How to Incentivize Recruiters to Recruit for Retention

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recruit for retention
Many companies, either intentionally or inadvertently, incentivize driver recruiters to prioritize hires above all else. In some cases, this is an effective short-term solution but often, it does not hold companies in good stead in the long run. Instead, recruit for retention. Lowering driver turnover can dramatically save recruiting costs because there are fewer drivers to replace. Strong driver retention also improves company culture and driver satisfaction. While they may occupy different line items on the budget, recruitment and retention are points along the same spectrum. In your fleet, take concrete steps to incentivize driver recruiters to recruit for retention.

Analyze Your Current Structure

truck driver recruiter

The first step to incentivizing driver recruiters to recruit for retention is to assess your existing program. Frequently, recruiters are incentivized for fast hires. Bonuses based on achieving a set number of hires in a specific time frame or rewards based purely on hiring numbers are just that. When recruiters are put under extremely tight deadlines, this exacerbates the problem. Recruiters are likely getting lots of drivers through the door, but that does not necessarily mean those drivers are highly qualified or likely to stay. 

In addition to analyzing the incentivization structure for recruiters, take time to observe several recruiting conversations. How are recruiters connecting with potential candidates? What questions are they asking drivers? Are they taking the time to understand what these drivers are looking for in a job? The personal touch of a driver recruiter can make a big difference in first impressions. Recruiting for retention may require retraining driver recruiters to approach conversations with candidates as relationship-building opportunities.

Change the Reward Target

Once you have a clear view of your existing recruitment incentivization structure, decide whether you are effectively prioritizing retention. If not, determine the necessary changes to make retention the goal. 

One of the most common ways to incentivize recruiters is through a rewards system. Rather than rewarding recruiters for hires, consider distributing rewards only for new drivers who stay at least 30 days. If you feel a longer time period is necessary, try 60 or 90 days. Drivers often leave because of unmet expectations. So, encouraging recruiters to prioritize retention necessitates that they vet drivers carefully and clearly communicate job expectations to reduce quick turnover.

Drivers often leave because of unmet expectations. Encourage recruiters to be candid and transparent to better recruit for retention.

To ensure follow-through from recruiters, consider asking for notes about each driver’s future plans. This requires recruiters to ask each driver about their long-term priorities as well as the immediate qualifications needed for the job. Remember, even though many companies incentivize recruiters with financial rewards, there are other options. Vacation time as well as internal or external recognition are also significant motivators for many recruiters!

Train Recruiters From the Start

trucking recruiter on phoneFrom the moment of onboarding, driver recruiters should be trained to look at recruiting as a long game. Explicitly tell recruiters that the company’s mission is to minimize turnover and maximize retention of quality drivers. Train everyone who works closely with drivers to recruit through conversations to foster strong relationships. This may be a change from previous jobs that focused exclusively on hires, so it’s important to continuously reinforce recruitment for retention in both words and actions. 

After you make any necessary changes to the incentivization structure and train drivers to recruit through conversations, you are ready to revamp your recruiting – almost! As you restructure incentives, make sure you are setting recruiters up for success. Even the best recruiters cannot boost driver retention for poor jobs.

Drivers want jobs that meet their financial and home time needs, are a good fit for their skills, and have a company culture of respect. Without these components, recruiters are fighting a losing battle. To incentivize driver recruiters for retention, change the reward targets, train recruiters to have conversations, and make compelling job offers. 

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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How to Reduce Driver Application Abandonment

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truck driver application

Trucking recruiters are tasked with finding top candidates, matching them to the right jobs, and converting them into drivers for the fleet. That’s why it can become so frustrating when you notice that the number of drivers who apply for your jobs starts to drop. 

There could be many reasons why this is happening, but if you’ve got a solid reputation, great pay, and nice benefits and home time, the real reason could be right under your nose; application abandonment.  

Your carrier could have the best reputation, pay, benefits, and perks in the industry, but it amounts to little if you have an application process that is so frustrating for a driver to get through that they don’t even bother finishing it.  

A recent survey found that 92% of jobseekers who hit “apply”, never actually get through the entire job application. Just think about the great drivers your carrier could be missing out on because of a bad application process. Here are three things that could be causing truck driver application abandonment and what you can do to fix them.

