3 Benefits of Hiring Team Drivers

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team drivers

Is there a clear benefit to team truck driving? With regulations on the number of hours an individual driver can run, it sounds like it should be a simple answer. Two drivers in one truck can turn more miles in less time than one driver. And therefore, they can get more work done for you. But is it really that easy when it comes to team drivers? For a recruiter, here are 3 benefits of hiring a team.

1. Offer Above Average Pay

When deliveries need to go a long distance in the shortest amount of time, your buyers will pay a premium for that service. And those premiums can be distributed down to the team drivers that make it happen.

When hiring team drivers, you can let your drivers know that there’s a financial incentive for the jobs that you’re filling.

Each driver on the team usually will make a higher average salary than if they drove alone.  And if they’re willing to put in the work, you’re willing to compensate drivers accordingly.

2. Driver Safety & Health

You want to hire drivers who do whatever it takes to get the job done, safely. Without someone keeping a driver in check, this could lead to driver(s) pushing past their physical limits or even considering taking shortcuts that might risk their safety.

When there’s another driver in the cab, there’s always a back-up ready to go when one driver gets too tired or isn’t feeling well.

Drivers know that they can count on their teammate. And that’s there’s safety in numbers. By using team drivers, you can potentially provide that built-in double check for your drivers.

3. Companionship

No matter how your individual internal teams are determined, compatibility is the key to success when it come to team drivers. With teams, they can provide each other the one thing that a solo driver can’t avoid: hours and hours of being alone on the road. When hiring for retention, hiring team drivers vs solo drivers is an important tactic. Employing drivers who are a part of team and can potentially do double-duty over the road is key to a successful team strategy over the road. Having the right partner is key.

Bonus: What to Evaluate When Assigning Partners

Here are key things to evaluate when assigning team partners.

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For carriers that need long-haul runs, in very short amounts of time, hiring a team is a great opportunity to meet these needs. There’s a number of options for team drivers, and it’s worth looking into when optimizing your driver fleets. Having two drivers to do the work of one driver, could be a good solution when rounding out your team. Every carrier is looking to maximize the return of time and effort put into developing their drivers. Leveraging team drivers is a great way to do that.

ultimate guide to truck driver recruiting

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.

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Employee Value Proposition: 5 Tips to Make You Stand Out

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employee value proposition

It’s time to go back to your roots. Every company needs to identify their business value proposition. An employee value proposition is exactly the same. Identify your employee value proposition, and consider it your north star. 

As you grow as a carrier, it’s easy for your core hiring offerings to get lost. Avoid the trap. A strong employee value proposition is about more than improved marketing. It should drive everything from your recruiting to your business model. Can you answer in 1-3 sentences:

1. Why is my company different (and better) than the competition?
2. What about my company is attractive to truck drivers?

This is your Employee Value Proposition. 

hours of service proposed ruleWhy is an Employee Value Proposition Critical?

The way we recruit employees has changed. Over the past decade, candidates have been steadily becoming more and more powerful in the job search. As a result, attracting the best talent has become harder than ever. As an employer, consistent and efficient communication of your employee value proposition has become extremely important.

Tips to Make Your Employee Value Proposition Stand Out

Now that you have identified your employee value proposition, make sure you package it in a way that is attractive to candidates. Here are a few tips to help you stand out from the crowd.

1. Move Beyond the Pay Rate

Your future drivers need more than a paycheck to be happy. It’s true, pay is often one of the first things cited by drivers as either a huge benefit of or drawback of a company, but you need to go deeper.

Start by thinking about what you have to offer as other forms of compensation: benefits, bonuses programs, loyalty incentives, other perks. Then, go beyond the finances.

Do you excel at creating a positive work culture or work environment with fair treatment or great home/family time? How about a focus on career? Career development opportunities and strong training or orientation programs can be very attractive to drivers. Make sure you can clearly identify what makes your company a great place to work. Then, talk about it! 

2. Make it Compelling

truck driver job description templateAn Employee Value Proposition should provide the foundation for your recruiting and retention strategy. It must be unique, compelling, and relevant if it is to act as a key driver of talent attraction, engagement, and retention. Be clear in what you offer, and make sure to cover all the core reasons that people are proud and motivated to work at your company. 

