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What Do CDL Truck Drivers Want? Here Are 7 Top Factors

Given the continual driver shortage, truck drivers have many options in deciding which companies and fleets to work for. Recruiters need to constantly differentiate themselves from other firms when interacting with job prospects. Recruiters are constantly guessing about how much drivers will care about different factors when weighing job options. Data from Drive My Way’s database revealed some interesting factors which CDL truck drivers care about when looking for a CDL trucking job.

Drive My Way’s unique service matches drivers with companies based on professional qualifications and lifestyle choices. We asked our drivers which factors are most important to them when they are deciding where to work. We were overwhelmed by the sheer number of responses and slightly surprised by the results. According to our Drive My Way drivers, here are the top seven factors CDL truck drivers consider when deciding where to work.

1. Pay

Okay, this one is not a big surprise, but it’s good to have some hard data behind recruiters’ instincts. Type and amount of pay is the number one reason drivers said they consider when looking for jobs. In fact, over 15,000 Drive My Way drivers cited this as the top reason.

Truckers know a shoddy deal when they see one, so they’ll be skeptical if your company is offering them pay less than the industry average.

In addition to salary, drivers also look for opportunities for raises, bonuses, and overtime rates. If they are driving specialty or unusual hauls which are more dangerous, they will expect those to pay better. Bottom line, if drivers aren’t paid competitively at your company, they’ll shop around for a company where they are.

2. Health Insurance

Salary isn’t the only important factor when it comes to compensation. Drivers care about a full benefits package, including health insurance. Over 12,000 Drive My Way drivers cited this as a factor they consider when applying for a new CDL job.

The costs of health insurance have risen over the last 10 years, and drivers look for the best packages that covers their health needs. Drivers with families especially look to cover as many family members as possible. Many families will need special coverage for very particular health needs, and if their employers only offer very basic packages they will look elsewhere for a better deal. Try to balance out factors like the deductibles, co-pays, and co-insurance costs and have a portfolio of different insurance options for drivers to choose from.

3. Retirement Plans

When deciding where to work, CDL truck drivers consider retirement options. The average truck driver age is 49. Many drivers are only about two decades away from retirement, so if they haven’t started saving yet they will want to now. Even younger drivers are likely to be proactive and start thinking about retirement sooner rather than later. Overall, nearly 12,000 Drive My Way drivers cited retirement plans as a top factor they consider in a new CDL job.

Many employers offer retirement plans but don’t automatically enroll their staff into a default plan. The result is that drivers and other staff are overwhelmed with having to make those decisions and put it off indefinitely. Make the process easier for your drivers by having an automatic opt-in policy. Then, they have the choice to opt-out or choose a different plan. Saving for retirement is hard, but drivers know the importance. Let your job prospects know you can make the process easier for them, and they’ll remember your company as one that cares.

4. Type of Run/Range

Truck driving jobs have a great deal of variety. One of the most critical attributes that make them different is the type of run and range that exists. Not all drivers want jobs that take them coast-to-coast across the country. Over 11,000 drivers named the type of run as an essential factor when deciding where to work.

Some drivers will prefer over-the-road (OTR) work. However, since OTR drivers spend less time at home and live out of their truck, they expect to be compensated better. Other drivers prefer local runs or regional runs. Make sure you get to know your driver candidate’s preferences in what types of runs and range they’d like to cover.

5. Type of Schedule and Paid Time-Off

Home time is one of the most important factors drivers consider when looking for work. Over 11,000 Drive My Way drivers cited both of these—type of schedule and PTO —as top job factors they consider when applying to a new CDL trucking job.

The average driver works 70 hours a week and goes 8 days before taking a day off. That’s a rough schedule for anyone, but especially for drivers who may have families and children. Truck drivers know that the job entails sacrificing home time, but they hope the sacrifices aren’t unbearable. Drivers won’t hesitate to pursue another job if that schedule and PTO package suits their needs better.

6. Training and Development

Truck drivers may have some experience behind the wheel already, but it won’t compare to getting some actual training. Nearly 8,000 Drive My Way drivers cited training and development as a top factor they consider when looking for a new CDL job.

Any company training or orientation that your company provides will make them feel comfortable in the position and foster a sense of belonging with the company. Research shows that employees who feel they’ve been trained and groomed by the company will feel a greater sense of loyalty to that company. More and more drivers are now interested in professional development opportunities. Making training and development a core part of HR operations is something recruiters can do to make a strong case for drivers to work there and remain there for many years.

7. Type of Haul

Over 4,000 Drive My Way drivers expressed that the type of haul is an important factor for them in choosing a CDL jobs. If you aren’t taking into account driver preferences and specializations in hauls, you’re under-utilizing them! Some types of hauls will require special CDL endorsements or special permits, so make sure to equip your drivers with those. If they are already certified, it makes a placement choice all the more easier. Figuring out which hauls should be covered by which drivers can be a tricky business given other constraints, but make sure you ask your drivers about their skill and interest level in them.

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Top 7 Reasons Truck Drivers Decline Jobs

driver shortage, hire drivers, recruit drivers, trucker shortage April 3, 2019/by Kerry Marinchick

Just like any other employees, truck drivers consider a variety of factors when deciding which company to work for. Some factors are obvious, such as compensation and benefits. Some other factors may surprise you. As a recruiter, you may think that you’ve all but sealed the deal on a new candidate but then they end up declining the job. Drivers may not be open with you about why they declined the job, but it is useful for recruiters to have this information.

Drive My Way’s unique service matches drivers with companies based on professional qualifications and lifestyle choices. Sometimes our drivers turn down these offers by employers. We’ve asked our drivers why they turn down the jobs, and the results may be eye-opening. According to our Drive My Way drivers, here are the top seven reasons truck drivers decline jobs.

1. Another Job

The number one reason why drivers decline jobs is because they got scooped up by someone else. They were offered another job by a competitor and they thought the offer was too good to pass up.

As a recruiter, you know this is always a possibility you should try to avoid. Always be in touch with top prospects and know when is a good time to offer the position and sign them on. If you wait too long, you’re more than likely to lose the candidate to a recruiter from another company who was just quicker. In the Drive My Way database, over 3,200 drivers cited this as the reason they decline other jobs.

2. Salary

Okay, this one shouldn’t come as a major shock—drivers care about compensation. Considering the reality of the driver shortage, drivers have considerable bargaining power to be able to look for a better deal elsewhere. In the Drive My Way database, a whopping 1,500 drivers declined jobs because of the compensation.

The average yearly salary for truck drivers is around $41,000. But industry average doesn’t paint the whole picture. Driver pay should be dependent on a number of factors including years of experience, type of haul, and the overall benefit package. Offering packages above the industry average is the best practice, but make sure to take into account other factors when crafting a compensation package.

Bottom line, if drivers aren’t being payed as much as they think they deserve, they will not think twice about declining your job offer and looking elsewhere.

3. Hours, Schedule & Home Time

The third most cited reason truck drivers decline jobs is work schedule and home time. The average driver works 70 hours a week and goes 8 days before taking a day off.

That’s a tough schedule, especially for those with families. Finding time to spend with family can be difficult enough, but is especially rough for OTR truck drivers. In the Drive My Way database, over 1400 candidates cited schedule as a reason they declined job offers.

When recruiting candidates, take care to offer packages that will suit their schedule preferences. Drivers aren’t looking to slack off half the week—they’d just like to keep some time for home time. Get to know their family situations, lifestyle, work habits, and keep these in mind while offering packages. Keeping home-time a consideration not only shows drivers that you care about them as employees but builds a more productive and motivated workforce. Drivers are more likely to be retained long-term if they are happy with their work schedules.

But wait, I thought there were 7 driver decline reasons?

These are just the top three reasons truck drivers decline jobs offered by recruiters. But, this is just the tip of the iceberg. For the complete list of reasons that truck drivers decline jobs, download the complete ebook below.

Access More Driver Decline Reasons

Unlock additional reasons why truck drivers decline your CDL jobs by downloading our free ebook. The book shares insight to what drivers really want.

4 Tips for Recruiting Truck Drivers

driver shortage, engage drivers, hire drivers, recruit drivers, retain drivers, truck driver shortage February 28, 2019/by Kerry Marinchick

Given the shortage of drivers currently facing the truck industry, there’s a constant need to keep recruiting truck drivers. Hiring, training, and retaining drivers over the long-term is crucially important. At the end of the day, it all begins with recruitment of the right candidates.

If you can’t attract talent and recruit them into the organization, you won’t be able to even think about retaining them to meet the demands of the market. These four tips will help you improve truck driver recruiting.

