Driver Appreciation Week is over, but the work of improving the driver experience continues
Fleets across America just wrapped up Driver Appreciation Week. Yards were full of barbecue smoke, break rooms were stocked with new swag for drivers, and managers took a moment to say thank you.
But anyone who has run a fleet knows that one week doesn't keep a great driver. Building a strong driver experience is a year-round job, and it depends on countless small decisions: how you communicate, whether drivers feel heard, whether recognition reaches the driver who is 300 miles from the terminal, and whether feedback leads to anything changing.
At Storyboard, we get a front-row view of how fleets connect with their drivers every day. We've learned a lot from fleets that work hard to build a culture their drivers want to be part of. Below, we've gathered the core themes we see from the fleets pushing the conversation forward, along with ideas any fleet can use, starting this week.
The Opportunity: Why Keeping Great Drivers Matters More Than Ever
Fleets know the challenges of losing a great driver, from covering routes to recruiting a replacement. The impact reaches everyone from HR to dispatch to your own customers.
To put it to a dollar value, the 2026 NPTC Benchmarking Report estimates that each driver departure costs an average of $9,029 in recruiting, screening, and onboarding. That figure doesn't fully capture the indirect costs to customer service and team morale.
Average driver tenure fell to 7.4 years from 8.7. In a typical month, 4.7% of fleet equipment sits idle because there's no one to drive it.
Knowing why drivers leave helps fleets focus their retention efforts on where they can make the biggest difference. Here’s what leading fleets are doing to keep great drivers:
Recognition That Goes Beyond "Thank You"
Every fleet says thank you. The fleets that get a real response from drivers make recognition specific, repeated, and public.
1. Run your Appreciation Program as a campaign, not a single message
A single Monday post about Driver Appreciation Week is gone from the feed by Tuesday. Several fleets we work with treat the week as a campaign instead. They number the days ("Day 3 of Driver Appreciation Week") and bring a new angle each morning: a thank-you from leadership one day, a safety milestone the next, a prize drawing at the end of the week.
This keeps the theme alive all week and signals that the appreciation was planned, not an afterthought. The best versions close by making clear that the week is a spotlight, not the only time the work gets noticed. This format can work year-round, with short campaigns tied to safety milestones, peak season, or other moments that recognize drivers.
2. Praise the specific thing, including the compliance work by drivers
"Great job this week, everyone" is nice. "On-time deliveries were up this week, and communication with dispatch was noticeably better" is far better, because it shows someone paid attention.
One effective approach flips the usual compliance message.
Rather than only reminding drivers about ongoing concerns (like logs going uncertified), some managers open their weekly updates by first thanking drivers who certified and submitted on time, and only then turn to what can be improved.
3. Encourage peer-to-peer recognition
Praise from the top matters, but drivers also want recognition from the people who understand the job best: other drivers. Some fleets encourage drivers to thank each other, whether a coworker helped with a tricky delivery, answered a question, or covered a route.
A little humor helps this land. When the message sounds like a person rather than a corporate memo, drivers are much more likely to join in. Peer recognition also builds the sense of team that keeps people in place when a competitor offers a few more cents per mile.
4. Make it fun: gamify, tier the prizes, and name the winners
Daily trivia questions were among the most engaging activities we saw during Appreciation Week. The strongest programs used a tiered structure: everyone who took part won something small, like a hat, and each day of participation earned another entry into a drawing for a grand prize such as a tool bag or camping gear. One fleet saw driver trivia replies double during the week.
The last step matters most. Announce the winners by name to the whole team. Public recognition is part of the prize, and it shows everyone else that participation counts.
5. Celebrate tenure and milestones within your team
Work anniversaries, safe-driving milestones, and million-mile achievements are some of the easiest wins in driver recognition, and they're often overlooked. Many fleets celebrate these moments on LinkedIn or other public channels, which is great for employer branding. But drivers may not be on LinkedIn, and a public post isn't the same as being recognized in front of the people you work with every day.
Celebrating within your team is just as important. A short fleet-wide message naming the driver, the milestone, and what it means to the operation takes a minute to send through a platform like Storyboard and reaches every driver. Given that so many departures happen in the first year, don't wait for five- or ten-year anniversaries. Your 90-day and one-year milestones may be the most valuable ones to recognize.
Driver Voice, Followed by Visible Action
The strongest practice we've seen is simple to describe but difficult to maintain: ask drivers what isn't working, then report back on what changed because they spoke up.
6. Establish a Driver Council or Advisory Committee
A driver council gives drivers a regular, structured forum to work directly with leadership. Typically, a small rotating group of drivers from different routes, shifts, and tenure levels meets monthly or quarterly with operations, safety, and maintenance leaders to bring up issues, test ideas, and weigh in on decisions that affect the job.
The meeting is one part of the equation, but follow-through from management is where a committee or council can make a big impact.
