Making a driver feel valued and appreciated is one of the biggest factors that can determine whether he or she works for your company for years or is out the door two months after being hired. As we’ve written about before, the factors that cause drivers to leave a company are often complex and layered, and feeling like their work is valued is a huge part of long-term satisfaction, even as other variables like routes, bonuses, and even pay change over time.
Implementing a rewards program at your carrier can be a cost-effective and high-impact way of engaging drivers while encouraging the behaviors you want from them. But carriers that try to use a traditional rewards program often see poor engagement rates and find that it rarely moves the needle. A rewards program should feel noticeable and meaningful to drivers, and putting a system in place shouldn’t add more complexity to your day or take time from all your other priorities. Busy carriers need a systematic way to thank drivers that won’t slow them down.
Tenstreet’s Rewards program addresses the challenges of busy carriers by offering an efficient way to thank your drivers, all through a platform your fleet is already using. Carriers can send rewards points right to their drivers’ phones that can be redeemed for gift cards from several popular retailers, giving drivers a reward they’ll actually be excited about. After just a few clicks, your drivers will feel appreciated in a way that impacts their quality of life on the road or back home.
Starting a rewards program has never been easier, and the impact you’ll see on your fleet’s morale and retention rates make showing gratitude to drivers worth the investment.
How Rewards Works
Rewarding drivers happens in the app they already have on their phones and engage with constantly: Driver Pulse. More than 300,000 drivers have used Pulse in the last month, and 85% of all active drivers have Pulse on their phones, so it’s a natural place to engage your fleet without additional tools or effort from you.
Drivers can earn points from their carrier or from Tenstreet, which they can then redeem instantly for electronic gift cards to driver-preferred vendors such as Amazon, Bass Pro Shop, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, DoorDash, Grubhub, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Petco, Pilot Flying J, and more. Your company’s ability to share these rewards immediately and for drivers to redeem them whenever they want helps reinforce positive behaviors in a driver’s mind and saves you from more labor-intensive systems like buying and distributing gift cards.
Rewards gives carriers flexibility in budgeting however much makes sense for their businesses. Our tool uses a pre-purchase system so carriers can control their spend on rewards and assign categories for point awarding, helping you to track rewards without spending more than you want to. Reporting also helps your investment and what actions you’re rewarding so you can see which drivers are earning the most points and which behaviors are being completed most often.
Your Sticky Secret Weapon
The true power of Rewards is using it in conjunction with your other Tenstreet tools to make positive actions “stickier” – it’s the glue that can strengthen your processes and make them even more compelling to drivers.
Using surveys to identify driver problems so you can improve retention rates? Offer points for completing these surveys to encourage feedback and create a positive association with being honest about experiences on the road.
Assigning training courses for ongoing education? Award drivers points for keeping on top of these responsibilities and staying timely on the road.
Working with drivers to improve fuel efficiency? Send your most-improved drivers points to celebrate progress and encourage the rest of your fleet to step up to the plate.
Any behavior you want to promote can be made more successful by rewarding points, leading to increased retention rates as an extra bonus. The result: happier drivers and greater savings for you.
Three Ways to Reward
Once a driver activates their Wallet in Driver Pulse, they’ll be eligible to receive points in three different ways.
1. Applause Rewards
Applause Rewards lets carriers spontaneously award drivers points for one-off positive behaviors. Customer compliments, helping another driver on the road, or going above and beyond are great reasons to thank your driver with a reward to make your top performers feel seen and appreciated, and being able to award these points whenever you want to means you can respond quickly to feedback and make it clear how the driver has excelled.
2. Rewards with Automation
Automated points rewards let you set and forget points dispersals for milestones like birthdays or work anniversaries, and for completing certain actions, so you can effortlessly recognize important dates or positive behaviors. Just set the number of points you want to award and choose from a number of significant milestones and positive actions and let the system reward points for you.
3. Pulse Sweepstakes
Pulse Sweepstakes helps you maximize the fun per dollar; isn’t it more fun to have a chance to win 10,000 points instead of everyone getting 100 points? Pulse Sweepstakes lets you run giveaways and incentivize certain behaviors by letting drivers earn sweepstakes entries in ways you choose. Tenstreet handles the logistics of the sweepstakes by randomizing and notifying winners and entrants.
Ideas for Rewarding Drivers
Awarding drivers points for behaviors you want to encourage provides you with a low-effort way to promote consistency and get things done. By making it easier to say thank you, you’re driving an even deeper connection between your company and your drivers while encouraging behaviors you want to see.
Points can be rewarded at any point in the driver lifecycle. Below are some examples of activities drivers could complete for points rewards – but the reasons for showing appreciation are unlimited:
- Referring new hires
- Finishing an application
- Scheduling orientation
- Passing CSA inspections
- Attending safety meetings
- Submitting updated documents
- Completing training classes
- Receiving positive feedback from a terminal
- Improving fuel efficiency
- Filling out an exit survey
Rewards FAQs
One point is equal to one penny. If a driver gets 500 points, those points are worth $5 in gift cards.
In his Pulse Wallet, a driver can select the number of points he wants to convert and turn those points into a gift card that can be used for shopping online and in supported businesses. Drivers can print these gift cards, save them to a virtual wallet, or give them to someone else as a gift.
Companies can set limits on how many points per day or per month individual users can reward to drivers so you can keep your budget in check.
If a driver has the Pulse app and has her Wallet activated, she is sent a push notification on her mobile device that points were awarded to her.
If a driver receives points but doesn’t have the Pulse app downloaded, she will receive an email saying she has rewards points waiting in the app with instructions on how to download it to redeem those points.
Once drivers get points from you, they keep them in their Pulse Wallet even if they leave a particular carrier. Points stay with the driver, not the company.
As long as a driver logs into their Pulse account every 24 months, their points stay active. Drivers will receive Pulse notifications to remind them about their existing point balance before it expires.
While we can’t provide you with tax advice and we recommend that you talk with your accountant about specific details, our understanding is that if you are providing a nominal amount of reward money, or if the rewards are given for safety reasons, there are no tax obligations.
However, for other rewards that are material, you will need to report the rewards as wages on the employee’s payroll or as a 1099. We offer a report in your Rewards tool which includes the necessary information for tax purposes.
Here are some links for information available from the IRS:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5137.pdf
https://www.irs.gov/government-entities/federal-state-local-governments/de-minimis-fringe-benefits
The Rewards that you are providing to a Driver under this Rewards Program are awarded in points, which themselves do not have a cash value. However, points can be redeemed for gift cards and each point is worth 1 cent in the driver’s Wallet.
Getting Started with Rewards
If you’re ready to see increased engagement from drivers and longer retention rates for your fleet, sign up to learn more about our rewards solutions below!
