse trucker shortages looming ahead, Pioneer decided to take an uncommon step. We opened our own trucker training program.
Pioneer, Getting schooled.
Our top trainer has been a truck driver himself; he’s trained other drivers and we had him certified to train all our people in the Smith System, a globally recognized driver-safety program. We also have two other trainers, one in Colorado and one in Arizona. All three participate in the trucker training and the classes we hold for drivers who want to earn a CDL.
Along with classes, we have a driving range in each state where we operate that exactly replicates the course a driver will need to navigate at a state-sanctioned school that can give the driver a CDL. Our training is every bit as extensive as the schooling a driver would get at an outside driving school with $5,000 or more in tuition. Between our comprehensive classroom instruction and the one-on-one range time drivers get at our training course, our drivers get more than 200 hours of instruction before we take them to a local driving school that we’ve partnered with that has the authority to test the driver and confer a CDL.
Our drivers – usually people who are already driving our small dump trucks – get paid to take this class. We do ask for tuition reimbursement, but it will cost the driver about 40% of an outside school’s tuition. We also pay the $250 to $300 testing fees.
We run this program during our slow season when those drivers who usually drive a small dump truck are less busy and will likely get fewer hours. This keeps them busy, trains them in our trucks, and helps them get that CDL which comes with more money.
For an entire year after a driver earns his or her CDL, we continue training. With each milestone in capability that a driver passes, we give that driver a raise. Over the course of a year, the driver will experience a 39% increase in hourly wages. If the driver leaves Pioneer before a year has passed, we have that driver reimburse the full cost of the course.
That’s rare though. Most people stay at Pioneer because increased employee loyalty is one of the results of this program. With the trucker shortage in full swing, most companies are seeing annual turnover that tops 80%. Pioneer has lost just 10 percent of the truckers we’ve trained in the past year.
Along with employee loyalty, this program gives our company drivers who can drive our manual transmission trucks, which is something that’s hard to find. It also expands the capabilities of our fleet because every driver we train can drive every truck we own, and it keeps our costs down. Outsourced trucking costs as much as $1,000 per truck each day.
Best of all, it helps us with trucker recruiting and keeps our trucker jobs filled. As I said earlier, Pioneer is a distribution company. Seeing ourselves in this unique way enables our company to keep delivering reliably for our customers and our company owners.