Tips from the Best Fleets team: completing driver surveys
Published on November 28, 2023
After you’re nominated by a driver, there are three main ingredients to the Best Fleets to Drive For process: the questionnaire, the interview and the driver surveys. We’ve covered some tips and tricks for tackling the first two in an earlier post, but it’s worth spending some time looking at ways you can boost your driver survey completion rate and make sure your surveys get submitted on time. (Remember: your minimum required number of driver surveys has to be submitted in order for your team to advance to the finals.)
Over the 15 years that Best Fleets to Drive For has been running, we’ve seen a lot of different strategies that fleets have used to get their drivers to fill out the surveys, and they tend to fall into one of three categories. If you’re concerned about getting your surveys done, try troubleshooting the problem by looking at these three possible completion bottlenecks. They are:
Understanding
Access
Communication Culture
Sometimes companies don’t communicate all the steps being completed when they are participating in the program—the drivers might nominate the company, and then someone in the office gets to work on the questionnaire and the interview. The problem is that none of that work is visible to the drivers—it’s all behind the scenes as far as they’re concerned. And when they’re suddenly asked to do the surveys, it seems like it’s coming out of left field.
If drivers don’t know why you want them to do the survey, try involving them from the beginning. Push regular updates in meetings and through other communications—'we’ve been nominated’, ‘we’ve completed the questionnaire’, ‘the interview is booked’, ‘the interview is completed’, etc. That way, when it comes time to do the surveys they’ll have some context for why it’s important. You can also try:
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Using messaging to keep them in the loop and let them know that filling out the survey is (a) how they can participate in this much larger initiative for the company and (b) their chance to fill out a kind of report card on their company.
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Using ‘we’ language—doing the surveys isn’t ‘them’ helping ‘you’ out, it’s about moving the whole company across the finish line and competing in the program as one team.
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Maximizing your messaging opportunities by putting up reminder signs in common areas, as well as including reminders with pay stubs (printed or electronic).
In some cases, drivers might understand exactly why the contest and their participation are important, but they might have trouble actually doing the survey. If that’s your situation, consider ways to make doing the survey as easy as possible. You’ll receive the link to your driver surveys by email, so the easiest way to reach your drivers is to pass it on in an email to them—you can also post the link on private Facebook and other social media groups (but remember: never post the link on a public Facebook page or on the company website—your drivers should be the only ones who can access it).
But access isn’t just about having the link. Consider that they might be hampered by time, technology or ability:
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Time
If drivers don’t have time to do the survey (or believe they don’t), set up opportunities to complete it in tandem with other events—include it as part of the first 20 minutes of an in-person training or safety meeting, or some other in- person event. -
Technology
There are some drivers who aren’t as adept at technology as others, and navigating the link through their personal devices might be difficult. Limit the number of steps they need to take by setting up computers in the driver’s lounge and having the survey up and ready to go. -
Ability
Maybe they have the time, and maybe they can activate the link—but there are still some drivers who have a hard time filling out an online questionnaire. Consider having a dedicated office member as your point person—someone who can read the questionnaire out to the driver and type in the answers for them.
While we’ve already talked about the importance of clearly communicating with your drivers about the survey, the program and the fleet’s participation, there’s a broader issue at play. In a recent panel discussion with some Best Fleets program veterans, Prime Inc. Director of Operations Jim Guthrie and American Central Transport President and CEO Phil Wilt gave some important insights into building an entire culture around communication. From gathering anonymous driver feedback every week, to giving vital updates about the state of the economy and the business, to regular open forums where drivers can say anything, making regular communication a cornerstone is crucial for building trust as well as getting (and giving) reliable feedback.
Building this kind of culture addresses issues beyond just participating in the Best Fleets to Drive For program—it’s more about how you want to run your company generally. Still, companies that have this kind of culture already in place rarely have difficulty getting their drivers to complete the survey because that kind of feedback is already a regular part of the driver’s relationship with the company. And it’s the culture rather than any one strategy that makes the difference. As Guthrie says, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Each stage of the program is necessary to advance through to the finals—filling out the questionnaire, doing the interview, and completing your designated number of driver surveys. If you’ve had problems getting them completed in the past or you’re worried about it this year, the issue might be more subtle than just ‘they don’t want to do it’. Consider their ability to access the survey, their understanding of the competition as a whole and what it means for them and the team.
As for having a strong communication culture, if you don’t already have that kind of relationship with your drivers—or it isn’t as robust as you would like—rolling out the driver surveys might be an opportunity to think about how you want that to change. And once those surveys are done, you can just sit back and wait for the results.
