Every few years, the industry panics about the driver shortage. Conferences talk about it. Reports get published. Recruiters get blamed. Ads get louder.
And yet, the same fleets keep hiring the same number of drivers every year.
That alone should tell you something.
If there were truly no drivers, fleets would be parked. Instead, trucks are moving, drivers are rotating, and orientation rooms stay full. The real problem is not that drivers do not exist. The problem is that fleets are bleeding them out and calling it a shortage.
The uncomfortable truth nobody wants to say out loud
Most fleets are not short on drivers. They are short on drivers willing to stay.
Retention is boring work. It does not look good on a slide deck. You cannot fix it with a signing bonus or a new recruiting video. It forces leadership to look inward, and that is exactly why many fleets avoid it.
It is easier to rehire than to repair.
Why fleets keep rehiring instead of fixing the job
Let’s be blunt. Constant rehiring is often cheaper in the short term than fixing broken operations.
Fixing retention means:
- restructuring pay models,
- adjusting dispatch behavior,
- changing home time promises,
- holding managers accountable,
- and sometimes losing freight that does not respect drivers.
Rehiring just means running ads and filling seats.
So fleets take the path of least resistance.
Pay is not the only issue, but it is often the dishonest one
Drivers leave for many reasons, but pay is usually the headline excuse. The real issue is pay unpredictability.
A driver can handle average pay. What they cannot handle is:
- inconsistent miles,
- unpaid detention,
- surprise deductions,
- and pay structures that change every quarter.
Many fleets advertise top-line CPM numbers, then quietly erode them through accessorial confusion and operational inefficiencies. Drivers are not stupid. They do the math in their head by week two.
If your best drivers cannot predict their paycheck, you are training them to leave.
Home time is promised casually and broken professionally
Home time is the second biggest trust killer in trucking operations.
I have seen fleets lose excellent drivers over one broken promise. Not five. One.
Dispatchers will say, “Just one more load,” without realizing they are burning credibility. Management will say, “Operations had no choice,” without understanding that drivers see it as a choice every time.
Here is the reality. If your network cannot support the home time you advertise, you are not being optimistic. You are lying.
Retention improves dramatically when home time is treated as a contract, not a favor.
Respect is operational, not emotional
Fleets love to say they respect drivers. Then they:
- ignore calls during detention,
- blame drivers for shipper delays,
- question logs without context,
- and treat safety reports like inconveniences.
Respect is not pizza at the terminal. Respect is process design.
Respect looks like:
- clear load plans,
- advance notice of changes,
- realistic ETAs,
- and backing the driver when the shipper is wrong.
Drivers stay where they feel protected, not where they feel managed.
The hidden retention killer: dispatch strategy
Dispatch strategy quietly determines turnover more than any HR initiative.
Bad dispatch creates:
- uneven miles,
- favoritism perceptions,
- rushed decisions,
- and constant conflict.
Good dispatch creates:
- fairness,
- predictability,
- and trust.
Many fleets promote their best drivers into dispatch without training them. Driving skill does not automatically translate to planning skill. When dispatch becomes reactive, drivers become disposable.
That is when retention collapses.
Why retention problems masquerade as driver shortages
When turnover is high, every week feels like a staffing crisis. Orientation becomes a revolving door. Safety is always onboarding. Dispatch never stabilizes. Maintenance never knows who will be in the truck next month.
Leadership looks at this chaos and says, “We need more drivers.”
No. You need fewer exits.
Every retained driver reduces:
- recruiting spend,
- training risk,
- insurance exposure,
- and operational volatility.
Retention is not a soft metric. It is a cost control strategy.
What actually fixes retention, not slogans
This is where most articles get vague. Let’s keep it practical.
1) Pay clarity beats pay hype
Stop advertising maximums. Show realistic weekly ranges. Pay detention automatically. Eliminate mystery deductions. Drivers value honesty more than inflated promises.
2) Lock home time into planning, not dispatch favors
Build routes and customer commitments around home time first, not freight first. If a lane cannot support it, price it differently or walk away.
3) Train dispatch like it is a leadership role
Dispatchers control driver experience. Treat dispatch errors with the same seriousness as safety violations. One bad dispatcher can undo a year of recruiting.
4) Reduce chaos before adding capacity
If your fleet feels unstable, adding drivers makes it worse. Fix planning, communication, and load consistency first. Stability retains drivers more than bonuses ever will.
5) Measure retention honestly
Do not hide behind annual averages. Track 30-day, 90-day, and 180-day retention. That is where the truth lives.
The hard conclusion fleets need to accept
The industry does not have a driver shortage. It has a management discipline shortage.
Drivers leave bad systems, not hard work.
Fleets that accept this will stop chasing talent and start keeping it. Fleets that do not will keep rehiring the same drivers under different names and wondering why nothing changes.
Retention is not a feel-good initiative. It is an operational decision.
And the fleets that figure that out early will still have trucks moving when everyone else is asking where all the drivers went.
About the Author:
Bhavya Vashisht is the Director of Operations at Canamex Carbra Transportation and the voice behind Truck & Trade Trends. He shares field-tested insights from the frontlines of U.S. trucking and logistics to help fleets operate smarter, safer, and more profitably.
👉 Connect with me on LinkedIn (Bhavya Vashisht) for more insights on trucking, logistics, and fleet optimization.
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