Truckers and Travelers

Hey, Drivers!  In Part 1 of this blog on communication, we discussed the sender’s role in effective communication: asking the right questions or stating what they need concisely.  In part 2 we’ll discuss the receiver’s role to complete effective communication. 

In order to have a successful trucking business, you need an accurate and detailed trucking business plan.  We now know that effective and concise communication is the key to both.  Once the sender has delivered their message, it is the receiver’s role to listen accurately, and even take notes of the sender’s message.  Then to make sure they were listening correctly, the receiver should repeat back to the sender what they heard.  Notes are a good way to reiterate what you have heard.  The sender will then acknowledge by saying yes that’s right or no this is what I meant to say. 

The last thing the receiver needs to do is give the sender the correct information they are requesting.  If for instance a driver is calling in to ask what they should pick up for a load, the receiver should communicate that they heard the question asked then give the driver the answer they need which would be to send them to their next pickup destination.  Both the sender and receiver should repeat back to each other a couple of times the information being sent so each understands that they were heard correctly.  Never think that by repeating back information you are being redundant.  Better to repeat yourself two or three times than to assume you heard the other correctly the first time and miss picking up the proper load and cost yourself and your contractor money. 

To sum it up, write down what you heard the other person say then repeat back to them what you wrote down.  Remember, Drivers, communication is the key both in a trucking business plan and in running a successful trucking business.