Driver satisfaction survey questions that show why drivers stay or leave
A driver satisfaction survey asks the people behind the wheel how pay, home time, dispatch, equipment and safety really work for them, so you can fix what makes good drivers leave. A driver can finish the core 12 in five minutes once the truck is parked and the engine is off. Add a set on waiting time, safety or a new driver's first weeks when you need it.
- 37questions
- 12in the core set
- 5 minto answer the core
- Any fleettrucks, vans, buses, cars
By Michael Hodge, BSc Psychology Updated September 2026
Pay, home time, dispatch and safety: the whole driver bank
Each question lists the answers drivers choose between and what a result means for the fleet. The core 12 arrive ticked, so just add the sets your fleet needs, then open the lot as an online survey, print copies for the yard, or copy the wording into a tool you already use.
The core 1212 questions
Nine statements drivers agree or disagree with, a question about staying, a vote on the one change that matters most, and one open question. Sent without any extra set, these twelve are a complete driver survey.
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I can predict my pay from one week to the next.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeSeparates pay that swings from week to week from pay that is simply low. A low score points at the pay model, not the rate.
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I am paid for all the time I work, waiting included.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeHours at docks, pickups and customer sites are often the unpaid part of the job. This shows how much of it drivers still carry.
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My schedule leaves enough time for life at home.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeHome time is one of the three things drivers weigh most when they decide whether to stay.4
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My trips are planned so I can finish them legally.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeIf drivers disagree, plans are running past their hours and the pressure lands on them.
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Dispatch tells me about changes as soon as they know.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeThe day-to-day relationship with dispatch. Late news about a load or a route costs a driver hours and home time.
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When I report a vehicle problem, it gets fixed fast.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeAsks about repairs that follow a report, which the shop can act on, rather than how new the fleet is.
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I can stop to rest when I need to, without trouble.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeA safety question drivers can answer without risk to themselves: it asks about the company, not whether they have ever driven tired.
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Managers here treat drivers with respect.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeDrivers work alone for most of a shift. How the office speaks to them is much of what they know about the company.
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When drivers raise a problem, something changes.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeDrivers who see nothing change stop answering. Show what changed before the next survey goes out.
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Do you see yourself driving for us a year from now?
Yes, for sureProbablyNot sureProbably notNoYour early warning. Read it by route type and tenure, then compare it with who actually leaves.
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Which change would make the biggest difference to you?
Steadier or higher payMore time at homeLess unpaid waitingBetter vehiclesBetter dispatchDrivers choose one, which makes them rank. It also works as a live vote in a safety meeting.
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What is the one thing that would make you more likely to stay?
Open answerDrivers name specific fixes here: a lane, a dispatcher, a pay rule, a truck. Sort the answers into three or four piles.
Pay, waiting and home time5 questions
Add these when the pay or home-time statements come back weak and you want to pin down which part of the pay package drivers mean.
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How are you mainly paid?
By the mileBy the hourBy the load or stopShare of the loadSalaryA mixRead every pay answer by pay model. Drivers paid by the mile or load earn nothing while they wait unless detention is paid.
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I understand how my pay is worked out.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeA driver who cannot check a settlement assumes it is short. Clearer pay statements are one of the cheapest fixes a fleet has.
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In a typical week, how long do you wait without pay?
NoneUnder 2 hours2 to 5 hours6 to 10 hoursOver 10Most of the industry only measures time past the contract limit. This is the driver's own count, in hours you can price.2
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How often do you get home on the day you were promised?
AlwaysMost timesAbout half the timeRarelyNeverSeparates how much home time drivers get from whether the promise holds, which is usually what hurts.
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Our health and retirement benefits meet my needs.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeBenefits sit next to pay in a driver's comparison with the fleet down the road.
Thinking about staying3 questions
Three questions for a retention review: would drivers bring a friend, are they looking, and what keeps them here.
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How likely are you to recommend driving here to a driver you know?
0123456789100 = Not at all likely, 10 = Extremely likelyWould they bring a friend? Take the share who answer 0 to 6 from the share who answer 9 or 10 for a score to track.
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Have you looked at other driving jobs in the past three months?
NoJust lookingI have appliedI have an offerMore direct than the year-ahead question. "I have an offer" is a call to make this week.
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What is the main reason you stay?
PayHome timeBenefitsDispatchEquipmentPeopleWhat to protect when you change things. A new pay plan that costs drivers their favourite lanes or dispatcher can lose more than it saves.
New drivers: the first 90 days3 questions
Send these at 30 and 90 days, while a new driver still remembers what they were told when they were hired.
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How well did the job match what your recruiter told you?
ExactlyMostlyPartlyNot at allTells recruiting which promises about pay, miles or home time the operation does not keep.
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My orientation got me ready for my first solo trip.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeAsks about readiness on the road, not whether orientation was pleasant.
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I know who to call about pay, equipment or routes.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeA new driver with nobody to call about a pay error or a broken trailer is on their own. A low score shows where to add a contact.
Safety on the road5 questions
Driver safety feedback that goes past "we value safety": pressure from schedules, phone calls on the move, and the close calls nobody reported.
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I can refuse a trip I think is unsafe, with no penalty.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeThe test of a safety policy. If drivers disagree, the policy exists only on paper.
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How often does work call or message you while you are driving?
NeverRarelyWeeklyMost daysSeveral times a dayA count, not an opinion. Anything above "Rarely" is a fix for dispatch, not a talk for drivers.
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In the past month, which of these put your safety at risk?
Tight delivery windowsWaits that used up my hoursNowhere safe to parkCalls while drivingVehicle defectsBad weather routingNone of theseTick all that applyShows where risk starts: planning, customers, parking, equipment or weather. Tally it across the fleet.
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Do you know how to report a near miss or close call?
Yes, and I have used itYes, never used itNoA quiet near-miss log often means drivers do not know how to report or do not trust what happens next, not that nothing happens.
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Describe a close call from the last three months. What would have prevented it?
Open answerThe richest answers in the survey. Strip any detail that could identify the driver before sharing them.
Dispatch and trip planning3 questions
For fleets where the dispatcher is a driver's main contact. Report these by dispatch team, never by named dispatcher.
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My dispatcher knows my home time and route needs.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeShows whether dispatch plans around the driver or only around the freight.
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Trip details from dispatch are accurate.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeWrong addresses, appointment times or weights. Each one turns into waiting, rework or a fine.
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I can reach someone who can help at any hour I drive.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeRead it by shift. If night and weekend drivers score it lowest, that is where after-hours cover is missing.
Your truck or vehicle2 questions
Two questions for the shop and the buyer: comfort over a full shift, and what happens at the side of the road.
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My seat and cab are comfortable for a full shift.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeDrivers sit in this seat all week. Low scores point to seats, climate control or sleeper fixes before a new truck order.
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If I break down, I get help quickly.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeRoadside support is where a driver learns whether the company has their back.
About you (optional)4 questions
Only to compare groups. Report a group only once five or more drivers in it have answered.
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What do you mainly drive?
Tractor-trailerStraight truckDelivery vanBus or coachCar or limoOne survey can cover a mixed fleet. Read each vehicle type on its own.
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What kind of routes do you run?
Local, home dailyRegionalOver the roadDedicatedIt variesHome time means something different on each type of route. Compare like with like.
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How long have you driven for us?
Under 3 months3 to 12 months1 to 3 years3 years or moreShows whether problems belong to new drivers or to the whole fleet.
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How do you drive for us?
Company driverOwner-operator or contractorPart-time or seasonalOwner-operators rank their concerns differently from company drivers, so split them.1
What drivers worry about is not what carriers worry about
Every year the American Transportation Research Institute asks the trucking industry to rank its biggest problems. In the 2025 survey, 29.8% of more than 4,200 respondents were professional truck drivers, and ATRI ranked their answers separately from the motor carriers'.1
| Rank | Truck drivers | Motor carriers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Driver compensation | The economy |
| 2 | Truck parking | Lawsuit abuse reform |
| 3 | English language proficiency for drivers | Insurance cost and availability |
| 4 | Broker issues | CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) |
| 5 | Detention and delay at customer facilities | Driver shortage |
Pay and detention, two of the drivers' top five, do not appear anywhere in the carriers' top ten. Truck parking is second for drivers and ninth for carriers.1 An office that plans from its own list can miss what drivers talk about at the fuel island. A driver survey hands you the drivers' list, for your own fleet.
The core 12 covers the concerns a fleet can act on: predictable pay (statement 1), paid waiting time (statement 2), time to rest (statement 7), and the vote in question 11. The pay and safety sets go deeper on waiting hours and parking. Company drivers and owner-operators rank differently too: company drivers put compensation first, while owner-operators put broker issues first.1 One About you question, how each person drives for you, lets you read the two groups apart.
Timing, privacy and splitting results by route
Drivers are rarely in the building, often tired when they are, and wary of anything dispatch might read. Four choices get past all three.
Count waiting time in hours
Detention is hard to see from the office, because most of the industry only measures the time a truck spends at a facility beyond the limit in the shipping contract. A federal audit estimated that every extra 15 minutes of average time at a facility raises the expected crash rate by 6.2 percent, and that detention costs for-hire truckload drivers between $1,281 and $1,534 each a year in lost earnings.2 Ask drivers for their own count: the waiting question in the pay set gives you hours you can take to a customer or into a pay rule.
Split the results by route and driver type
A fleet average hides the drivers most likely to leave. Researchers who asked truck drivers why they stay found that pay, personal safety and time at home mattered most, and that drivers fell into three distinct groups with different needs.4 Use the About you set to report local, regional and over-the-road drivers apart, and new drivers apart from veterans. A home-time score that looks fine overall can be the lowest number on the page for one group.
Send it when drivers are parked
Nobody should answer a survey at 60 miles an hour. Send the link as the week's last load is delivered, or during a long break, and say in the message to answer once parked. Keep the survey open for two full weeks so drivers on long runs get home and see it, and put paper copies at the terminal for drivers who never open a link.
Keep dispatch away from the answers
Drivers will not criticise a dispatcher who can read their name next to the comment. Have HR or safety run the survey, collect no names, and never report a slice of the fleet smaller than five drivers. When the results are in, post the scorecard on the driver board, name one change and a date for it, and ask again after the change.
At a safety meeting or a driver lunch, a single question projected at the front gets answers faster than a form. Put the biggest-difference vote up as a live poll drivers answer from their phones. First time running one? Read the poll how-to before the meeting: it covers posting the link to a WhatsApp group or a text thread, where most crews already talk.
Build a driver scorecard from the nine statements
Type in how many drivers chose each answer for statements 1 to 9. Each statement becomes a bar, with the two strongest and the two to fix first labelled, and the page prints as one sheet for the operations meeting or the driver board.
- 1Each bar splits the drivers who answered into disagree, neutral and agree. The number on the right is percent agree.
- 2Group the bars: pay and home time (1 to 3), planning and dispatch (4 and 5), then how drivers are treated (6 to 9).
- 3Run it again for each route type and for drivers with under a year here. The group with the lowest bars is the first place to look for turnover.
- 4Put the two weakest statements beside the biggest-difference vote. When they agree, you have your first fix.
Driver results
A monthly check-in for drivers on the road
For the months without a full survey, send these five on the first Monday. They track pay, home time and trip planning, show whether drivers still see problems getting fixed, and let them vote on the next change.
- 01I can predict my pay from one week to the next.
- 02My schedule leaves enough time for life at home.
- 03My trips are planned so I can finish them legally.
- 04When drivers raise a problem, something changes.
- 05Which change would make the biggest difference to you?
Put a number on driver turnover
Survey answers tell you why drivers leave. Turnover tells you how many, and it gives the survey results a cost your finance team understands.
Average annual driver turnover, 1995 to 2017
The formula
Turnover rate = drivers who left in the last 12 months, divided by your average number of drivers over those months, times 100. Count everyone who left, including drivers you let go, and use the average headcount rather than today's.
A worked example
Take a regional fleet that averaged 120 drivers over the year, and 54 of them left. Its turnover is 54 divided by 120, times 100: 45 percent. In that fleet's survey, 31 drivers answer "Probably not" or "No" to the year-ahead question. Six months later, check how many of those 31 have actually gone. If most have, the stay question is working as an early warning, and the lowest core statements show what to fix before the next wave.
Long-distance truckload is where the pressure is highest. In the American Trucking Associations' carrier survey, annual turnover from 1995 to 2017 averaged 94.0% at large truckload carriers and 79.2% at small ones.3 Your own rate, tracked every quarter beside the survey scores, is the comparison that matters. For staff outside the cab, the employee survey questions cover the same ground for dispatchers, mechanics and office teams.
For the yard, the fuel desk and the drivers' lounge
Plenty of drivers would rather tick boxes on a clipboard than open a link. Leave a stack of questionnaires by the sign-in sheet with a sealed box beside it, and empty the box when the two weeks are up. Letter or A4 paper both work.
Driver questionnaire
Sheet one: the core 12 as a pencil form, plus ruled lines for the stay question. The optional sets run on over the following pages, numbered from 13.
Download PDF
Results worksheet
A pen-and-paper grid: mark each sheet, get percent agree on all nine statements, count the vote, then circle the first fix.
Download PDFSwap the mood questions for things drivers saw happen
Most weak driver questions ask for a mood. Strong ones ask about something a driver saw happen this month. The same repair works on any question type, and writing good survey questions walks through it with examples.
Are you happy with your pay?
I can predict my pay from one week to the next.
I am paid for all the time I work, waiting included.
Happy mixes the rate, the pay model and unpaid hours. Each of the two statements points to a different fix.
How satisfied are you with dispatch and communication?
Dispatch tells me about changes as soon as they know.
Trip details from dispatch are accurate.
Dispatch and communication are two subjects. A driver annoyed by just one of them has no way to say which.
Have you ever driven while too tired?
I can stop to rest when I need to, without trouble.
The weak version asks drivers to admit a violation on a company form. The stronger version asks what the company lets drivers do.
Rate our safety culture from 1 to 10.
I can refuse a trip I think is unsafe, with no penalty.
Safety culture is a label. Turning down an unsafe trip is something a driver has either seen happen or not.
Questions fleet managers ask about driver surveys
Short answers for fleet, safety and HR managers planning their first driver survey.
What questions should I ask truck drivers in a survey?
Ask about the things drivers weigh when they decide to stay: pay and how predictable it is, unpaid waiting, home time, dispatch, the truck, and whether they can put safety first without trouble. The twelve core questions above cover every one, and a driver finishes them in about five minutes.
How often should you survey your drivers?
Run the core 12 twice a year, send the monthly five in the months between, and give new drivers the first-90-days set at day 30 and day 90. Survey again after every change you make, so drivers can see their answers counted.
Should a driver satisfaction survey be anonymous?
Yes. Drivers will not criticise pay, dispatch or safety pressure under their name. Collect no names, keep answers out of dispatch's hands, and publish nothing about a crew of fewer than five drivers.
Can owner-operators and contract drivers take the same survey?
Yes. Keep one survey, and use the last About you question to split company drivers from owner-operators. Their priorities differ: in ATRI's 2025 survey, company drivers ranked compensation first and owner-operators ranked broker issues first.1
How do you measure driver retention?
Track three numbers: turnover (drivers who left in 12 months divided by average headcount), the share who say they will still be here in a year, and the referral score from the staying set. The first shows the loss; the other two warn you before it happens.
Hear it from your drivers first
Get the core 12 out to drivers this month, pin the scorecard to the driver board, and tell drivers which change comes first and when.