7. Close the loop: report what changed because drivers spoke up
The most powerful message we've seen from any fleet was not a thank-you. It was an itemized update listing improvements that could be traced back to driver feedback: how many trucks had been swapped for units better suited to the routes, what that did to reduce extra trips, and which drivers now had access to fuel cards where company fueling wasn't available.
This kind of update proves that the survey, the council, or the ride-along led to something. It's also the best way to get honest feedback next time. If drivers never see results, they stop speaking up. If they see a list of changes with numbers attached, they keep talking.
8. Treat drivers as evaluators: surveys and pilots
Engagement surveys sent only by email tend to disappear. Fleets that announced their surveys in the channel drivers use day-to-day saw a big jump in participation. At one fleet, survey responses made a big jump from a handful to over a hundred from better promotion.
The same idea applies to new tools. When a fleet rolls out a new routing app or piece of equipment, some managers present it as a pilot and ask drivers directly for feedback. That approach treats drivers as the experts on their own job and surfaces problems before a full rollout.
9. Let drivers shape decisions, including their own recognition
Before booking a venue or ordering swag for Appreciation Week, one manager simply asked drivers what they wanted: a team outing, an in-office gathering, giveaways, or something else. The result was recognition shaped by what drivers valued.
This works for operational decisions too. When a question came up about which equipment drivers should be allowed to operate, one safety leader polled drivers before taking the issue to management. He made it clear he'd advocate for their position. The final decision was made as a group at the next safety meeting. Managers build trust when they carry their drivers’ views to leadership instead of simply passing the decision down.
Money, Framed So Drivers Know What to Do Next
Bonuses and incentives come up constantly in fleet communications. The difference between effective and ignored incentives is usually clarity: can the driver tell exactly what they could earn and what they need to do next?
10. Make drivers your recruiting channel
Driver referrals are a highly effective recruiting tactic. Several fleets we work with keep a standing referral bonus, often in the low thousands of dollars per hire, and remind drivers regularly with one simple step: tell your manager and have the candidate call.
Referrals do double duty. Drivers who refer friends are showing confidence in the company, and new hires who arrive through a friend already have a connection on day one, which helps with retention in that risky first year.
11. Pay to move a driver internally instead of losing them
Since the top reason drivers leave is another driving job, it's worth asking whether that other job could be inside your own organization. Some fleets that run multiple operations offer transfer bonuses to drivers willing to move to a different internal fleet. One structure we've seen splits the bonus into two payments: half at first dispatch on the new fleet and half after 30 days.
For a driver unhappy with a specific route, schedule, or customer, a transfer can solve the problem without a resignation. For the fleet, it keeps a trained, trusted driver and avoids the full cost of turnover.
12. Make rewards tangible for drivers
Small rewards work best when drivers don't have to figure out how to use them. The strongest examples included the reward amount, the expiration date, and a link to redeem it, all in a single message.
Just as important is removing the hidden cost of participating. Some fleets add paid hours to cover time spent at recognition events or safety meetings, and some offer holiday premium pay for drivers working on a holiday.
Connecting with Drivers On the Road
A common challenge in driver engagement programs is reaching drivers where they are, most commonly on the road and away from the office or terminal.
We have seen several fleets design around this constraint from the start.
13. Remove the logistics barriers to participation
Think about the driver who never passes through the main yard. Fleets that do this well hold safety meetings and appreciation events as open houses across several hours or days instead of a single time slot. They ship gift bags to satellite offices, provide dial-in options so drivers can join meetings from a parking spot, and get enrollment forms to out-of-town locations.
A useful test for any event: could a driver on the longest route in your network take part without losing a day? If not, adjust the format.
14. Put leadership in front of drivers
When an executive visits a terminal, the message is clear: drivers matter to the business. One fleet invited every driver who could attend to stop by the office and meet the operating company's CEO. The invitation was framed as the executive wanting to meet them, not drivers being called in.
These visits work best with plenty of notice, a flexible window so more drivers can attend, and a follow-up afterward sharing what leadership heard. Given that 16% of voluntary departures cite internal management, face time with leadership is more than symbolic. It builds connection.
Make Every Week a Little Like Appreciation Week
The fleets doing this best don't treat driver experience as an event. They treat it as a habit: specific recognition, a real forum for driver voice, visible follow-through, incentives that are easy to understand, and communication that reaches every driver, wherever they are.
None of these ideas require a big budget. Most require consistency and a reliable way to reach drivers. With the cost of replacing a single driver near $9,000 and competition for experienced drivers likely to heat up again, the fleets that invest in driver experience now will be the ones with the strongest teams when it counts. Complemented by a strong compensation program, we’re seeing fleets lean in to strengthen the driver experience and make concrete steps to retain their drivers successfully.
Pick two or three ideas from this list and put them into practice now. Your drivers will notice.