By Al Muskewitz
 
Like a lot of trucking companies in the United States, Taggart Transportation is always looking for a few good men (and women) to put behind the wheel of its trucks. And chances are well above the industry norm that when it finds one they’ll stick around for a while.
 
It’s not hyperbole. In an industry where the turnover rate pushes 90 percent, Taggart pulls in at an impressive 18 percent. When hub supervisors put teams together, like a good double-play combination in baseball, the first-time success rate of the matches is 83 percent. If a team isn’t connecting and a re-pairing is necessary, the success rate swells to 90 percent.
 
The reasons abound. As one of the largest contract carriers for FedEx in the Midwest, running doubles out of three separate hubs (St. Paul, Minn.; Champaign, Ill.; and Kansas City), the work is line-haul hub-to-hub, drop-and-hook no touch, and the pay is good and steady. Some teams come already assembled, but management does a diligent job vetting potential partners when pairing single drivers together. Additionally, the carrier recently replaced its entire 55-truck fleet with 2020 Volvos.
 
“Obviously, we’ve got a good system in place,” said Grady Davolt, a co-owner and Taggart’s director of recruiting. “We’re big enough to have that corporate diversity and flexibility, but we’re small enough to where everybody knows your name.
 
“The difference is in the mentality of the leadership and what can I do to help you succeed today. My job is to encourage, motivate and empower you to do your job. The bosses are very much in charge but they’re talking with the employee, not at the employee. We want to make sure if we tell a driver something we follow up or it’s the truth; we don’t even want the perception of untrue. Honestly, it’s just giving a damn.”
 
So, if the retention rate is so high why is Taggart in the market for drivers? Simply put, you can never have enough.
 
While most of Taggart’s runs are dedicated FedEx routes, the seven-year-old carrier does have other non-dedicated routes that need to be filled. Non-dedicated drivers get either straight miles on “very consistent” runs or a flat-rate guaranteed pay option, both eliminating any anxiety over a weekly paycheck.
 
It’s a living and a good one.
 
“I remember this summer one of our assistant hub supervisors had to cover a run for one of our drivers,” Davolt said. “He pulled up about 3 o’clock, gets out of the truck and tells me, ‘I don’t understand why every driver in America wouldn’t want this job: It pays great and it’s easy and it’s fun.’”
 
Al Muskewitz is Editor for Wright Media. He can be reached at musky@wrightmediacorp.com

Photo illustration by Alice Anne Heath

Click here for available truck driver jobs with Taggart Transportation.