Celadon Trucking Services has figured out it's not all about pay. A lot of what drives drivers away is that they don't have enough time at home. So in an effort to curb turnover, Celadon has pioneered an array of scheduling options it believes will attract and help retain good drivers who simply don't want to be on the road all the time.

"We understand that people should work to live, not live to work," says Ronny Betz, director of recruiting for the Indianapolis-based company.

Betz used to drive trucks and, as a family man with four children, he knows first-hand that being home is important. About 10 years ago, when he was an owner-operator, he came home and his toddler son ran from him crying. Dad had been on the road so much that his own son didn't recognize him.

"It almost chased me out of the business. I kept driving, but I never forgot that. I made a pledge to myself that if I ever got in a position to, that I would change that part of the industry. When I finally came off the road, I started working on it."

That chance came when Betz went to work for Celadon, a publicly-held company that was looking for creative ways to make drivers want to stay aboard. "We try to create a balance between home-time and money here," says Betz.

A year ago, Celadon was battling turnover as high as 130%. Since then, it has fallen to about 70% and the company aims to drop it to 20% to 30% in 2003, Betz says.

Celadon credits its "lifestyle fleets" with making the big dent in turnover. These fleets are patterned after working arrangements used by off-shore drilling crews and firefighters. The working arrangements allow a driver to be home and still generate more income than most local jobs.

A new addition is the "14-by-7" plan. These drivers work 14 days and are off seven; they're paid by the mile while on the road and draw a salary during the weeks off. "They can make $32,000 to $39,000 a year with 17 weeks paid vacation," says Betz. "It's a great gig for people who want to run really hard and then be off."

Celadon has been pleased with driver acceptance of the lifestyle fleet concept. Many of the drivers participate and turnover in those divisions has dropped to the single digits, Betz says.

The lifestyle fleet gets a big thumbs-up from Brian Shaw, who drives a show-quality Freightliner for Devore Trucking of Joplin, Mo., which contracts with Celadon.

"I love them. The freight is good and they get me to the shows that I want to go to. The dispatcher, the planners, the drivers, they all work together. They have so much freight, they don't let you sit," says Shaw, who has turned his company Freightliner into a show truck. The truck has a '50s rock-and-roll theme, and when he competes at shows, he takes along a life-size stand-up photo of Elvis Presley.

More traditional working options at Celadon include:

• Dedicated fleets. Drivers average 2,300 to 3,300 miles a week and average $28,000 to $38,000, with predictable home time.

• Local fleets, averaging 35 to 60 hours per week and minimum pay of $500 a week, and home every night.

• Regional fleets where drivers are home weekly and run between 2,200 and 2,800 miles and average $768 per week.

The availability of the options varies according to where a driver lives. The most choices are available along its primary freight lanes, roughly a triangle of Detroit, El Paso, Texas, and Jacksonville, Fla. "If you live in the right place," says Betz, "you can have the best of both worlds. You can slip in and out of the various fleets.

"We have some who run long-haul when the kids are in school and then move back into the lifestyle fleet when the kids are out for the summer, so they can have quality family time during the summer," Betz says. "The good thing is that you can have scheduled time off."

On the other hand, there may be drivers who need extra money and want to do some serious long-haul running to get it. "We know there is a time in your life when money is very important, and that's where our national long-haul fleets come into the picture. What we've tried to do is tailor the long-haul business to the needs of drivers."

Celadon was founded in 1985 and now runs more than 2,000 tractors and 7,000 trailers. Customers include Proctor & Gamble, Chrysler, Volkswagen and Ford. Operating revenue in 2000 was $352 million, compared with $95 million in 1994. Celadon is one of the 10 largest truckload carriers in the U.S., with operations in Canada and Mexico, and is the leading carrier to and from Mexico, both from the U.S. and Canada.

Benefits at Celadon are competitive with the rest of the industry, and another advantage is that Celadon tries to be totally non-touch freight. If a lumper is needed, the fleet reimburses 100% of the fee. Most drivers run solo, although there are teams and owner-operators.

Call (800) 729-9770 or browse the Web site, www.celadontrucking.com, for more information.