If you have a great company culture, try to capture your distinct company experience. Are your drivers offered good home time? Build on the emotional aspects of why your company considers that important. Those reasons will resonate with your drivers and tell them you care about their well being as an individual, both on and off the job. Make sure to incorporate your value proposition into your job descriptions.

Free Template: Truck Driver Job Description

Follow this template to make sure your job descriptions are converting.

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3. Talk About it In the Interview

Crucial Conversations with Driver Candidates: 3 Ways to Prepare

When interviewing a truck driver, focus on why your company is better than the competition. You are considering these drivers as potential employees. But, they also need to be sold on your company. Why is your company so special? How are you different? Why do drivers want to join your company and stay with you? Don’t let a good candidate leave the interview without sharing your employee value proposition. They need to view your company as a strong personal and professional fit.

4. Focus on What Matters

An effective value proposition rests on the foundation of driver personas. When you know what kind of drivers you want, you can align your value proposition with their interests.

To Determine Your Driver Personas: 

  1. Define the most important characteristics of your ideal driver. Do you need someone who is:
    • Reliable/timely?
    • Confidence/perseverance?
    • Courteous/willing to help others?
    • A good mechanic?
    • Prioritizing healthy habits?
  2. Set your goals
    • How many drivers do you need?
    • What’s your typical recruiting conversion rate?
    • Based on that, how many leads do you need?
    • Do you currently have empty trucks?
    • How are you planning for future growth?  

Use your ideal driver persona and your company goals to steer your employee value proposition. When they are well aligned, you are more likely to attract the drivers you want to hire. 

5. Consider Your Candidates Against Your Employee Value Proposition

With a little training and practice, probably most people can manage to drive a tractor-trailer. However, professional truck driving is more than just getting a vehicle from Point A to Point B. 

Great truck drivers are much more than mere steering-wheel holders. Driving a heavy vehicle with its cargo of costly supplies and equipment and keeping to a demanding schedule isn’t a job for an ordinary driver.

Use your ideal driver persona to evaluate applicants. Then, consider whether those applicants are attracted by your Employee Value Proposition. If so, you’ve likely found a good fit. If not, you may want to consider what types of benefits would be most attractive to the types of drivers you want to recruit. Doing so will make it easier to recruit those drivers AND retain them for longer.

The Quick Guide to Employee Value Proposition

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Employee Value Proposition

This free guide helps you create your employee value proposition and also effectively communicate it to drivers.

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CDL Employment Verification: 3 Ways to Streamline Your Recruiting

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CDL employment verification

To have an edge on your competition and hire the best drivers, a fast and efficient application and screening process is important. However, many teams struggle with various pieces of the hiring puzzle. Sometimes finding the perfect candidate is the hardest part. Other hiring teams find interviewing candidates is their biggest challenge. For others, working through the numerous verifications required by the Federal Motor Carries Safety Association (FMCSA) is the toughest task. For those teams struggling with the CDL employment verification process, here’s 3 ways to streamline your recruiting.

1. Know Exactly What You Need to Do

FMCSA requires every candidate to go through a comprehensive screening process before they’re fully hired. This includes the need for a verification of employment (VOE). Additionally, each candidate needs their driving and safety history checked. In addition, there are also necessary checks for drug, substance abuse, and alcohol test records as well as refusals to test and other specific driving information. Check to be certain you know exactly what you need to do.

Once you’ve got the comprehensive list of required verifications needed, be sure to do it for EVERY hire.

As part of your CDL employment verification process, ensure that your team is clear on what needs to be done and by when. Also make sure that your team has access to the most current information, as periodic changes to the regulations take place.

2. Stop Using Manual Processes

If you’re still doing VOEs on paper forms and faxing documents to verify a driver’s work history, this entire process can be automated. Let technology help increase your efficiency. If you keep doing things the same way that you always have, you will get those same old results.

