Page 22 - ATR 4 2021 digital

A Load Board Full of Lessons

USA Truck increases retention and pilots a load board for company drivers
to give employees what they want

By David Monteith
Contributing Writer

TRYING SOMETHING NEW
USA Truck has had its share of
challenges. Like most in the industry,
the over-the-road carrier headquartered
in Van Buren, Ark. spent years wrestling
with the nationwide driver shortage,
high rates of driver turnover, rising
insurance costs and an ever-increasing
number of regulations. Blair Ewell,
senior vice president of truckload opera-
tions for USA Truck, says there was a
long period in which the company’s
internal responses to those challenges—
how they interacted with each other—
made things worse.
“We definitely had a culture prob-
lem,” Ewell says. “They call it the ‘lost
decade.’ A decade of just losing every
day, so [USA Truck] needed some wins.
They needed the culture to change to
become a winning culture. Production
was definitely down. The network, the
freight network, was a complete train
wreck.”
That was then. The news is bet-
ter now. An article published in May A LOT OF TRUCKING COMPANIES RELY ON TRUCK
on Freightwaves.com said the truck- DATA, TELEMATICS AND SPREADSHEETS TO MAKE
ing company’s stock had risen 165% PEOPLE DECISIONS. BUT ONE OF THE THINGS THAT
over a 12-month period. Ewell says
his turnover rate has been cut in half, WE FIRMLY BELIEVE AT WORKHOUND IS THAT YOU
and production is up 30%. He points SHOULD USE PEOPLE DATA TO
to improvements in internal com- MAKE PEOPLE DECISIONS.
munication and an innovative new
self-dispatch system for company driv-
ers as factors in the company’s recent —MAX FARRELL, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, WORKHOUND
turnaround.

22 Issue 4 2021 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT