Truck driver exit interview questions: 36 to ask, and how to use the answers

Good truck driver exit interview questions find three things: the real reason a driver is leaving, what would have kept them, and what the next job offers that yours doesn't. Ask about pay and settlements, home time, dispatch, equipment, safety pressure, respect and the job promised at hiring. Then code every answer the same way so reasons add up across drivers.

The 36 questions below are grouped into eight topics:

1. The decision
2. Where they're going
3. Pay and settlements
4. Home time and miles
5. Dispatch and the driver manager
6. Equipment, safety and pressure
7. The job you were promised
8. Could we have kept you?

After the questions: how to run a driver exit interview so you hear the truth, a reason-code list, and how to turn answers into changes.

1. The decision

Open wide and let the driver talk before you steer.

1. What made you decide to leave?
2. When did you first start thinking about leaving? What happened around then?
3. Was there one moment that settled it?
4. Did you tell anyone here before you decided? What happened?

2. Where they're going

This shows what competitors offer your drivers, and whether you lost the driver to another fleet or to another kind of work.

5. Are you going to another trucking job, a different kind of driving, or out of driving?
6. What does the new job offer that we don't?
7. Is the pay better, the same or lower? On what basis: per mile, per hour, per week?
8. Did a recruiter reach out to you, or did you go looking?

The answer to question 5 matters for how you read your numbers. The American Trucking Associations says its turnover rate "captures churn within the industry" and that retirements and exits from trucking account for a small share of it (ATA, March 25, 2022). See our guide to the truck driver turnover rate.

3. Pay and settlements

Pay is on drivers' own list. Truck driver respondents ranked Driver Compensation in their top three concerns in the American Transportation Research Institute's (ATRI) Top Industry Issues survey released October 18, 2026 (ATRI, Oct. 18, 2026). The National Academies' 2024 report on long-distance trucking also links week-to-week pay variability to higher turnover (National Academies, 2024).

9. Was your pay what you expected when you were hired?
10. How steady was your weekly pay? Did the swings play a part in leaving?
11. Were there settlement errors or deductions you didn't understand?
12. Was there work you did that you felt you weren't paid for, like waiting time?
13. What pay change, if any, would have kept you?

4. Home time and miles

14. Did you get the home time you were promised?
15. How often did planned home time move, and how much notice did you get?
16. Were you getting enough miles or loads to make the pay work?
17. Were you running too much, with not enough time off?

Questions 16 and 17 point in opposite directions on purpose. The National Academies report describes drivers who are more likely to quit when their work and home time move away from what they want in either direction: too little work in a freight downturn, or too much in an upturn.

5. Dispatch and the driver manager

The research on frontline supervisors is consistent: the National Academies summarized studies finding effective dispatchers and supervisors associated with lower turnover and ineffective ones with higher turnover.

18. How would you describe working with your dispatcher or driver manager?
19. When you had a problem on the road, did you get help fast enough?
20. Did the loads you were given make sense for your hours and where you wanted to be?
21. Did you ever feel punished for turning down a load?
22. If you could tell your driver manager one thing, what would it be?

6. Equipment, safety and pressure

23. How was the truck? Did breakdowns or repeat repairs play a part?
24. When you reported a defect, did it get fixed?
25. Did you ever feel pushed to drive tired, out of hours, or faster than was safe?
26. Was there a customer, lane or facility that made the job harder than it should be?
27. Were parking and rest stops a problem on your runs?

Truck Parking is one of the three top concerns truck driver respondents named in ATRI's 2026 survey, so question 27 belongs here.

7. The job you were promised

Compare the job the driver was sold with the job they got. Gaps here are recruiting and onboarding problems, and they're the cheapest to fix.

28. How well did the recruiter's description match the actual job?
29. What surprised you most in your first month?
30. Did orientation prepare you for the real work? What was missing?
31. Was there a promise that wasn't kept? Who made it?

8. Could we have kept you?

Respect shows up in why drivers leave. In the OOIDA Foundation's 2022 member survey, leased-on owner-operators ranked low pay, lack of respect and lack of freight as their top three reasons for leaving a carrier (OOIDA Foundation, May 2022). Ask about it directly.

32. Did you feel respected here, by the office and by management?
33. Was there a point where we could have changed your mind? What would it have taken?
34. What should we keep doing exactly as it is?
35. Would you recommend this job to a driver you know? Why or why not?
36. Would you consider coming back? Under what conditions?

How to run a driver exit interview

A driver on the way out has little reason to be blunt with the person they're leaving. These steps help.

1. Separate voluntary and involuntary exits. Run the full interview with drivers who quit. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts quits as employees who "left voluntarily," and counts retirements, transfers and discharges separately (BLS JOLTS definitions). Code discharges and retirements, but don't mix their reasons into the quit analysis.
2. Have someone outside the chain ask. Not the driver's dispatcher or driver manager. A safety lead, an HR or retention manager, or an outside party works better.
3. Ask twice. Hold a short interview in the last week, then a follow-up call or exit survey 30 to 60 days after the driver leaves. Some drivers speak more freely once the final settlement has cleared.
4. Pick 10 to 12 questions. Always ask questions 1, 5, 6 and 33, then add from the topics that fit.
5. Write down their words, then code them. Record one primary reason and up to two secondary reasons using the list below.
6. Don't argue or counter-offer in the interview. If you want to save the driver, do that in a separate conversation.
7. Keep it separate from safety records. Exit interview notes are your internal records. They are not the safety performance history a new employer will request (see below).

A reason-code list that makes answers add up

Use the same codes for every exit, and the same list for stay interviews, so the two can be compared.

How to use the answers

Count reasons monthly. Put the primary codes for all quits in one table. If HOME and DISP lead three months in a row, that's your fix list.

Split by tenure. Count drivers who left in their first 90 days separately. PROM and PAY codes in that group often point at recruiting and orientation; see truck driver onboarding best practices.

Split by terminal and driver manager. A cluster of DISP codes under one manager is a coaching conversation, not a fleet-wide policy change.

Price it. Multiply each reason's count by your cost per replaced driver from our cost of truck driver turnover formula. A $40,000-a-year problem gets attention faster than a list of complaints.

Compare with drivers still here. Run stay interviews and an anonymous driver satisfaction survey on the same codes. A reason that shows up in both is your top priority.

Close the loop. Tell current drivers what you changed because of exit feedback. It shows that speaking up works. For the broader plan, see how to retain truck drivers.

Exit interviews and the safety history request

When a former driver applies elsewhere, the new employer must investigate their safety performance history with Department of Transportation (DOT) regulated employers from the past 3 years. As of October 2026, under the final rule at 49 CFR 391.23(g), a previous employer must respond to each request within 30 days, even when there is nothing to report, and must keep a record of each request and response for one year. That duty covers the defined safety data, not exit interview opinions. Keep the two processes and files separate.

Off Duty Not Driving Rewards is a rewards program for trucking fleets. Contact our team to learn more.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Confirm requirements against the current regulation text and with your compliance counsel.