There are so many tools available to help you do this process electronically. You can get verifications in a matter of minutes or hours, not days and weeks. If you do this, you’ll have less chance of drivers walking away from you to your competition because they can move faster.

3. Need an ATS to Help You?

For those carriers still struggling with CDL employment verification, we’ve got an opportunity for you.

As a partner with Drive My Way, we are extending a discount to our customers in need of an ATS.

DriverReach will help you get engaged quality candidates, streamline the employment verification process, and ensure compliance with the new Clearinghouse requirements, all while providing KPI metrics to improve your overall hiring process. If you’re not already using an ATS, or looking for a new one, take advantage of this offer!

Improve Your Recruiting with DriverReach

DriverReach provides a modern recruiting management system for truck drivers. We are extending a discount on the DriverReach ATS when a company signs up for Drive My Way.

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3 Tips for Writing a Strong Truck Driver Job Description

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truck driver job description

Two things quickly rise to the surface as the most important features of a good truck driver job description: transparency and specificity. While your post may be engaging and well written, if it’s not transparent and specific, you will struggle to fill the position. Most drivers have been in the industry for years and have worked for multiple employers. They will quickly detect if there is information you are trying to hide or embellish. Once you’ve perfected the content, optimize the non-content aspects of your post and publish it. 

Based on our most successful companies and feedback from our drivers, here are the most important tips for writing a strong truck driver job description.

1. Be transparent

This is essential. When drivers look at your job description, they want to know exactly what you are offering. No surprises later on. As an employer, it can be intimidating to clearly note every critical part of your job offering, but transparency and specificity are key. Whether you’re a big or small company, know your strengths and talk about them. Do you offer great benefits? Above average pay? Are you particularly mindful of getting your drivers home on time? Talk about it. Don’t sugar coat hard truths or try to hide things (they’ll know), but do focus on the positive.

If you’re having a hard time retaining drivers, odds are high that a lack of transparency is contributing. Consider this: if your post does not perform well, you need to know that data more than ever. A transparent post allows you to properly A/B test to understand how to connect with drivers. Perhaps you need to increase pay to recruit drivers. Not an option? What other benefits can you offer to entice them? 

2. Be specific

Drivers want to know exactly what your job entails and offers. Being specific in your truck driver job description increases understanding of your job and trust in your company. If you’re more specific, drivers feel more confident that nothing is being intentionally hidden.

lead to hire process

Specificity goes beyond including the line items that are listed below. Drivers want to know not only that you pay $0.55/mile or $25 per hour, but also what that means for their average weekly pay or annual pay. In a competitive hiring landscape, simply listing an hourly rate or CPM isn’t enough to bring in new drivers—they want to know the total compensation details.

Similarly, if you offer some weekends home, consider sharing that drivers will work the first weekend of the month and be home for the rest. This may be more information than your company can realistically provide (again, stay transparent!), but companies who are more specific have the advantage. 

3. Putting it all Together

Every truck driver job description should include:

Compensation

– CPM or hourly rate, per diem, and overtime (if applicable)
– Average weekly miles (if applicable)
– Average weekly pay or average yearly pay
– Sign-on, referral, safety, or performance bonus

Tip: Pay, miles, and home time are typically the most important things to a driver. Leading with this information and providing as much detail as possible will make driver applicants happy.

Benefits Package

– Health, dental, and vision insurance details. Include start date for benefits
– Life and disability insurance
– Paid onboarding and/or paid training
-401(k) plan and employer contribution

Equipment: Type & Amenities

– Make, model, and year of the truck
– Manual or automatic
– Features and/or amenities

Tip: Some drivers only prefer jobs with specific equipment, so the details here are important.

Schedule & Home Time

– Schedule (if applicable)
– Home time: daily, 2 days per week, weekends, once a week, etc.
– Take home truck program (if applicable)

Other Job Details

– Perks including fuel card, EZpass, Sirius XM Radio, lodging, showers, etc.
– Truck with pet/spouse

Minimum Qualifications and Requirements

– License type (and endorsements) needed with minimum years of experience
– Record needed to apply, including if you hire felons
– Hiring radius requirements

Tip: Reiterating some details like endorsements, location, etc. is helpful to attract the right drivers.


These are the criteria that are most likely to make a driver decide to join your team, so don’t hide anything. Add these details near the top of your posting and make sure they are very visible. Crowding this information in a long paragraph will cause drivers to skip your posting all together. 

truck driver job description template

FREE RESOURCE

Truck Driver Job Description Template

Your job description can either convert or lose applicants. Follow this template to make sure you’re on the right track.

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3 Tips for Choosing the Right Applicant Tracking System

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truck driver applicant tracking system

Choosing an applicant tracking system is a little like hiring personnel. One good hire can move your company forward by leaps and bounds. A bad choice sets you back significantly. Look for an applicant tracking system that will fit your company well and leave you wondering how you ever lived without it. Here are a few tips for making sure you find the applicant tracking system that meets your needs.

1. Know Your Goals and Bottlenecks

Your applicant tracking system (ATS) should be able to help you efficiently identify candidates that are good leads and follow-up with them. If you’re looking into an ATS, it’s likely because your current process isn’t working well.

Carefully consider your goals for an applicant tracking system and use these as your north stars in the decision process.

Are you looking for better efficiency? Better lead source tracking? A more cohesive outreach or communication mechanism? While you may be looking for several different features, limit your goals to your one or two top priorities. Answering these questions and identifying your top priorities at the start will help you quickly find your top options. 

Similarly, determine what isn’t working or is too slow about your current process. Where does your process become cumbersome? What is the slowest part of the way you currently track applicants? Use these bottlenecks to clarify what features are essential as you peruse tracking systems. Then, make sure you choose a solution that can reduce or resolve your bottlenecks.

2. Evaluate Whether the ATS Meets Your Organizational Needs

While it may seem like there is a different applicant tracking system out there for every niche market, there are several features you should be able to expect from an ATS in the trucking industry. At a minimum, look for:

email campaign on whiteboard

      • – Searchable Document Tracking
      • – Email or Communication Templates
      • – The ability to create custom workflows

While these common features serve as a strong baseline, we know that your company is anything but common. Beyond these basic features, consider any unique needs for your company, and choose and ATS that meets those needs. A few other valuable features to consider are:

hand shake

  • – Driver referral infrastructure
  • – Lead Source Tracking
  • – DOT Compliance

Some of these features may simply be “nice to haves” while others may be critical “need to haves.” Know your company’s goals and make your decision accordingly. 

3. Don’t Underestimate User Interface

Once you’ve decided on the main goal of your applicant tracking system and the features you can’t live without, take a good hard look at the user interface. Consider every aspect of how you will interact with the system and how potential drivers will interact with your system. 

We spoke with our partner DriverReach about features to pay attention to when searching for an Applicant Tracking System for your organization.

“As you’re looking for a new ATS to help manage the applicant process, first you have to look at the applicant process from the drivers’ point of view,” explained Jeremy Reymer, Founder and CEO of DriverReach. “Today’s CDL drivers are constantly on their smartphones, and an ideal application experience should follow suit. Look for an ATS that is completely mobile-responsive and optimized for smartphones, as well as one that makes it easy for drivers to complete applications via their mobile devices with a clean, modern interface.”

For your drivers, a good applicant tracking system is absolutely vital. Establish whether the ATS you’re considering integrates with any driver facing platforms. Are they platforms you already work with or would consider implementing? Put yourself in a driver’s shoes and walk through their interactions with the ATS from start to finish. If adding the applicant tracking system will make their experience better or improve their opinion of your company, you’ve found the right one! If not (or if it makes the driver interaction worse!), consider other options.

As an employer, you’re responsible both for the infrastructure setup and frequent future interactions with your ATS. Don’t underestimate the amount of time you’ll spend with the applicant tracking system you choose! Select a system that is reliable and easy to work with. Otherwise, in a few short months you’re in danger of being in the same position and looking for a new ATS.

Bonus Tip:

Take advantage of a 30 day free trial whenever possible! You wouldn’t hire a driver without an interview, don’t choose an ATS without testing it first. Use what you’ve identified as your goals, bottlenecks, and need-to-have features to make the most of a trial and find the applicant tracking system for you!

Improve Your Recruiting with DriverReach

DriverReach provides a modern recruiting management system for truck drivers. As our partner, we are extending a discount on the DriverReach ATS when a company signs up for Drive My Way.

LEARN MORE

3 Trucking Industry Trends to Watch in 2020

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3 Trucking Trends to Watch in 2020

The truck driver shortage and how to improve recruiting continue to be hot topics in the trucking industry. Finding and retaining good drivers is still a struggle for many trucking companies. If your recruiting strategy from last year didn’t generate the expected results, maybe now is a good time to try something new for this year. Whether you need to start from scratch or just make a few changes, we’ve got some ideas to help. Here we’ll explore 3 trucking industry trends to watch in 2020.

1. Focus on the Driver’s Experience

When thinking about recruiting in today’s world, a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Each candidate is a unique person, looking for the perfect fit job for them. You can’t take an approach of simply doing things the same way again this year. There are countless opportunities to engage with your future drivers. And each one of those opportunities can be won or lost based on their experience at each step. Think of things in terms of being driver-centric in all that you’re doing.

Can drivers easily find your website? Is your application process easy? Does it work well on a mobile phone? When they call your 800 number can they get to someone quickly to help them?

Take a step back and look at every interaction opportunity with potential drivers. Be on trend with putting the driver first in your recruiting process.

2. Video Testimonials

Video assets are great to have as a tool in your recruiting toolbox. One great video opportunity is to leverage your current drivers to share their experiences. Keep it short. Make sure it’s authentic, conversational and not forced. This means don’t give someone a script to read and put a camera in their face. Let them speak naturally from their own experience and talk about what they like about working for you. You don’t need to be the next Martin Scorsese either. A decent smart phone and some basic editing software can get you a great result!

Here’s a quick example of a driver video testimonial

This gives you an opportunity to let your current drivers spread the word for you. And for your potential drivers hear from their peers about why it’s fulfilling to work for your company.

3. Social Channels

Now that you’ve developed some great videos, it’s time to get them out into your social channels. Social media is one of the biggest trucking industry trends for 2020. And continues to prove to be one of the lowest cost tactics you can employ in your recruiting process.

Statistics from Social Hire show that:

  • 80% of employers say social recruiting helps them find passive candidates
  • 67% of recruiters expect competition for candidates to increase
  • 70% of hiring managers say they’ve successfully hired with social media
  • 91% of employers are using social media to hire talent, today

One note about social media, is that there’s several avenues to potentially leverage. If you’re just getting started, pick one or two, and start small. If you don’t have a good Facebook page setup, it’s probably not imperative to get your TikTok account going. It’s best to keep your social presence manageable when you’re getting started. The key thing with social is to keep a steady stream of fresh content coming to keep your followers engaged.

Working through some of these trends can get your recruiting year off to a great start. Mixing in some new tactics while still fully embracing things like responding to candidates quickly, and measuring your results, will help your recruitment plans flourish.

ultimate guide to truck driver recruiting

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.

Get the Ebook

6 Tips to Improve Your Trucker Job Postings

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trucker job postings
When was the last time you applied to your own trucker job posting? Yes, that sounds strange, but there are reasons why trucking recruiters should try applying to their own postings. Since job postings are the first type of engagement that leads directly to a driver being considered for a job, it’s crucial to get them right. Recruiters can test their own job postings by making sure they are simple, user-friendly, and check off all the right boxes. With hundreds of other carriers out there, truckers have very little time to read every job posting, which makes getting it right all the more important. Here’s a helpful checklist for your ideal trucker job postings.

1. Optimize for Search Engines

The content of your trucker job posting is irrelevant if no one sees it online. Even if you have the best written job description and images, it won’t matter if it doesn’t show up on online searches or the right advertising channels.

If you’re sharing job postings on digital channels, it becomes crucial to reach your target audience. You can optimize your job posting with keywords and phrases that truckers are searching for. Use Google Keyword Planner or similar tools to keep a pulse on which terms drivers search, and the match those in your job descriptions.

