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.

Request a Demo

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.

Request a Demo

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.

Get the Ebook

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.

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 to Use Marketing While Hiring Truck Drivers

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Hiring truck drivers is a competitive business. Driver recruiters are always trying to find new ways to get a leg up on the competition and bring in the best drivers to their fleets.  

But, as any recruiter knows, if you want to hire the best drivers, you first need to attract the best drivers. With many top carriers offering similar benefits and perks, that isn’t always enough to stand out to driver candidates.  

This is where strong marketing can be your best ally. With this on your side, you’ll be able to differentiate yourself from the competition and attract drivers to your fleet. Here are 4 ways you can use marketing to stand out while hiring truck drivers. 

1. Driver Testimonials

People are more likely to trust people who are like them over people who aren’t. This is why using testimonials from your current drivers in your marketing is a great way to help you stand out from the competition.  

Any carrier can speak about its own perks, benefits, and company culture. The real test is whether that company’s drivers will say the same thing. If your drivers will echo your own messaging publicly, it will have a much greater impact on truck driver candidates. 

Visit our blog on the subject for more information and examples on how to record and share driver testimonial videos.  

2. Experiment with New Channels

Though trucking remains an industry dominated by older males, there has been a major uptick in both women truck drivers and young truck drivers in recent years. Recruiters should be aware of this when advertising their jobs or just raising brand awareness, and not limit themselves to the same old channels. 

Experiment with channels geared towards different audiences, like Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube. While focusing on the core demographic of truck drivers is important, it doesn’t mean recruiters should limit themselves to just those. Today’s peripheral audiences can become tomorrow’s loyal truck drivers.

3. Use Technology to Your Advantage

hiring truck driversMany carriers still use recruiting processes which are outdated and cumbersome. You can stand out to truck driver candidates by adopting technology to make recruiting more efficient.  

Mobile friendly platforms and similar features will make applying quicker and easier for candidates. At the same time, recruiters can use programs like applicant tracking software to make the recruiting process easier and more efficient for themselves as well. 

Remember, technology won’t be able to solve all your problems. Recruitment still needs the human touch. Use it for what it can help with best, simplifying and speeding up the process, and focus your human efforts on other areas.  

4. Content Marketing

First impressions are extremely important in the recruiting process. When a driver candidate visits your company website or social media page for the first time, would you rather them be greeted by nothing but one company update from five years ago, or a number of blog posts, company photos, and videos sharing your company values and culture?  

Our guess is the latter, and that’s why content marketing can play such a big role when trying to stand out to truck drivers. 

Here are a few different examples of marketing content you can use to reach drivers: 

  • Blogs about industry topics 
  • Memes on social media 
  • Sharing pictures on social media that show your company culture 
  • Polls and open-ended questions on social media (What do you think? Let us know in the comments!) 
  • Day in the life profiles of one of your drivers 
  • Driver testimonials 

Pro Tip: Make sure you’re getting the most out of your content. Share it on all your social media channels so you can reach drivers before they are ever candidates. Once they’re ready to apply for a job, your carrier will be top of mind! 

If you’re looking for other ways to get in front of driver candidates, consider partnering with Drive My Way. Our patented and proprietary technology matches drivers with jobs based on their professional qualifications and personal lifestyle preferences.

Custom Commodities Transport Partners with Drive My Way for Success

Custom Commodities Transport is the nation’s largest transporter of Activated Carbon. See how they worked with Drive My Way to meet their driver needs.

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Truck Driver Recruiting: 5 Ways to Recruit Drivers

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truck driver recruiting

Success as a truck driver recruiter is based on two things. Finding the best candidates for the job and doing it quickly. Recruiters have a limited budget and time with which to acquire top talent for their carriers. As a result, efficiency is essential in truck driver recruiting. The good news is that in this data-driven age, measuring recruiting efficiency is easier than ever. 

There are a number of different metrics that can help you evaluate the effectiveness of your recruiting process. Doing this will not only help you hire the best candidates, but also tell you where to best allocate your time and money. Here are five ways to measure success in truck driver recruiting.

1. Time to Hire

The number one reason that truck drivers end up declining a job is because they’ve already accepted a different offer that reached them first. This is why quickly moving your candidates through the recruiting pipeline is so important. 

Simply put, time to hire is how long it takes a company to hire a candidate, from their first contact with them all the way to the candidate accepting the offer of employment. 

Among other things, this metric is indicative of both the efficiency of your recruiting team and the candidate’s experience. That’s why HR and recruiting professionals put such an emphasis on it.   

Having a structured and organized hiring process is the best way to improve your time to hire. For more information on speeding up your time to hire, you can read our blog on the subject. 

2. Cost Per Hire

Time isn’t the only way to measure efficiency in recruiting. Cost per hire or CPH is an essential metric that measures how economically efficient your recruitment process is.  