1. Cut Down on the Length

If you’re dealing with high application abandonment, try putting yourself in a driver’s shoes. Most drivers don’t want to spend their limited free time filling out lengthy and complex applications. In fact, this is usually the top reason job seekers quit in the middle of applications. 

If your applications require drivers to answer multiple long form answers, input the same information multiple times, or they’re being asked tedious questions related to small details of the job, most will decide it’s not worth it and move on. Worst case, you may be losing these candidates to rival carriers who have optimized and shortened their applications. 

Ideally, your carrier’s application should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete. Instead of requiring drivers to provide every bit of information up-front during the application, focus on the basics and stick to questions that require simple answers. You can ask more detailed questions later, during the follow-up or in-person phone call.

2. Make Applications Mobile-Friendly

Since drivers spend most of their time on the road, they mainly search for and apply to jobs using their smartphones. In this mobile-first world, recruiters and fleet managers need to make sure they’re able to communicate and interface with drivers this way. Otherwise, you risk a large number of drivers abandoning your application. 

Optimize your applications for a mobile-first experience by using mobile rendering, saved login information, and other useful features. A lot of web providers will give you the ability to look at what a page will look like on a mobile device before you publish, so you can see if there are any issues.  

3. Collect Feedback

driver recruiterWhile you, as a recruiter can create what you think is the most efficient, painless, and all-around great application experience, you won’t really know how it is until drivers start applying. Even when they do start, it can be hard to gauge what’s working and what’s not since gathering data around job application abandonment can prove to be difficult. 

The solution lies in collecting driver feedback. Reach out to drivers who have completed your application process and see how they felt about it. You could offer an incentive to do so or tack it on as the last question during your initial phone screens with drivers. 

This information is invaluable in helping you and your recruiting team understand what’s working and what’s not in relation to your application.  

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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How to Become a Better Driver Recruiter

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How to Become a Better Driver Recruiter

Being a recruiter in any industry is challenging, but recruiting in the trucking industry is an especially difficult task. The jobs that you’re filling are tough, drivers are scarce, and the old ways of recruiting don’t work like they used to. All of this can make being a driver recruiter seem like too big of an uphill challenge, but it’s very possible to find success in this position.  

If you’re a recruiter who’s overwhelmed, and looking for a new approach to driver recruiting, here are 3 tips to becoming a better driver recruiter. 

1. Know the Answers

When speaking with driver candidates, be sure you’re an expert on your company and the particulars of the job. Know what the day-to-day will look like and give honest answers. Don’t sugarcoat things if you know that your company might not have the world’s best benefits or if the pay might not be at the top of the scale.  

If a driver ends up asking you a technical question that you don’t know the answer to, never guess or say something you think might be right. Always tell them something along the lines of, “I’m not sure, but I can get back to you ASAP with an answer.” Drivers understand that not every recruiter will know all the details about a job as complicated as truck driving. especially if they relate to equipment or maintenance. Consulting your team then reaching back out to the driver with the answer that’s 100% correct is always the best policy. 

As the first one to communicate with a driver candidate, you’re in a position to be the best advocate for your carrier. Be knowledgeable, truthful, and you’ll find that drivers who choose your company will stay longer.

2. Have a Plan

This may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many recruiting departments lack a cohesive plan for how to bring drivers into their organization. While each hiring plan will vary from carrier to carrier, all of them should have two things in common. They should be measurable and repeatable. 

If you’re just getting started, map out all the actionable steps in the hiring process from start to finish. This should include posting jobs, interviewing candidates, doing background checks and everything else associated with the hiring process.  

Next, decide on a timeframe for each of these steps. Should the interview process take at most two weeks, three weeks, or a month? Each carrier is different, so it’s up for you to decide.  

Throughout the process, you should be measuring key performance Indicators, or KPIs related to your hiring performance. A few common ones in HR and recruiting are Cost Per Hire and Time to Hire. Measuring these KPIs is the only way that you can track your performance as a recruiter and get better. 

3. Leverage Automation

driver recruiterIf one of your biggest issues as a recruiter is that drivers are slipping through the cracks, or you don’t have the time to reach out to all the qualified drivers you can, then automation is the answer.  

Automation tools like applicant tracking systems will help you eliminate time-consuming manual processes like reaching out to a large number of drivers at once, collecting VOEs and performing background checks. This will free up time so you can do what you do best; make connections with driver candidates. Do some research on automation partners that fit your budget and who are devoted to making the life of a driver recruiter easier. 

Bonus Tip – Utilize a Recruiting Partner

Aside from finding a partner for automation, consider working with a company that can help you find the best matches for your open jobs. Drive My Way is a next generation recruiting marketplace that matches truck drivers with jobs based on their qualifications and personal preferences.  

We’re making truck driver recruiting personal again by creating meaningful connections for employers to turn into lasting relationships; just like we did with Argos USA. We’re ready to help you put together a plan that best fits your needs, and help you recruit drivers that are the best fit for your open positions.  

Comprehensive CDL Recruitment Solutions

Ready to start recruiting the right drivers? Our solutions experts are happy to answer any questions and show you how Drive My Way uniquely approaches CDL driver recruitment.

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4 Ways Recruitment Automation Can Help You Hire Drivers Faster

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recruitment automationThe first goal for any truck driver recruiter is to bring in the best drivers to their organization. The second is to bring those drivers in quickly and efficiently. We’ve talked about how important it is to keep drivers moving through your hiring pipeline quickly, but what’s the best way to do this? Here are 4 ways that your carrier can use recruitment automation to hire drivers faster.  

1. Finding and Engaging Drivers

How to Use Recruitment Automation to Hire Drivers FasterYour recruiting team only has so many hours in the day, and sometimes those hours can get allocated to tedious, clerical tasks that aren’t directly related to hiring drivers. Using recruitment automation technology helps with those tasks so your recruiters can spend their time connecting with drivers.  

Engaging and Nurturing Drivers 

Once a driver applies to your job, what happens next? Is the driver contacted immediately or does it take your team a bit to reach out? Automate this process by introducing nurturing campaigns that instantly contact interested drivers with next steps, all while not sacrificing the personal touch. Consider platforms that have multi-channel capabilities including chatting, emailing, and texting.  

Automated Job Distribution 

When you post a new CDL driver job on your website, do you then have to manually share that opening across all the other channels you want it to be on? Save hours of your time by partnering with channels that will automate your job distribution efforts to different job boards and hiring sites. 

Corporate Website and Career Page 

Your website is your virtual first impression to driver candidates. If a driver is interested in working for your carrier, can they quickly find the information they need? Within one or two clicks, are they able to find your open jobs?  

If not, making some updates to your website is something you should consider. In addition, keeping your career page updated with open positions and integrating application forms with your recruiting software will save you time in the long run.

2. Tracking Applicants and Interviewing

company pitchOnce you have a steady flow of driver applicants for your open positions, what’s next? 

Applicant Tracking System 

Pushing your interested drivers to your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is another way you can use automation to improve the speed of your hiring process. You can continue to nurture drivers once they are added to your ATS by setting up and monitoring campaigns that allow you to automate periodic interactions. 

Interviewing 

Once you’re ready to start interviewing drivers, automating the process around scheduling interviews and following up with candidates is key to saving you time.  

3. Verifying Employment and Background Screening

Screening is an important part of the hiring process in all industries, but it’s vital for making safe hires in transportation. Using the right tools to automate your screening process can be the key to ensuring you’re hiring safe, qualified drivers. 

Employment Verification 

The FMCSA requires that every candidate go through a comprehensive screening process before they’re fully hired. A big part of this screening process is verification of employment (VOE). If you’re still doing VOEs on paper forms and faxing documents to verify a driver’s work history, you can save time and money in the long run by having this process automated.  

Background Screening 

In addition to verifying employment history, a full background screening is necessary to ensure quality hires. The following information is typically collected during a background check: 

  • Criminal records check 
  • Drug and alcohol test 
  • License check 
  • Motor vehicle records check 
  • Physical health exam 
  • Sex offender status 

There are different applications out there that can run background checks for you automatically, so you know you’re not missing any critical piece of information that would cause you to not make a hire.  

4. Hiring and Onboarding

exit interviewWe know that recruitment automation can help you find driver candidates more quickly. But what about after you find them? Where can you continue to automate processes with your employees? 

The hiring and onboarding process is another part of the hiring pipeline that can benefit from automation. Using electronic forms instead of requiring candidates to come into the office to fill out paperwork is a huge time saver for both the driver and the carrier.  

If your team is looking for a better way to recruit drivers, consider working with a recruiting partner like Drive My Way. We’re ready to help you put together a plan that best fits your needs, and help you recruit drivers that are the best fit for your open positions.  

Comprehensive CDL Recruitment Solutions

Ready to start recruiting the right drivers? Our solutions experts are happy to answer any questions and show you how Drive My Way uniquely approaches CDL driver recruitment.

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Work Life Balance: The Key to Truck Driver Recruiting

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work life balanceFor the vast majority of the American workforce, their workday is fixed. Once their shift is over, they’re able to go home and spend their free time with their family and friends and sleep in their own bed.  

For truck drivers, specifically OTR and regional drivers, this isn’t a reality. These drivers are out for days, sometimes weeks at a time, living on the road and dealing with everything that comes with it.  

In the past, truck drivers have dealt with having little home time as frustrating but permanent part of the job. But, in light of many factors, especially the Covid-19 pandemic, truck drivers have begun to value having a work life balance and expect generous home time policies from the carriers they work for.  

Make Home Time a Priority

For any carrier that is serious about not only recruiting, but retaining top talent, making a concerted effort to offer their drivers a quality work life balance is a must. This means not only offering a blanket home time policy but being flexible with the individual needs of your drivers.   

We were able to speak with two Drive My Way clients about how they structure their home time policies and why it’s important from a recruiting and retention aspect for drivers to have generous home time. 

How does your carrier make an effort to increase the home time of your drivers?

Tim Waite and Karen Murphy, JRayl,

“We pride ourselves on planning to have our regional drivers home every weekend, as is promised during the recruitment process. As a company, this is very important to us because our owner was a driver himself and understands how vital home time is for our drivers. Additionally, we do our absolute best to tailor home time to the needs of each specific driver, whether it be more/less home time, or being home on certain days of the week.” 

Susie Kosmicki, ARD Trucking,

“Our driver managers are trained to understand the importance of work and home life balance. We have programs in place to assure that our drivers get the home time they need. Driver satisfaction has always been important at ARD Trucking since the very beginning. We make home time one of our top priorities.”

Make on the Road Feel Like Home

No matter how good of a home time policy you have, OTR and Regional drivers still spend a lot of time away from home. A good way to make drivers feel more comfortable on the road is to let them bring a little piece of home with them, whether that’s by offering a Rider/Pet policy, or upgrading your fleet’s amenities.

Aside from home time, what does your carrier do to make drivers feel more at home while on the road?

Tim Waite and Karen Murphy, JRayl,

“We have a rider policy that allows a friend, significant other, or child to ride along with them. Additionally, we continue to update our fleet with new trucks to ensure our drivers have the latest safety technology and the most comfortable truck possible. For example, all our new trucks come with a built-in refrigerator to assist with healthy eating on the road. 

We assign mentors as needed so our drivers can communicate amongst themselves, as well as a check-in program with our Driver Experience Team to make sure new family members are feeling at home while on the road and appreciated. We have also updated our Akron terminal, where a lot of drivers stop at various times of the day. The updates include a new and improved Driver Lounge with recliners, TVs, washer/dryer, relaxation rooms to rest, and Men’s/Women’s locker rooms.” 

Susie Kosmicki, ARD Trucking,

“We offer a rider policy at ARD Trucking. Having a family member ride along not only provides company, but it also allows the other person to see and understand what it is a professional truck driver goes through day to day.  Also, our 24/7 driver support goes a long way. Our drivers are always able to get in touch with someone when needed.”

Home Time Matters a lot, but it isn’t Everything

Giving drivers a quality work life balance is extremely important, but it’s only one piece of the driver retention puzzle. This is why carriers should work towards making their drivers feel like they have a second home while they’re on the road through driver appreciation efforts and a strong company culture.  

Tim and Karen finished with these thoughts, 

“We do our best to make a connection in the early stages with our drivers to establish that they should always feel welcome and comfortable coming to us for any reason whatsoever. We strongly feel our drivers are part of a family, and never to be treated like a number.