2. Mobile-friendly

mobile-friendly application

More and more job seekers are searching for jobs on their mobile devices. Even if they end up not applying through mobile, they’ll browse and shortlist the jobs while on-the-go.

Creating job postings which are mobile-friendly will ensure they are easy to read and view on small devices. Ideally, your entire application process is mobile-optimized, including a single-sign on functionality and save-application features.

But this starts with the job postings themselves.

  • Is the text easy to read and understand on mobile?
  • Or is the font size not optimal for mobile?
  • Are images clear and detailed?
  • Or over-sized and blurry?

View and apply to your own job posting on mobile to make sure it works as planned.

3. Calls to Action

Every piece of text in your trucker job description should be designed to lead to the APPLY NOW button. That’s your call to action. After you’ve successfully persuaded a driver to consider working at your carrier, you don’t want to be searching aimlessly for how to proceed next.

Make sure your call to action buttons are front and center, and easy to identify.

You may want to include it two or three times, depending on the length of the job posting. Including a call to action at the very top and the very bottom of the post is essential, with another one in the middle being optional.

4. Contact Information

Where should drivers turn if they have questions about this job? Your trucker job posting should have easily identified contact information. Have you posted a phone number, email address, or other contact info? If truckers don’t see contact information, they won’t wait around to investigate. They’ll simply move on to the next job posting that sounds good.

If the job is posted on your own website or other digital channels, you can even integrate chat functionality for more optimal communication. This way drivers can write to recruiters in real-time with their questions. If recruiters are away at the moment, a chat bot can be programmed to deliver automated responses and record driver queries until you are able to get back to them!

5. Text Description

truck driver job postingFinally, we are getting to content. Did you notice that we didn’t cover it yet? This isn’t because the content of your trucker job postings isn’t important! Rather, it’s because you can get the content just right, but still not have a strong posting if you miss out on other things on the checklist. With the job posting description itself, it’s all about striking a balance.

You want it to be long enough to hook drivers and give them the important details. But if it’s too long, it may more drivers with unnecessary details which they’ll just ask about later anyway.

Rather than a simple bulleted list of responsibilities and qualifications, you’ll want to paint a picture of the experience and the company.

Use a varied hierarchy of text to mix how the information is presented. Important details can be highlighted by using bolding, underlines, or different font sizes. Anything you can do to visually catch the eye of the reader will make that information stand out.

6. Images

In addition to the text description, make sure your job postings contain images. In fact, the richer multimedia content you can include, the better. Depending on the channel of the posting, you may be able to include more graphics, or even a video featuring testimonials from your own drivers.

It’s very important to show images that represent the experience truck drivers will have. For many drivers, seeing a picture of the type of truck they’ll be driving is essential before they consider working for that carrier. Make sure images have good resolution, that they are the proper size, and that they are placed in the right position on the page.

truck driver job description template

FREE RESOURCE

Truck Driver Job Description Template

Your job description can either convert or lose applicants. Follow this template to make sure you’re on the right track.

Get the Template

3 Tips for Your Lead to Hire Process

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Everyone knows the trucking industry is a driver’s market. Drivers get to choose between competing carriers which offer different pay, benefits, and home time. They will also likely choose whichever carrier presents them a good offer the soonest. Drivers will want to be hired soon to get that next paycheck. The carrier which can convert leads to hires quickly has a definite advantage. This is where lead velocity comes in—it measures how quickly you can convert leads into new hires into your fleet. With so much competition for a small pool of drivers, you don’t want to lose leads to other carriers simply because they hired quicker than you. Here are 3 tips for your lead-to-hire process.

Tip 1: Focus on Top Candidates

As a trucking recruiter, you’re usually bombarded with an overwhelming number of leads. Just a fraction of these actually convert to drivers for your fleet. In fact, you know that most of them are going to be unqualified leads. It’s no wonder that some recruiters and carriers take too much time on their lead-to-hire process—they’re spending time on too many unqualified leads!