1. Make your Marketing Driver-centric

Remember that drivers are going to find information about prospective companies and fleets on the regular marketing channels. So, good recruitment actually begins with good marketing presence and carefully curated content.

What kinds of content currently exists on the company website and Facebook page? If it is only information about how successful the company is, it won’t be of much use to a prospective employee. Ideally, much of your content is also driver-centric—that is, it details what kinds of benefits the drivers can get from that company.

Ultimately, a driver wants to know that the company will treat their drivers with care and provide the benefits they are looking for.

Highlight any wellness programs and culture initiatives that differentiate your company from the rest of the competition. Clearly provide information on schedules, work-life balance, fleet amenities and the rest.

The best marketing also includes testimonials from current drivers who have been satisfied with the experience so far. When designing the content, remember the drivers will always ask, “what can they do for me?” Making your marketing driver-centric will ensure that you provide an excellent answer to that question and will form a strong impression in their minds

2. Target the Right Audience

Before you start moving prospective drivers through the recruiting pipeline, you must make sure you’ve selected the right pool of candidates for the job.

Many driving fleets will have very specific needs and requirements that not all candidates would be ideal for. Targeting the precise segment of candidates can make the process more efficient and effective.

With the aid of databases, you can select drivers based on driver type, years of experience, haul experience, geographical location, or other factors. Focusing on any one of these particular segments ahead of time will save you time and energy as a recruiter. It also increases overall effectiveness of converted drivers. Not optimizing this part of the process means you’ll spend potentially hours chasing leads which were never well-suited for that particular fleet or job.

If you don’t have data on prospective drivers, Drive My Way can help you target the specific segment of drivers needed for your particular situation.

3. Use the Latest Digital Recruiting Methods

Use the latest and smartest, strategies to attract and recruit the talent you’re looking for. Social media is growing as a tool and drivers use these platforms to research companies, read comments, and evaluate employers. When viewers like, follow, share, or comment on your content, it can increase the audience exponentially.

Making sure you’re advertising job postings on social media isn’t enough. Post engaging content on your platforms which drivers will want to view. In addition, search engine optimization of your content will ensure that your website is receiving as much traffic as possible.

Use software such as Google Analytics or Google Keyword Planner to optimize your posts for trending phrases and words. Since drivers are on the road often, they’ll use their mobile devices instead of laptops to search for job leads.

Making the application process simple and easy will go a long way toward removing recruiting bottlenecks. Make sure that the applications are short and mobile-friendly.

Drivers will usually not have enough time to fill out long applications in one sitting. So make a shorter version with only basic information required, with the option to complete the remaining later.

Digital tools for recruitment and advertising are constantly improving, so keep and eye out for the latest and use your judgment on whether it would be useful.

4. Re-engage Old Leads

One unique challenge in the trucking industry is the unusually high turnover rate for drivers. This presents a difficulty for recruiters which isn’t faced in most other industries or sectors of the economy.

By re-engaging old leads and cold leads, recruiters can continually bring people into the pipeline even if they had dropped out before.

Many prospective drivers who were previously unavailable or chose to drive for a different fleet may be available soon. Leads and prospects that have gone cold or did not convert into driver status should not be forgotten. Instead, keep them in mind for the future.

While you don’t want to constantly pester them as to their status, you do want to make sure you follow up from time to time. Use drip marketing or engaging content on blogs, social media, or newsletters to stay connected with them and keep them in your radar. This leads to your fleet being fresh in their mind, and on their radar, when they’re considering a new employer.

While recruitment and HR management in the trucking industry presents unique difficulties, it also provides some opportunities through these tools and tricks. Master these four tips and recruiting truck drivers for your company will become less daunting.

Ultimate Guide to Truck Driver Recruiting

Current ways of recruiting truck drivers just don’t work anymore. That’s because recruiting isn’t a transaction. This ultimate guide helps carriers recruit for retention.

Bad Dispatchers Contribute to the Truck Driver Shortage

driver shortage, driver turnover, engage drivers, retain drivers, truck driver shortage February 12, 2019/by Kerry Marinchick

bad-dispatchers-contributing-to-truck-driver-shortage

Organizations across the country are rethinking their hiring and retention strategies for truck drivers. They are revamping benefit programs. Companies are making sure their compensation is competitive in the market. Fleets are putting bonus and incentive programs in place.