We have different awards to further show appreciation for our drivers, including Drivers of the Month and Year, as well as the Million-Mile Club. We give out apparel and gift bags during orientation and during Driver Appreciation Week every year. We acknowledge anniversaries and birthdays and try to form relationships with their family members when we host special events like cookouts, bowling, dinners, etc.” 

Susie finished with these thoughts, 

“I think home time is more important now because of the deficit of drivers these days. Finding anyone to carry a CDL Class A driver’s license is difficult because of the over the road lifestyle. Lack of home time is one of the biggest reasons drivers leave companies so carriers that can offer quality good home time are giving drivers a great incentive to come aboard.”

Comprehensive CDL Recruitment Solutions

Ready to start recruiting the right drivers? Our solutions experts are happy to answer any questions and show you how Drive My Way uniquely approaches CDL driver recruitment.

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Dealing with the Holiday Trucking Crunch

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holiday trucking

For many trucking carriers, the last few months of the year are by far the busiest. The holiday season brings a huge increase in volume, and when you couple that with a competitive market for truck drivers, it’s easy to see why many carriers have a hard time staying up to speed during the holidays. 

We were able to talk with Jason Wisla, Vice President with Drive My Way client, Assist Logistics Group. Jason talked to us about how Assist prepares for the holidays, how they recruit drivers for this busy season, and why the holidays are the most important time of the year.   

How does the holiday season affect Assist’s business?

“The holiday season, also known as peak season, is typically our busiest time of year. From Thanksgiving through New Year’s, our dedicated lanes usually double or triple in volume and frequency. We find ourselves doing multiple runs to the same locations per day to keep up with the extra freight that is being shipped. We also take on some new pickups/lanes that are seasonal only.”

What does Assist do to prepare for the holiday busy season?

“First and foremost, we make sure that all our vehicles are running properly and that any maintenance that needs to be done has been completed prior to the start of peak season. We also try to notify all drivers of extended holiday hours approximately 1 month before the start of peak and organize a schedule that utilizes everyone’s driving hours in the most efficient way possible.  

We also try to sign up anywhere from 5-10 extra owner operators in the event we have an employee driver call out, or if any other extra work comes across so that we don’t have to be in the position of turning any work down.”

Do you find that you’re hiring more drivers while preparing for your busy season?

“While we don’t always have the best luck with it, yes, we definitely make a push to hire as many new drivers as we can prior to the start of peak season. With all the extra volume and runs we do, the opportunity for overtime is the greatest during the holiday season, so we try to use this as a selling point for potential new hires.”

Is there a certain service that you see customers taking more advantage of during the holiday season?

“We see a large increase in the amount of drop & hook loads we do during peak season. This enables clients to load a trailer as they get their excess cargo ready, and to make space on the dock for the next truckload.  

Then once the trailer is fully loaded, we can just grab it, drop another empty trailer, and keep the process moving as quickly/smoothly as possible. This also cuts down on our clients’ staff hours since they aren’t waiting around for a truck to show up multiple times a day. “

Jason finished with these thoughts

“While it can be incredibly stressful, this time of year really provides our clients, and us, with an opportunity to make a strong end-of-year push. With the extra revenue we see during peak season, we are able to afford to give our drivers a nice holiday bonus at the end of the year that makes all the extra hours and effort beneficial for everyone.”

Comprehensive CDL Recruitment Solutions

Ready to start recruiting the right drivers? Our solutions experts are happy to answer any questions and show you how Drive My Way uniquely approaches CDL driver recruitment.

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10 Fleet Amenities to Help Attract Truck Drivers

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semi truck amenities

Over the past few years, working from home has become increasingly popular in many industries. Companies that used to have brick and mortar offices are finding it better for their finances and their employees’ happiness to switch to a work from home model. 

For obvious reasons, this isn’t a possibility in the trucking industry. But that doesn’t mean that drivers shouldn’t have the comfort and amenities they have at home while they’re on the road.  

Enter semi-truck amenities. As the labor market for qualified truck drivers doesn’t show any signs of loosening, carriers need to find every possible way to appeal to these drivers. One of these ways is to offer drivers more comfortable and high-tech truck amenities that give them a taste of home while on the road.  

Benefits of Offering Semi-Truck Amenities

Upgrading the amenities for your fleet of trucks can be a costly venture for organizations. However, carriers should consider that the increased driver retention that comes from offering amenities might be worth the initial investment. 

People want to be comfortable where they work. Hence the shift of office jobs to work from home settings. Truck drivers have that same desire, but since that isn’t possible in the trucking industry, consider fleet amenities as the work from home equivalent. If your fleet is serious about attracting and retaining the best drivers, having these amenities may be the thing that sways them to your carrier as opposed to a competitor.  

But semi-truck amenities don’t just make drivers more comfortable. They can lead drivers to live a more healthy, stress-free lifestyle. Better seats can lead to less back problems. Larger refrigerators means that drivers can eat healthy pre-packed lunches from home instead of fast food or truck stop food. Soundproofing and insulation can lead to a better night’s sleep and less tired drivers on the road.  

10 of the Best Semi Truck Amenities

  • Comfortable seating 
  • Memory foam mattress 
  • LED lighting with dimmer switches 
  • Soundproofing and Insulation 
  • APU units 
  • Refrigerators 
  • Microwave 
  • Cabinets and/or built-in storage space 
  • Premium TV / Audio system 
  • Sirius XM Radio subscription 

Investing in all of these amenities would cost a lot. That’s why carriers should ask their drivers what matters most to them. Consider sending out a survey in your next company-wide email to gauge drivers’ interest in any of the above amenities. When sending out the survey, be sure to explain the reasoning behind these upgrades—to help drivers be more comfortable on the road and increase their job satisfaction. 

While adding fleet amenities are a great perk that will help you recruit and retain top driver talent, it’s still just a small part of the equation. Offering competitive pay and benefits, offering reasonable home time, and creating a driver-centric culture are still the biggest ways that your carrier can start bringing in the right drivers.  

Comprehensive CDL Recruitment Solutions

Ready to start recruiting the right drivers? Our solutions experts are happy to answer any questions and show you how Drive My Way uniquely approaches CDL driver recruitment.

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5 Tips to Recruit Millennial Truck Drivers

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millennial truck driverCarriers that recruit millennial truck drivers not only bring talented and enthusiastic new people to the company, but potentially set up loyalty for years to come. But be careful—millennials value different things than the average truck driver. You won’t attract millennials to the industry by practicing business as usual, and you won’t retain them if they don’t feel valued. Here are 5 tips to recruit millennial truck drivers to your fleet.  

1. Advertise to Millennials on Social Media

You should be using social media to advertise to all drivers, but especially millennials. This younger generation is always connected on smartphones, and often look to social media for networking and job searching. 

There are a lot of different channels your carrier can use, but if you’re completely new to using social media, it’s best not to spread yourself too thin by trying to get on platforms that require a lot of difficult video content like Snapchat and TikTok. For reaching millennial drivers, Facebook and Instagram should be your bread and butter.  
As a recruiter, it’s your number one priority to bring in qualified drivers to your organization who are a good fit. That means that sharing your open job postings through social media is a great idea. But when recruiting millennial drivers, it may take more than that.  

These young drivers want to work somewhere they feel valued and that has a good company culture. Posting photos of company events, sharing driver testimonials, and posting memes are great ways to show your culture to prospective millennial drivers.

2. Streamline the Application Process

If your job application is tedious and difficult to work on a smartphone, you may lose quality candidates who don’t want to deal with the mess. This is why making your application process mobile-friendly is particularly useful for attracting millennial driver candidates who are used to efficient digital processes. 

If you’re not sure if your application process is mobile-friendly, do a quick test run through it yourself. Are you having trouble uploading a resume? Are you being asked to input the same information multiple times? Are the page load times too long? If you notice any of these problems, it might be worth it to set up a meeting with your tech or development team to talk through the issues.  

3. Prioritize Work-Life Balance

Don’t assume that millennials are less likely to have an active family life and thus won’t mind being gone for 3-4 weeks at a time and working 60+ hour weeks. Making this mistake is a sure way to stop millennial drivers from being interested in your carrier when looking for a new job.  

Many millennials struggle to balance their careers, academics, and personal lives all at once. Being aware of these realities can help recruiters tailor the work schedule and type of run to the driver’s preferences. Making work-life balance a priority for your carrier and highlighting it in the minds of millennial driver candidates will help you stand out from the competition. 

