Antecedents of Truck Drivers’ Job Satisfaction and Retention Proneness

• Author: Rob Angell,Herbert Kotzab,Christoph Teller,Günter Prockl
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jbl.12156
• Date: 01 September 2017
• Published date: 01 September 2017

Antecedents of Truck Drivers’Job Satisfaction and Retention

Proneness

G€

unter Prockl

1

, Christoph Teller

2

, Herbert Kotzab

3

, and Rob Angell

4

1

Copenhagen Business School

2

Surrey Business School, University of Surrey

3

University of Bremen, Universiti Utara Malaysia

4

Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University

The aim of this study was to (1) explore the antecedents of truck drivers’job satisfaction, (2) identify the impact of financial and nonfinancial

job properties on satisfaction with the job and with one’s employer, and (3) the drivers’proneness to retaining their jobs. Based on the

extant literature, we develop a conceptual model that is tested using survey data for 164 truck drivers. Multiple linear and ordinal logistic regres-

sions were used to estimate the proposed effects. The results reveal that nonfinancial job properties and satisfaction with one’s employer affect

job satisfaction is statistically significant. Financial and nonfinancial job properties affect satisfaction with one’s employer whereas the former

shows a lower impact compared to the latter. Satisfaction with the job and one’s employer impacts retention proneness. The contribution of this

study was to (1) add to the understanding of the factors that predict retention of truck drivers in relationship to job satisfaction and (2) highlight

the different roles of financial and nonfinancial job properties in this specific work context.

Keywords: trucking; human resources; job satisfaction; retention; survey

INTRODUCTION

“On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again”

begins the famous song by Willie Nelson. This is certainly true

for roads in the United States, where 70% of all freight is deliv-

ered by trucks and 3 million truck drivers move 9.2 billion tons

of freight per year (American Truck Association 2014). In Ger-

many, the country’s roads are “occupied”daily by more than 2

million trucks serving German manufacturing, retail, and service

industries. These trucks provide a transportation volume that

equals €60 billion of transportation costs per year. The stock of

truck driving licenses issued in Germany totaled about 20 million

in 2015 compared to 14 million in 2006 (Statista 2015). In addi-

tion, the German Federal Employment Agency reported that

there were approximately 550,000 professional drivers as of mid-

2013, making them the largest group of employees within the

German logistics industry (Bundesamt f€

ur G€

uterkraftverkehr

2014).

For many decades, the labor market for truck drivers has been

very volatile, and transportation companies, especially those that

offer long-distance haulage, as well as irregular route motor car-

riers, have always faced very high driver turnover (Richard et al.

1994). For example, Min and Lambert (2002) report turnover

rates between 92% and 103% for American trucking companies.

Recent German surveys (T

€

UV 2012) reported that more than

90% of German transportation companies indicated a high truck

driver turnover rate. High driver turnover is a costly issue for

trucking companies at the global level (Fournier et al. 2012).

Suzuki et al. (2009) confirm this for the United States. However,

similar findings could not be found for the German market.

Before the 2008 financial crisis, in Europe, and even before

then in other countries, especially in the United States, the trans-

portation industry was suffering from a significant shortage of

capable drivers. Due to the age shift in the population, many

economies will face a significant shortage of drivers in the near

future that Roberts (2014) quantifies as a shortfall of nearly

240,000 drivers by 2014 for the United States. In Germany,

where more than a third of the employees in the transportation

sector are more than 50 years old, transportation associations, as

well as various labor market experts, have repeatedly warned

about a “foreseeable disaster”(Walter 2012; K€

ubler et al. 2015).

However, filling the gap will be difficult as the working condi-

tions for drivers are poor (Dylan 2007; Gingold 2008; Mallett

2009). Beilock (2003) even calls land-based transportation with

its demanding working conditions “sweatshops on wheels.”

Explaining the high turnover rate among drivers as a conse-

quence of the working conditions is appealing, and consequently,

paying drivers more may help overcome this situation. Min and

Lambert (2002) show how some U.S. companies tried to reduce

driver turnover by increasing truck drivers’salaries. German

transportation associations, for instance, urge their corporate

members to pay higher salaries and propose wage increases up

to double existing driver wages (Walter 2012). However, two

decades ago, Richard et al. (1995) found that wages are not the

main reason for high driver turnover. The researchers identified a

lack of supervisory skills at the dispatcher level as one of the

main reasons truck drivers leave a company. This finding has

been confirmed by Taylor (1991) and Keller and Ozment (1999).

Other researchers also found other reasons for high driver

turnover rates rather than wages. De Croon et al. (2004), for

example, combine existing organizational stress theory and job

transition theory and investigate the effects of stress at work on

truck driver turnover. Suzuki et al. (2009) show that high organi-

zational commitment had a positive effect on truck drivers’prob-

ability of changing jobs. In a literature review, Suzuki et al.

(2009) identify the work environment (e.g., pay, home

Corresponding author:

Herbert Kotzab, Institute for Logistics and Supply Chain Manage-

ment, University of Bremen, Bremen 28359, Germany; E-mail:

kotzab@uni-bremen.de

Journal of Business Logistics, 2017, 38(3): 184–196 doi: 10.1111/jbl.12156

© Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals