In their eagerness to attract new drivers, fleet owners and managers offer an amazing number of incentives. I’ve seen health and dental benefits, group RRSPs, better work/life balance, paid waiting and layover, signing bonuses, safety bonuses and more.

They also sometimes get very creative. “Driver friendly” loads, no slip seating, “personalized” dispatch, guaranteed wages, advancement of wages, wages in U.S. dollars, satellite radio, MP3 players, laptops … the list goes on and on.

In total, in a brief survey of help-wanted ads, I found 56 different incentives offered to company drivers and owner-operators. These incentives are promised before the driver has driven mile-one, and are usually “above and beyond” the per-mile rate.

What was once an art practised by sales departments who could actually quantify their results has extended to almost every department and industry — including trucking.

But I must caution you. Before you launch a reward program for the purpose of gaining the upper hand in battle for talent, please consider the following:

— Are you rewarding behavior that should be considered a base function of their job? The classic is individual safety bonuses. Would you reward an anesthesiologist for being safe? Of course not. It’s part of the job. Certain job functions, such as an ability to drive in a safe manner, produce accurate paper work, and represent the company well, are basic functions that unless a driver shows “extraordinary” ­behavior, should not (in my opinion) be rewarded.

— Are you rewarding the wrong behaviors? Signing bonuses payable after three months of continuous employment are a good example. How hard is it to stay out of trouble for 90 days? A 12-month bonus based on specific criteria would be more appropriate. Leave signing bonuses to major-league baseball.

— Are you breeding a culture of entitlement? Offering rewards without requiring a direct behavioral change breeds entitlement. It’s the something-for-nothing dichotomy — what’s in it for me, rather than how can I help build a successful enterprise? The industry is setting itself up for a culture of entitlement with all its gregarious and often unnecessary offerings.

— Can you quantify the results? Most things can be quantified if you have someone focused on recording and analysis. The problem occurs when you don’t have this person and 30 drivers are demanding their quarterly service bonus and you have nothing to go by. If you can’t measure it, don’t do it.

— Can you deliver on the promises? Who’s making the promises? Make sure in your operations people are involved in constructing the reward program, or else you won’t be able to come good at bonus time. What happens when a tractor goes down and you have to bump a driver? What happens when you have to split your new tractor in half to accommodate the two drivers you promised it to? The pressure and damage control will be on the same dispatchers who had nothing to do with the promises in the first place.

I’m really not against a well-oiled, measurable rewards program, but it’s not for everyone. And it can be an exercise in futility. Before you join the competition for the greatest reward ever, consider spending your money on a mentoring program, newer equipment, training and integration of new hires, and recruitment from outside the industry.

Pay well, truly care for your staff, take care of their families, encourage a team/family environment, apply the “golden rule” to every employee interaction, make your workplace culture one of mutual trust and respect, expect your drivers to be top shelf and assist them when they make mistakes, and finally, hire good people. Do this and people will want to work with you, with or without winning the driver of the month award.