4. Highlight Wellness Initiatives and Benefits

Of course, millennial drivers care about base compensation. It’s just that it’s not their only concern. More than just salary, millennials will be curious to hear about your benefits packages as well. 

Keep in mind that candidates who have just turned 26 may be getting on their own insurance plan for the first time. With the costs of health insurance rising year after year, younger drivers will want to save money on benefits, even though they’re more likely to be in good health. 

In addition to the basic benefits, recruiters should highlight a carrier’s wellness initiatives as well. Basically, you want to reverse the idea that truck driving is an unhealthy career that will lead to health problems and a sedentary lifestyle. 

5. Showcase Company Culture

tuition reimbursement

While it’s tricky to make generalizations about a group as large and diverse as millennials, some themes have emerged. The biggest being that millennials are driven in their career by passion more than by financial needs or obligations. They will stay at challenging jobs and career paths if they find it fulfilling or meaningful.  

Your company should already be engaging in initiatives that make work more meaningful for drivers, so highlight those to your millennial candidates. Initiatives like professional development opportunities, mentoring programs, and employee appreciation events will foster a sense of belonging. Encouraging travel, pets, or upgrading fleet amenities shows that your carrier cares about the employee’s individual needs and values. 

Hiring millennial truck drivers may seem daunting at first, but as long as you follow these tips, you’ll find a strong pool of qualified, millennial drivers in no time.  

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

What’s the True Cost of Hiring a Truck Driver?

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What's the True Cost of Hiring a Truck Driver?

There are many metrics that a carrier can use to measure its hiring success. Some metrics are more well defined and simple like time to hire, while others are more subjective and harder to wrangle, like driver happiness.  

But no matter what metrics you look at, the dollars spent to hire a candidate is traditionally thought of as the most important. That’s why carriers need to know what these costs are and how to measure them effectively. Let’s take a look at the true cost of hiring a truck driver. 

How to Calculate Your Cost Per Hire

Before you can reduce your CPH, you need to know how to calculate it. Luckily, calculating CPH is pretty simple math.   

You add up your total costs for recruiting new drivers, and then divide that by the number of drivers ultimately hired. This gives you the cost per hire for all your recruiting efforts. (Note that this factors in actual hires, not just leads.) You can use this formula to measure CPH over any time period you’d like, including month, quarter, or year. 

So, What’s the Real Cost of Hiring a Truck Driver?

When nailing down the cost of hiring a driver, the actual math is not the tough part. It’s finding all the factors that go into the cost of hiring. This means all the costs, not just the ones associated with finding driver candidates, like job advertising and using recruiting services.  

Your company’s cost per hire will be unique to the way you recruit and hire drivers. And it might take some time and refinement to ensure you’re calculating it correctly. Here’s a list of the most common costs associated with hiring a truck driver. 

Turnover Is Your Enemy

Now that you understand the calculation for cost per hire, there’s another piece of the hiring puzzle that needs to be factored in as well; your turnover rate. 

It’s widely known that the trucking industry faces very high turnover rates. According to some surveys, over 50% of newly hired drivers will leave their carriers within the first six months. In some cases, turnover can be closer to 90-100% over a year. 

Looking at those stats, it’s easy to see that turnover is a huge problem for many carriers. To avoid high turnover, don’t fall into the trap of hiring drivers to fill an empty rig as quickly as possible.  

If you’re hiring quickly and not taking the time to ensure you’re a good match for each other, it’s not likely it’s going to be a relationship that will last and will raise that hiring cost. If you keep repeating that cycle, it’s going to cost your company exponentially more and you’re still going to have empty seats to fill.  

Every time you hire a new trucker, do it with the intention to retain that driver for a long time. The best way to do this is by really taking the time to get to know your candidates during the interview process so you can see if them coming onboard with your carrier is truly a fit for both sides. Doing this is the number one way to lower driver turnover, and in turn, lower the cost of hiring. 

Measure Consistently for Best Results

Once you’ve found all your costs, the most important thing to do is to measure consistently. This is the only way that you’re going to be able to compare things year-over-year or month-over-month to see if the changes you’re making are truly helping to reduce your true cost of hiring a truck driver.  

