Avoid Truck Drivers Ghosting Your CDL Jobs

Have you ever been talking with a driver, where everything seems to be going well? You’re emailing back and forth, going over the details of the position, and then seemingly out of nowhere, they stop responding. You send a follow up email, thinking your previous one slipped through the cracks, but once again, you get nothing back. It looks like this is a classic case of Truck Driver Ghosting.  

What is Truck Driver Ghosting

Ghosting is when a person stops responding and disappears altogether, like a ghost. The term is most often used in the dating world, but the same thing happens in recruiting daily.  

Truck Driver Ghosting has been on the rise over the past few years across the U.S. But, in the trucking industry where demand for drivers is at an all-time high, it’s even worse. We spoke with Jason Crowell, Director of Recruiting for Drive My Way’s client Custom Commodities Transport, and he shared his perspective on driver ghosting. 

“A Truck Driver is likely talking to 4 or 5 driver recruiters at once in their job search, saying yes to one of them, and leaving the other recruiters hanging.  We call it “ghosting” and it’s on the rise, contributing to the recruiter’s stress,” shared Jason. 

Why Do Drivers Ghost Recruiters?

There are two big reasons that drivers are ghosting recruiters more than ever. The first is that it’s much easier to do so than it was in the past. Social media and digital communication in general have laxed our sense of professional courtesy when it comes to replying. It’s much easier to simply not respond to someone than it is for a driver to spend a few minutes writing out an email explaining that he or she is no longer interested in the position.  

The second reason is that drivers can be much more selective about their jobs than they could in the past. A qualified and experienced driver looking for a job is likely talking to multiple recruiters at the same time. When the driver finally select the job that’s right for them, they’ll simply stop responding to the other recruiters.  

How to Stop Being Ghosted?

So, as a recruiter how do you avoid being ghosted? 

Focus on the Right Drivers

The first step here is to be able to discern active and passive drivers. The simple explanation is that active drivers are ready and looking for employment right now. Passive drivers may be looking at opportunities but aren’t ready to make the jump into a new role.  

Asking a few simple questions during your first contact with a driver will usually help you discern whether they’re active or passive. While it’s important to nurture passive leads, knowing the difference and pursuing active drivers will often be the difference between getting ghosted or not.  

Move Quickly

In the current state of driver recruiting, speed is everything. You can bet that any driver looking for a job right now is talking to more than one recruiter. The best way to keep yourself from getting ghosted is to be quick when you reach out initially and be quick when you respond. Aside from not missing out on top drivers, moving quickly through the recruitment process has also been shown to decrease costs for businesses.  

Being timely is not only beneficial during the recruitment process. It’s the perfect way to set the tone of professionalism from your organization right off the bat. Just like drivers can impress by showing up to interviews early and sending a proactive “thank you” email, you can do the same with prompt responses. 

Avoid the Back and Forth

Avoiding needless back and forth emails is another way to avoid ghosting. If you and a driver have been sending emails for a week and a half about small details of the position, that can lead to frustration on their end and eventually ghosting. Try and set up one or two calls where you and the driver go over all the info either of you need regarding the position.  

Talk to Your Current Drivers

Your current drivers are definitely your biggest resource in avoiding ghosting. As people who have gone through your recruiting process and joined your company, they have a unique perspective. They can tell you what they enjoyed about the experience, what would have made it better, and what they disliked about other recruiting processes where they didn’t take the job.  

Truck Driver Ghosting is a symptom of the much larger problem of driver shortages across the country. While there’s nothing you can individually do about that, following these tips gives your company the best chance to bring on qualified and experienced drivers and avoid being ghosted.