Stamp of approval?
Page 36
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
I fully agree with Ralph Cropper's comments (CM June 19) that drivers are not all doing much the same job.
Those who always turn up on time, put in a full stint every working day, believe in cooperative driving and take a pride in being an ambassador of their company—and, despite the biased anti-heavy goods vehicle driver critics, they are in the majority—deserve to be suitably rewarded.
Wage structures prevent this and they always will. The only solution— and the trade unions would not be able to object to this—is extra payment by incentive, but not cash payment because after the initial installation of cash bonus schemes, these invariably tend to become part of the basic wage structure in the eyes of drivers. i.e. as right!
As a member of RoSPA for many years, far and away the best incentive scheme I have come across is one which has just been introduced by Performance Awards Ltd, a subsidiary company of Green Shield Stamps Ltd. It can be adjusted to suit each fleet operator's requirements regarding cost and adaptability and the secret of its success lies in the influence of the wife or girl-friend of the driver many of whom are stamp-savers already.
The wife, who perhaps needs only one more weekly voucher (equal to a full book of stamps) for her new electric iron or whatever, is going to get him up and out on time, even after a Sunday night binge. so that he arrives on the job punctually, drives defensively, avoids accidents and obeys his company's instructions regarding job performance.
The fitter—in my experience so often the Cinderella of the Transport industry—who gets the vehicle through MOT test first time could also benefit from this type of incentive scheme.
G. H. FREEMAN, Executive Director Keith Shipton & Co. Ltd, Insurance Brokers, Sidcup, Kent.