Cost per hire adds up all the expenses that go towards hiring new employees and divides that over the total number of hires for a given period of time. The great thing about this metric is that you can slice it up a number of different ways so that you can see how much it costs to hire based on haul type, region, hiring terminal, and more. 

Understanding this metric will open the door for your recruiting team to try different ways to hire drivers for less money. Maybe you’re finding that you don’t need to spend as much to hire in your Jacksonville terminal as you do in your Montgomery terminal. Or, since your cost to hire local drivers is so low, you can move some of that money towards filling harder hauls, like flatbed or tanker jobs. Try changing your process and seeing where your CPH ends up. Eventually you’ll find what works for your carrier.  

3. Channel Effectiveness

Gone are the days of putting up some flyers and placing your job ad in the newspaper. Digital is king now, with most interested drivers coming from Google searches, Facebook postings, and online job boards. With all of these channels available, identifying where applicants are coming in from can be incredibly helpful. 

Understanding channel effectiveness can be done by measuring the number of successful conversions by channel. You can also break down channels by job type or geographical region. Don’t assume that the same channels or sources are equally effective across jobs or locations. Maybe your OTR job leads come in mostly through referrals, while company drivers come in through Facebook. 

You can calculate the cost efficiency of your sourcing channels fairly easily. First, find the amount of money spent on advertisements on each channel. Then, divide that by the number of visitors who successfully applied for the job to find the sourcing channel cost per hire. Once you’ve found that, you can start to see which channels are working for your carrier and allocate your recruiting budget accordingly.  

4. First Year Performance

The above metrics take into account truck driver recruiting efforts before the job starts. But those aren’t the only ones you should be looking at. Connecting recruiting efforts with the quality of your hires and their first-year job performance can help you see if your recruiting team is going after the right candidates.  

Speaking to the hiring manager or supervisor will start to paint a picture of the performance of your hires. This can take into account everything from productivity, safety concerns, and cultural fit with the carrier. 

Once you’ve gathered information from supervisors and HR, see if you can find any patterns with recent hires. Are new hires less productive than other drivers? Are they involved in accidents at a higher rate than other drivers? If you don’t see any red flags, consider it a success. If you do, it may be time to re-evaluate your criteria for hiring.  

5. Job Satisfaction

Measuring driver satisfaction is one of the secrets to measuring recruiting success and maximizing driver retention. Drivers and fleets are both looking for a strong match. If drivers aren’t happy with their carrier, it’s only a matter of time before they start looking elsewhere. Given the current state of the trucking industry, your fleet can’t afford to lose a driver after already spending resources on hiring and onboarding.  

Do whatever it takes to keep drivers longer, and that starts with measuring their job satisfaction. You can do this a few different ways. Consider an anonymous survey, suggestion box, or even conducting stay interviews with current drivers. This type of open-ended driver feedback is best so that you learn about drivers’ likes, dislikes, wishes, and frustrations in more detail. 

After drivers have given feedback, it’s the carrier’s responsibility to address their concerns, or risk losing them to rival carriers. 

A low job satisfaction rating by the driver indicates one of two things. Either, the driver was a poor fit for the position, or job expectations were not clearly communicated. Either way, this provides more information to truck driver recruiters, who can then use this information to improve the quality of hires and improve recruitment practices. 

Finding the perfect fit is the most important thing when it comes to truck driver recruiting. That’s why fleet managers and driver recruiters all across the country are choosing to partner with Drive My Way.

Our patented and proprietary technology matches more than 10,000 CDL drivers a month with the perfect carrier based on their professional qualifications and personal lifestyle preferences. 

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.

Request a Demo

 

3 Truck Driver Incentive Programs Ideas

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Everyone wants to feel appreciated while at work, and truck drivers are no different. This is why having driver incentive and appreciation programs are so important for carriers looking to recruit and retain top talent.

Here are some of the best types of truck driver incentive programs, the best practices for putting them in place, and an interview with representatives from an industry leader in driver recognition and incentives, Paper Transport.

What Are the Best Types of Incentives?

When putting together driver incentive programs, there are a few things to keep in mind. Think about what is a perceived benefit to your drivers, and what your overall company goals are. Striking a good balance between the two is where the best incentive programs will be created.

Are you falling short with on-time deliveries? Are your fuel efficiency metrics not being met? Is turnover too high? These are great places to start designing incentives to encourage change. Here are the three key types of driver incentive programs.

Additional Compensation

This is usually the go-to for any driver incentive program. Reward your drivers with cash if they achieve a stated goal within a certain time frame. That can be either a raise in their hourly rate, or an additional check that goes on-top of their normal take home pay. Cash rewards are fairly standard, and you can use them at any time, even as part of the hiring process to encourage drivers to stay with the company.

Recognition Rewards

Giving drivers something other than a financial incentive can sometimes be the greater influence on positive behavior. A certificate, their name on a plaque somewhere prominent, or even a mention in a company newsletter to acknowledge their accomplishment could be more impactful than money could ever be. This type of reward is something they’ll have forever, and the memory and sense of appreciation that go along with it might last far longer than the bonus ever would.

Catalog Programs

Some companies choose to have achieving small milestones accumulate points over time. Drivers can then redeem these point for items in a catalog. These types of programs can help change behavior consistently over time since drivers might be working towards a new gadget that they’d love to have. Or even better, something that they know that their spouse would really love as a gift.

Incentive Programs Implementation

Measure consistently

You should be able to easily measure any progress toward driver goals objectively. Be sure that the rules in place for your programs are clear as to how results are tallied, and by when. When the time frame for achieving them has passed, everyone should be able to see where they landed in relation to the goals.

Be fair

Fairness should be built into any employee program. Otherwise drivers will become disinterested in the program and stop applying themselves towards it. Of course, nobody is trying to be unfair with their incentive programs, but problems with fairness could arise that you would never think about.

For example, say your carrier has an incentive program where drivers who go X miles without an accident get some sort of financial reward. While a good idea in theory, it could be seen as unfair if your carrier has drivers doing different types of runs. This goal would be much easier for local drivers who spend most of their time in suburban areas than it is for OTR or regional drivers who mostly drive on congested highways.

The solution for a program like this would be to have a tiered or scaled approach for the incentive depending on the variety of the runs and types of drivers you have. There’s always a way to be different and still keep things fair. This is the best way to avoid disengagement with your programs. It also ensures that each driver feels a sense of belonging to the overall company goals.

An Interview with Amber Long and Cate Whitman

Cate Whitman, Marketing and Communications Manager, Paper Transport

We were able to speak with Amber Long, Recruiting Operations Manager and Cate Whitman, Marketing and Communications Manager with Drive My Way client, Paper Transport. For years, Paper Transport has been an industry leader in terms of driver happiness and incentive programs.

Amber and Cate spoke to us about the different truck driver incentive programs they have, which have been the most successful, and their new “Accelerate” driver finishing program.

What incentives does Paper Transport offer to drivers?

“We offer several incentive bonuses to our drivers including PSP inspection, referral, monthly MPG, and CSA bonuses, as well as “Driver of the Month/Quarter” bonuses that are based on our driver scorecards. Using the scorecards, drivers can see where they rank monthly in metrics like safety, performance, and productivity.

Aside from those traditional “bonus” incentive programs, we also offer our drivers a wellness program with an onsite nurse practitioner. The nurse comes in to do check-ins and follow-ups with drivers about any medical or health concerns they may have. This is a program that was started during covid, and we’re planning to keep around. It’s just one more way that we try to provide support for our drivers.”

Amber Long, Recruiting Operations Manager, Paper Transport

Out of all the incentives you offer, which do you think resonates with drivers the most?

“The “Driver of the Month/Quarter” is the most motivating. In addition to receiving a cash bonus, like they would with our other incentives, these drivers receive an engraved crystal truck trophy, and the director of Paper Transport has been known to send steaks to their homes.”

When it comes to having successful incentive programs, what do you think the key is?

“One thing we always try and do is look for ways to improve our truck driver incentive programs and make our drivers happier. The “Driver of the Month/Quarter” award is one program we’ve improved on since it first started.

Originally, we only gave out a small number of these awards to the drivers who ranked at the very top. This was fine at first, but as Paper Transport grew, we realized this now meant that we weren’t featuring an appropriate number of drivers relative to how big our fleet was becoming.

We decided to give out a greater number of these awards so we could recognize even more drivers. This gives them more incentive to have a good scorecard since the awards are much more attainable now.”

Aside from traditional incentive programs, is there anything else Paper Transport does to make drivers happy?

“One thing we always try to do is make our drivers feel welcome at our corporate offices. That’s why we have our offices open to all Paper Transport drivers in case they ever want to drop by and meet their managers or anyone else within the company. We also have an in-office gym and showers for the drivers as well.

Aside from that, we have a finishing program for new drivers called the Accelerate Class A CDL Training Program.”

What is the Accelerate program?

“The Accelerate Program is Paper Transport’s finishing school. This is for drivers who have completed CDL training and hold their CDL A but have little to no actual experience behind the wheel.

The program is a 3-weeks long, with a one-week in-class orientation and two weeks on the road, one-on-one with a driver trainer. The training is completely paid for, and while the drivers are in orientation, they get a private hotel and their own rental car. For drivers and trainees of opposite genders, the trainee will have their own private hotel during on-the-road training.

We started this program to make our new drivers more comfortable and confident while on the road. Some carriers throw new drivers out there without the support or one on one treatment these new drivers need, and that’s not what we wanted to do.

The biggest benefits to our drivers with this program is the one-on-one time with a trainer and the guaranteed pay after they complete the program.”

Who trains these new drivers in the accelerate program?

“We recruit drivers from our own fleet. Interested drivers apply for the driver trainer position and go through the normal interview process.

If they have a good attitude and no issues on their MVR, we’ll bring them into the “Train the Trainer” program where they learn how to mentor and educate the drivers who will be coming through the Accelerate program.

Once they pass that, they’re ready to be driver trainers. As an extra incentive, these drivers receive an additional $100 per day on top of what they would be making on the road.”

 

Truck driver incentive programs are one of the top ways to help drivers feel recognized while helping carriers meet their goals. The types of incentives you can implement are varied and can take some time to get them just right for your fleet. When you’re ready to put an incentive program in place, follow these guidelines and you’ll see success in no time.

truck driver incentive program checklist

FREE RESOURCE

Truck Driver Incentive Program Checklist

The best incentive program is the one that’s effective, sustainable, and engaging for drivers. Use this checklist to align your target behavior with rewards that motivate your drivers and create a program with lasting impact.

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What Rising Fuel Prices Mean for Truck Driver Recruiting

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rising fuel pricesAll across the country, skyrocketing fuel prices are taking their toll on everyone. Offices are extending work from home policies to save employees money, families are postponing summer road trips, and people are staying home whenever possible.  

While the price hikes for consumer fuel are bad, it’s got nothing on the increase in diesel fuel over the past few months. In January 2022, the average price of a gallon of diesel fuel was $3.72. Fast forward a few months and that same gallon costs $5.57, with it going for over $6 a gallon in some places.  

rising fuel prices

Data courtesy of the U.S EIA

This issue is affecting the entire trucking industry, but the biggest group of people hit by this? Owner operators and small trucking companies.  

What’s Causing the Increased Prices of Diesel?

The global economy is massive and complex. There are hundreds of things at play at any given time that affect the price of everything from diesel fuel to toilet paper. That being said, most economists point to two specific things impacting the price of diesel fuel. 

The bounce back of the economy after covid is the first. Supply simply couldn’t keep up with the sudden demand for fuel. Things started to even out in early 2022, but then Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, which is the second factor. The ongoing crisis caused leaders in the US and Europe to ban the import of Russian oil, which caused further turmoil in the market. 

Comedown from Covid

It wasn’t long ago that owner operators were in the driver’s seat of the trucking world. After Covid, the US saw a huge demand for products from consumers ready to return to normal. Retailers weren’t able to keep up with the demands and there weren’t enough drivers to transport what they had.  

This brought a huge number of small-time trucking companies and owner operators into the market, ready to capitalize on the demand for their services. Times were good for a while, but with diesel rising to never-before-seen prices and supply chain issues still prevalent, these small operations are finding that the market they came for isn’t the one we have now.  

Larger carriers are able to weather storms like these thanks to their size, but these new entrants are having a very hard time staying afloat. 

How are Small Companies and Owner Operators Responding?

For many, the increased price of diesel (along with the increased price of everything else) is just too much to bear. It’s leading them to either exit the industry altogether or find other alternatives to keep driving. Small companies and owner operators are either downsizing or leasing on with larger carriers to get by. 

What Does this Mean for Recruiting?

While nothing’s certain (especially in transportation), it’s looking as though the pendulum is swinging the other way again. Hiring numbers in the trucking industry have grown steadily over the past few months with less and less carriers having issues finding drivers.  

As these owner operators and small trucking companies close up shop, expect a number of them to come back to being company drivers for the stability and reduced costs. Some may want to keep their rigs and lease on to a company as owner operators.  

Recruiting Owner Operators

If you haven’t already, now is a great time to think about bringing owner operators into your fleet. But, unlike company drivers, recruiting owner operators can be a bit more difficult.  

Owner operators are more independent and entrepreneurial-minded than your average company driver. They’re also more experienced and will usually have a better safety record.  

When it comes to recruiting them, the process can take a bit longer since it’s a business transaction between partners rather than a standard hiring process. Instead of being hired, the driver is “leasing on” with the carrier for a set amount of time.  

Owner operators also cost more to hire than company drivers with the average yearly salary at about $140,000. This number is of course offset by the fact that the carrier won’t be paying truck maintenance costs, insurance costs, or benefits to the owner operator. 

The best advice for hiring owner operators is to use the right channels to find them, be patient during the recruitment process, and be honest in all your communication. You can read more about how to best recruit owner operators to your business here.  

Increased diesel prices are affecting all aspects of trucking and logistics. While owner operators and small trucking companies are having a hard time staying in business, they can be helped by larger carriers leasing them on for the time being.  

If you’re planning on bringing owner operators into your business, consider partnering with Drive My Way. Our patented software matches drivers with jobs based on their professional qualifications and personal lifestyle preferences. 

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.

Request a Demo