Try to narrow your focus and limited time on the top leads

You can use landing pages and other automated methods to ask qualifying questions and narrow your leads. Using lead ranking will help you prioritize the top leads first and focus your energies there. If you don’t use lead ranking, you risk losing the best candidates to other carriers while spending time and energy on unqualified leads who don’t convert to drivers.

Tip 2: Automate the Process

We mentioned automating the qualifying questions through landing pages. Similarly, you can automate other steps of the process, especially the paperwork. Instead of taking a few hours for new hires to fill out the paperwork, it should take 20-30 minutes. Use electronic paperwork for new-hire forms such as DOT applications, release forms, I-9, W2, etc. Make sure these forms are mobile-friendly, as many drivers will take advantage of opportunities to complete them on the go. You don’t want to face application abandonment because your paperwork wouldn’t load on their phone!

If you automate certain steps, it frees up that time to spend one-on-one with the drivers during orientation

Take advantage of the face-time with drivers to build relationships in-person, instead of asking them to complete forms that take an hour.

Tip 3: Lead Efficient Orientations

One of the reasons the lead to hire process may take too long for drivers is because of long or delayed orientations. Of course, it’s risky to just breeze through orientation. That time is crucial for onboarding as drivers need to be welcomed to the organization, learn about the culture, meet their dispatchers, and learn more about the company. One trick to getting around this is to offer more frequent orientations so that the soonest one beats out other carriers.

Make sure to offer orientation a few times a week to meet the schedule needs of your new hires

You can even be flexible with the orientation schedule and craft it to fit the schedules of your incoming drivers. Another time-saving method is to move some training items to an online learning system. By automating the less exciting parts of orientations, you free up time to have the important face-to-face interactions. It also makes the in-person orientation shorter, as drivers can complete some learning materials from the convenience of home.

ultimate guide to truck driver recruiting

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.

Get the Ebook

Brand Awareness: How It Attracts Great Drivers

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brand awareness: how it attracts great drivers

Your company’s brand is one of your biggest assets in attracting and recruiting great drivers. Or, if your brand is weak, it’s one of your biggest liabilities. Sometimes trucking recruiters are so focused on providing better benefits than the competition, that they forget that their own unique brand is something others can’t compete with. Each trucking carrier can position its brand to offer something valuable and attractive to the best drivers. Having a brand isn’t enough – you need to build brand awareness otherwise it will weaken, and other carriers will be more attractive. Here are some things you need to know about strengthening your brand awareness.

Remember the Driver Lead Funnel

When considering how to build you brand awareness, don’t forget the driver lead funnel. This tool helps you understand the different levels at which driver leads engage with your carrier.

The driver lead funnel starts with awareness, then leads to consideration, and finally to conversion.

Sometimes we forget that there are phases in the funnel before actual conversion! If recruiters focus entirely on conversion, they won’t pay enough attention to the previous steps in the funnel which actually lead to conversion. The risk is that leads aren’t properly cultivated and groomed toward conversion. Thus, they don’t engage with your company’s brand before they send an application for a job. Your company will just be one of several dozen which the lead is applying to. Don’t forget the top of the funnel- and that starts with awareness! If recruiters focus more on building brand awareness as the first step, then drivers will be more likely to consider, and then convert, to that carrier over others.

Create Brand Encounters

Okay, so building brand awareness is an important prelude to driver consideration and conversion. But what’s the best way to do that?! Consider that the average worker has at least 8 touch points of contact with a company before they take an actionable step toward conversion. Those are 8 opportunities for you to connect with drivers and have them engage with your brand.

The best way to build brand awareness is to create opportunities for “encounters” with your brand.

In fact, you need to make sure that you’re creating more frequent or more memorable encounters than your competition. These encounters can be created by strategic and engaging content through your channels. Maybe the average driver encounters a Facebook post by you, then reads a blog post from you. A month later, perhaps this driver follows you on Instagram and starts liking your content. The following month, this driver visits Glassdoor and researchers your company, clicks on a driver testimonial video, or asks your company a question on Facebook. Sooner or later, this driver will be looking for a new job. It’s only after all these encounters that this driver will be more likely to have your carrier at the top of their mind and convert to your fleet. You can use many channels to build brand encounters.

