________________________________________________________________ Driverge Vehicle Innovations
as the company’ s‘ LOVE IT’ mission.“ Culture always starts with respect for people. No matter how much we scale, that doesn’ t change – respect starts from the top and it filters down,” reflects Terry, while Mark echoes the sentiment:“ Your people are genuinely your most valuable resource, no matter what. We work with equality, fairness, and basic empathy toward our team members while providing a safety driven environment, and we try to build a personal plan for everybody.”
Its focus on people extends to how the business is addressing skilled labor shortages in the industry – a challenge that varies significantly by region and role, Terry reveals.“ When it comes to our labor force – the team working on the upfitting of the vehicles – we do experience shortages in some parts of the country. It can be difficult to hire certain skill sets, and it’ s a competitive market where you’ re bidding against several manufacturers for the same talent.” Mark points to what Ford CEO Jim Farley has termed the‘ essential economy’ as a useful framing for the industry’ s broader
challenge: convincing more people that hands-on, labor-first careers offer strong pay, solid benefits and genuine career paths – a message supported directly by Driverge through job fairs, high school outreach and career center partnerships.
With plans to triple its current footprint through a combination of acquisitions, greenfield sites, and new product lines – including a recent move into service bodies – Driverge’ s growth trajectory shows no signs of slowing. However, the measure of success won’ t be financial, as Mark elaborates.“ If we can’ t maintain our culture, growth doesn’ t matter to us,” he concludes.“ I want it to be a place where people feel free to work, and somewhere people really want to come. If we’ ve achieved that, we remain confident the financial side will work itself out.” A fitting philosophy for a company that, whatever form its products take, still sees its work as being fundamentally about people. ■
www. driverge. com
manufacturing-today. com 229