About the Author

A 20-year trucking industry veteran, Dave Goodson has worked as a management consultant and trucking company executive focused on improving carrier profit-ability. In the early 90s, Goodson recognized the driver shortage as the greatest threat to carrier profitability. He refused to accept the prevailing view that a carrier cannot reduce high driver turnover even in the demanding long-haul trucking environment. In studying turnover, Goodson quickly realized that every facet of a carrier operation must become involved in retention. As the general manager of a major truckload carrier, he was able to put into practice many of his ideas. The results were a dramatic reduction in turnover.

In 1996 Goodson created The National Survey of Driver Wages, the publication of record for the truckload industry on driver compensation and retention. Virtually every major truckload carrier uses the data supplied by this survey.

Goodson speaks regularly at state motor carrier association meetings and the Randall Trucking Symposium. He has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes magazine and industry publications on trucking industry issues. He writes a monthly operations column for Commercial Carrier Journal magazine. In 1999, he began teaching a driver retention seminar that forms the basis of this book.

Goodson is president of Class 8 Solutions Inc., a consulting firm that focuses on carrier profitability, truckload pricing and driver retention. His firm publishes The North American Truckload Rate Index.

Goodson is a member of the Truckload Carriers Association and is vice chairman of the Driver Retention Management Panel. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Macalester College and a master’s in management from the J.L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He lives with his wife and three children in Eagan, Minn. He can be reached by e-mail at dgoodson8@cs.com.