Ask yourself, “how many content touch points are we providing potential drivers today?”

Follow the Data and Trends

While the strategy of brand awareness is perennial, the tactics may change with time. The tactics really depend on the data that you have available on your company’s performance, and the trends which are popular at the moment. If you’re maintaining a strong marketing and recruiting operation, you’ll have data on key performance indicators like cost per hire, conversion rate, etc. While those two are metrics regarding conversion, don’t forget metrics for awareness and consideration! Key performance indicators for those phases include how many impressions or clicks you received, the click-through-rate, session time, bounce rate, etc. These data can help you answer questions like which social media channels to use for brand awareness, what types of content is more popular, and what time of day you should post.

Don’t forget some trends that can also inform your brand awareness. For example, 85% of social media traffic is mobile. Additionally, 72% of drivers say that they use a mobile device to fill out a full job application. This tells you that you really need to optimize your mobile interface to make it more user friendly! If not, you’ll see higher rates of application abandonment. Similarly, the data and trends tell us that video is still content king.

If your carrier releases video content for engagement purposes, it will be more successful that photos or text.

Another popular option is user-generated content. This will draw more traffic since truck drivers are incredibly interested to read or see what other truck drivers have to say. Use these insights from data and trends to strengthen your brand awareness!

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Driver Rehires: 3 Reasons to Focus Here

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Driver Rehires: 3 Reasons to Focus Here

Recruiting for retention is an important strategy for any trucking company. Some might argue it’s the most important strategy when hiring new truck drivers. But sometimes, even with a true driver-centric culture, good drivers leave. Rather than letting that be the end of the story, it can give you an avenue to focus on for hiring in the future. When looking for new drivers, consider your former drivers. Here’s 3 reasons to have driver rehires as part of your overall hiring process.

1. Driver Rehires are Already Familiar with the Company

Driver rehires are already familiar with your company, your culture and your policies. If they left on good terms, they might have just been testing the waters for a better salary. Or looking for a newer fleet of equipment to use. When that didn’t pan on for them, they start looking again for their next new trucking job. That can be a short trip back to your company. Their onboarding can be a lot more efficient, as they only need to learn what’s new, vs. starting from the beginning. If they apply again, and you know that they weren’t terminated or otherwise had any issue while employed, it could be an easy conversation to get them rehired.

2. Saves Money on Recruiting

It’s cheaper to rehire a driver than to find and hire someone brand new. If the driver worked for you already, you are almost certain to be on their radar if they start looking for a job again. They might be following your social media or the job boards that you use to post opportunities.

With the driver shortage not getting any better, having a pool of qualified and experienced employees to call on for rehire can be a valuable resource. Make sure the people you want to come back to work for you know they are welcome back.

You don’t have to spend any incremental dollars to get them to see what you’re already doing, because they’re following you already. Compare this to what it takes to find a brand-new lead. Then nurture that lead through your channels to get them to apply for your open trucker job. Instead, just go back to your list of former (good) drivers, and reach determine which ones might make good driver rehires. This can be a good cost saver, as well as a time-saver in getting your open seats filled.

3. Part on Good Terms

If a good trucker is leaving you, plant the seed that you’d look forward to hearing from them again in the future. Let them know you’ll be willing to keep in touch in the future. And that you’re happy to share future driver postings with them. If they indicate that they’re okay with that, mark them as eligible for rehire. Then keep them on your marketing list for newsletters, social media invites, etc. You can let your current marketing budget help them be aware of any news or job postings.

Why Did They Leave in the First Place?

As a side note, when working on your retention strategies, keep track of the reason that drivers are leaving you. Look for patterns or consistent reasons for leaving. Then work to adjust and seal-up any gaps in the future. Even better, keep a good pulse on what your drivers are thinking, and then be proactive with changes.

Keeping driver satisfaction high is a great way to ensure your drivers stay with you. Recruiting for retention is a great overall strategy to keep your fleets full and your drivers happy.

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Ultimate Guide to Truck Driver Recruiting

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