Don’t add in costs for one timeframe, then remove those costs the next time you calculate. If you do this, then you’re comparing apples and oranges and won’t have an accurate picture of your recruiting process.  

Once you are tracking consistently, you should see some trends that help inform changes to your overall hiring strategies. Overall, you want this number to be as low as possible to deliver you a quality driver who wants to stay with your company. 

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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5 Skills to Master as a Trucking Recruiter

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Trucking recruiter Skills to master

As a trucking recruiter, you’re all too familiar with the challenges of hiring owner operators and company drivers: ghosting, high turnover rates, and an ever-changing recruitment landscape are just some of your daily obstacles.  

Since you are the first face of your company to interact with drivers, it’s critical to be prepared with the skills that will turn your list of driver candidates into hires. Here are the top 5 skills that every trucking recruiter should master. 

1. Be Strategically Proactive

It’s a driver’s market. If you want to be a trucking recruiter who successfully reaches quality drivers, it’s on you to be proactive. That said, being proactive should be a strategic plan and not just aggressive outreach.  

Consider the times and channels that are most likely to be productive for the drivers you seek. Recruiting for local or regional routes? Try calling in the evening to avoid busy loading and unloading schedules.  

Seeking OTR drivers? Make sure there’s a mobile-friendly website for drivers who are looking for jobs while on a driving break. Once you’ve optimized your strategy, continually reach out through multiple channels to engage new leads and reconnect with old leads.

2. Know Your Audience

This might seem obvious, especially to an experienced truck driver recruiter, but it couldn’t be more important. The Commercial Carrier Journal found that the overwhelming majority of surveyed drivers cited inadequate pay as a reason fleets are struggling to find drivers. That’s likely not a surprise. Perhaps more striking is that lack of respect and lack of home time are responses two and three for the same question. 

If you want to increase the number of quality drivers you hire, you need to know their priorities and address their concerns. 

Identify the benefits that are most important to your candidates, and offer those perks whenever possible. Be straightforward about what drivers can expect on the job. Many will find your honesty refreshing and a compelling reason to join your company.

3. Take Advantage of Technology

Gone are the days where a clean, mobile-friendly user interface was a nice, extra touch used by only the most tech-savvy trucking recruiters. According to the 2019 Overdrive Connectivity Report produced by Randall-Reilly, 74% of owner operators use a smartphone to access the internet. Over half of those same drivers use a phone more than any other device to access the internet. 

As for company drivers, 77% use smartphones to access the internet. 65% of company drivers use their smartphones to access the internet more than any other device. With this in mind, don’t just make your recruiting mobile-friendly. Optimize your process with the assumption that most drivers will be recruited first, and possibly exclusively, on a smartphone.

4. Prioritize Your Workload

Coming into a new year or quarter, it is tempting to take on a heavy load, but don’t get caught in the frenzy. Your hours are limited. Take the time to prioritize your leads based on urgency and fit early on to increase your overall productivity. 

Evaluate which candidates are most likely to fit your positions. Are they qualified? Which drivers are really a good match for you? Is your company really a good match for them? Speak with each driver and understand their priorities. Then, be candid if they’re not a good fit.  

Remember, hiring a bad match increases turnover and leaves a bad impression on drivers. Since time is critical, engage your strongest leads first. You’ll be glad you took time to slow down at the beginning so that you can efficiently recruit the drivers best suited for your fleet.

5. Build Relationships, not Just a Sales Funnel

As a trucking recruiter, you may feel like building relationships isn’t the best use of your time, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Even when time is of the essence, you can’t afford not to get to know your potential drivers. 

Taking the time to build relationships and treat drivers like people, not leads, might reveal key information that will improve positional fit. Unsurprisingly, finding a better fit ultimately leads to improved driver retention.  

Most recruiters know that drivers need to have the baseline qualifications for particular jobs, but it goes beyond just having the right certifications and x years of experience. As we know, experienced drivers have the opportunity to choose jobs that meet their lifestyle and goals. Identify what those are and find ways to meet them.  

Drivers who are satisfied with their time at home, model of truck, and who feel they can meet their goals with your company will perform better and stay longer. If you want to increase your carrier’s retention rates, taking the time to build relationships with potential drivers is time you can’t afford not to spend.

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