In The News
O&S Uses Games to Teach Owner-Operators Business Skills
Arguably the best session at the Truckload Carriers Association's Independent Contractor Division recently had a less-than-compelling title: Training Games for Owner Operators. And that was a terrible shame, because attendees who thought it was just fun and games missed out on a top presentation and hands-on demonstration of one of the most creative ways of getting owner-operator and leased drivers on board with good business practices.
True, games were involved. The six-module training program developed by Charlotte Eckley, chief development officer for O&S Trucking in Springfield, Mo., involves role-playing at running a pizza store - while cooking pizza to eat during the learning process - and a fun board game that's a combination of trucking Chutes & Ladders and Monopoly. Other modules are less game-oriented, but the idea is having fun while learning.
The concept is to get new - or even not-so-new - single truck owners to think like businesspeople. Many come to the job with almost no business skills, despite a six-figure investment in their equipment. Eckley says many don't even possess a calculator. But during traditional training, she says, a lot of owner-operators don't ask questions when they don't understand. Putting the learning into a fun game environment makes it non-confrontational and reinforces the learning process.
The board game is a clever idea, teaching truckers how to look at revenue and costs, but also reinforcing such concepts as saving for maintenance, understanding the costs of home time and building equity in equipment. This education seeps in while rolling dice and plodding around the game board.
Did Eckley modify an existing game? "No," she says. She created it for the express purpose of teaching the business basics. So the next question, naturally, is: Are you planning to make this training available commercially? A somewhat delayed response brings a cautious, "Yes, but..."
The "but" is that the training is more than just a game. Eckley wants people who like what they see and hear to invest in understanding the power of the program so they can get the best from it. She'll likely want to have at least a day's training on the multi-module product, and the price will likely reflect this commitment both from Eckley's point of view and from the training purchaser.
She says the graduates from the pizza factory are much better at understanding the responsibilities of business and the practical aspects as well. Turnover at the all-owner-operator fleet has dropped 60 percent as drivers begin to understand there's more to being an owner-operator than shining the truck at the weekends. When they are successful businesspeople, O&S is a successful carrier. That's the two-way street of being an independent contractor carrier.
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