But what about taking a closer look at the relationship between dispatchers and drivers?

Truckers report that their relationship with their assigned dispatcher greatly contributes to their level of satisfaction with their job and with the trucking company. As an employer, here are some tips to keep in mind when evaluating dispatchers.

Train Dispatchers in the Trucking Industry

Some truck drivers are paired with a dispatcher who lacks industry experience and a clear understanding of the work. If the dispatcher and driver aren’t on the same page, there will be a disconnect, frustration, and oftentimes, quick turnover.

Some companies hire dispatchers who lack industry experience but know how to operate complicated dispatch software—allowing the company to pay them lower wages due to the level of experience.

Instead of throwing them to the wolves, companies need to make sure the dispatcher is fully trained before working with truckers. The dispatcher needs to get to know the drivers, understand the work, and feel confident about the industry before jumping in.

Ensure Dispatchers Are Honest with Their Drivers

Dispatchers with a lack of industry experience sometimes make claims to truck drivers that stretch the truth. Some of these statements could include:

I’ll definitely get you home this weekend
Your load will be waiting for you when you get back
You have plenty of time to make this delivery

It is the company’s responsibility to monitor these conversations in order to quickly correct false statements and ensure a good-standing relationship between the dispatcher and driver. The dispatcher is oftentimes the driver’s main point of contact at the organization, so if the dispatcher isn’t being truthful, the company will quickly earn a bad reputation.

Encourage Dispatchers to Share Driver Feedback

If a driver shares unsatisfied feedback with a dispatcher regarding their job, it is the dispatcher’s responsibility to share that feedback with the organization.

To encourage this, companies need to have frequent conversations with dispatchers to ensure they have a current pulse on driver satisfaction and areas of improvement.

This will reduce drivers feeling unheard and will improve communication across the organization as a whole. In turn, dispatchers can also share areas of improvement for drivers, and this can be used for driver incentive programs.

Overall, companies need to consistently evaluate the quality of their dispatchers. The relationships between drivers and dispatchers should be consistently evaluated and improved.

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Hiring More Drivers Won’t Fix the Truck Driver Shortage

driver shortage, driver turnover, engage drivers, retain drivers, truck driver shortage, trucker shortage January 22, 2019/by Kerry Marinchick

Truck driver shortage increases are continuing to cause pain for companies across the United States. Currently, the shortage of truck drivers throughout the country is up to 48,000. It will likely continue to increase and is estimated to reach 175,000 by 2024.

To deal with this overwhelming truck driver shortage, some companies believe that they simply need to hire more drivers before other companies do. Unfortunately, this is a small band-aid on a much larger issue. Here are two reasons why fixing the truck driver shortage will take much more than just hiring more truck drivers.

1. Drivers and Employers Aren’t on the Same Page

There are not enough drivers to go around. But, there is also not enough time in the day for companies to find qualified drivers for their jobs. Day after day, recruiters face the process of sorting through the weeds to find drivers that meet their requirements. An overwhelming 88% of fleets report that most applicants are simply not a fit for their jobs.

This results in time wasted on both sides. Drivers are frustrated because they can’t find a company that meets their professional qualifications and personal lifestyle preferences. Employers are frustrated that they can’t find drivers that meet their needs.

To spend less time searching for qualified drivers, employers need to make sure their job descriptions are accurate and optimized for their ideal driver. Exaggerating pay, benefits, or home time only results in retention issues and a damaged company reputation. Consider including driver testimonials, offering a driver referral bonus, or utilizing digital marketing to reach a broader audience. Each of these ideas can help increase the number of potential candidates that match the company’s ideal driver target market.

2. Employers are Focusing on Hiring, Not Retaining

Some employers have figured out how to attract qualified drivers for their jobs, but retaining them is another story. In this market, employers who offer great benefit packages, competitive pay structures, and performance incentives see a better long-term retention rate for drivers than companies who are just average.

However, aside from the pay and benefits, drivers also want to work for companies who treat them with respect, offer challenging and meaningful work, value their efforts, and find a way to get them home with their families more.

In other words, retaining qualified drivers in this market requires companies to consistently and creatively implement ideas to make sure their drivers are happy and engaged with their work.

Ultimate Guide to Retaining Truck Drivers

You work so hard to recruit the best truck drivers for your fleet. The trick is retaining them. This guide is packed with tips for retaining your fleet.