The Best Fleets to Drive For® Survey is an annual listing of North American for-hire trucking companies that are providing an exceptional workplace environment for their drivers and owner-operators.

For years, the trucking industry has been unfairly painted as an industry of last resort, full of dead end jobs and unscrupulous, oppressive employers. This image has had a negative effect on the supply of new workers entering the profession and with an existing workforce that is aging quickly, a significant labor crunch is predicted for the near future.

These issues are consistently discussed across the industry, and it is generally recognized that an improved public image is needed to stabilize and grow the workforce. When the predicted labor crunch arrives, the companies that thrive will be the companies that have a demonstrated ability to attract and retain the highest quality drivers.

We believe that an annual survey of the best employers in the trucking industry will assist these initiatives in a number of ways. We believe this survey will:

• Promote the positive elements of the trucking industry and demonstrate to the general public that there are a lot of good opportunities available in trucking
• Publicly recognize and celebrate the fleets that are working to provide exceptional workplace environments
• Document a series of success stories that model best practices for other companies to adopt or follow
• Promote the importance of strong human resources as a success factor for all trucking companies
• Provide opportunities for public recognition that aren’t limited to the largest fleets, since a positive work environment can exist in companies of all sizes

We believe that this survey can focus attention on promoting the companies that are already doing a good job, and push others to follow in their footsteps - continually improving the overall average and status quo.

The survey is open to all for-hire trucking companies with 10 trucks or more, operating in the U.S. and Canada.

Nothing! There are no fees for participation in this program.

Update - starting in the 2013 edition, there will be a charge for the final fleet reports. These reports typically run 30 pages or more and contain all the data collected during the interview and survey phases. Because of the amount of work involved in creating each one, we have reached the point where we need to charge a token fee to cover the costs of producing them. Note that participants aren't required to buy these, but for the fleets that are interested, reports will be available for $249.00, after the final results are announced.

The program follows a very simple process:

• Fleets are nominated by a driver or owner-operator currently working with them
• A corporate interview collects information about the various programs nominated fleets run for their drivers and owner-operators
• A driver survey collects feedback from company drivers and owner-operators
• Company results, in terms of safety record and driver retention are collected
• Data is compiled to determine the Top 20 Best Fleets to Drive For®

To be considered for the survey, the fleet must be nominated by at least one company driver or owner-operator. Office staff, management, and company owners cannot nominate their fleet. Only one nomination is required for a fleet to be considered – there are no additional points for multiple nominations.

To nominate their fleet, drivers can do any of the following:

• Fill out the nomination form on this site
• Send email to Nominate@BestFleetsToDriveFor.com - include the full name and contact info for both the nominated fleet and the individual submitting the nomination
• Fill out and submit a nomination form available from participating survey partners and selected locations (e.g. GATS)

If you think you’re driving for one of the best fleets in the industry, this is a great opportunity to let the world know about it. There are lots of different fleets doing lots of different, outstanding things for their drivers – we want to make sure we’re tracking the great things that your fleet is doing as well.

Nominated fleets will be evaluated against a scoring matrix covering a variety of categories, such as:

• Total compensation package – including base pay, bonuses, vacation and sick day allotment
• Health benefits
• Pension plans
• Professional development opportunities (training, coaching programs, etc.)
• Career path / advancement opportunities
• Commitment to employee personal growth, including work/life balance, driver family support, and employee-directed charitable contributions
• Commitment to continuous improvement, including dispute resolution processes and inclusion of driver feedback in policymaking
• Team building and driver community development activities
• Annual driver turnover rate and efforts to improve
• Fleet safety record

Fleet HR reps and executives will be interviewed about corporate direction, policies and programs. A selection of drivers at each fleet will also be surveyed, with their feedback compared to management’s and incorporated into the final score.

For each year, nominations open beginning of September and must be received by October 31st. Corporate interviews and driver surveys will take place between September and December, and will be complete by the end of December.

All driver surveys are completed online. Each nominated fleet will be provided with a URL for their specific driver survey, so completing it is as simple as providing the URL to drivers. The survey takes about 15 minutes for drivers to complete and and we'll let you know when a sufficient number have been completed.

All fleets participating in the survey will receive a copy of their full evaluation, along with a breakdown of the results to see how they compared to other fleets. Winning fleets will be publicly recognized as providing the best workplaces in the industry. Two overall winners – Best Overall Fleet for Company Drivers, and Best Overall Fleet for Owner-Operators – will be presented with an award at the TCA Annual Convention.

Absolutely! All ranked fleets (i.e. any company listed in the published list of Best Fleets to Drive For®) can identify themselves as such, and include the Best Fleets to Drive For® logo in all recruiting ads and print materials.

The Top 20 is not a countdown to number 1, but rather a collection of fleets that are providing exceptional workplace experiences for their drivers and/or owner-operators. Different fleets do that in different ways, but all of them are excellent examples of best practices in the workplace. We do identify one outstanding example in each of two categories - Best Fleet for Company Drivers and Best Fleet for Owner-Operators - but don't otherwise rank the fleets within the Top 20.