Posts

How to Improve Your Trucking Dispatcher Relationships with Drivers

/by

trucking dispatcher relationship
The trucking dispatcher and driver relationship is one of the most important relationships to keep a fleet running smoothly. Unfortunately, it’s very easy for dispatcher-driver relationships to become strained. Tension can arise from small problems that escalate as a result of poor communication or different priorities. Some challenges in the trucking industry require large investments of time and money. Fortunately, this isn’t one of them. There are several ways for a trucking dispatcher to improve their relationships with drivers without spending a single dollar.

1. Promote Clear Communication

Communication and miscommunication are at the heart of strained trucking dispatcher and driver relationships. Dispatchers and drivers are doing two entirely different jobs and may not see eye to eye. As a result, clear communication is absolutely essential to bridge that gap. Set clear expectations for drivers and their roles. Dispatchers typically have a higher level vantage point, so they may need to clarify some of their decisions to drivers. 

One of the best things a dispatcher can do is prioritize transparency.

Drivers don’t need a detailed analysis to explain every decision, but they should have a general understanding of why dispatchers are making decisions in a specific way. Transparency at all levels is a great way to build trust. There will inevitably be times that dispatchers must ask drivers to do things they don’t want to. If a driver understands the constraints that dispatchers work with and has a history of respect with the dispatcher, they are much more likely to willingly take on less pleasant loads when necessary.

MNS1 Best Carrier for Driver CommunicationDrive My Way customer MNS1 Express was recently recognized as the Best Carrier for Communication by Chad Hendricks, host of the Recruit and Retain podcast. Chad praised MNS1 Express saying:

“This is the first time I’ve called drivers from any company and had every single one talk about their dispatcher in a positive way.”

Good dispatcher and driver relationships play a huge role in retention, and MNS1 is leading the way.

2. Walk A Mile In Their Shoes

otr truckOne of the best ways to improve dispatcher-driver relationships is by creating more common ground. Most dispatchers have never been CDL drivers, and most drivers have never been dispatchers. Both sides need to have a basic understanding of what the other is doing in their day-to-day life and to get to know each other. If you are a dispatcher and haven’t been a driver in the past, ask to go on a ridealong for a day. You don’t have to get a CDL to get a glimpse of your drivers’ typical workload. Take a few days to see the day-to-day responsibilities of your drivers. 

Beyond understanding their job, get to know your drivers personally. It builds better company culture and makes daily communication much more pleasant. Demonstrate to your drivers that they are more than just a worker. A friendly relationship also goes a long way when challenging situations arise. It also allows communication to go in both directions. If there are things you wish your drivers knew, tell them! A mutual understanding of each other’s work and respect goes a long way toward facilitating open communication and improving the trucking dispatcher relationships with drivers.

3. Don’t Create Impossible Situations

dispatch memeMutual respect and understanding can only go so far. Even in the best relationships, drivers won’t be happy if they are regularly put in impossible situations. An impossible load is one that looks good on paper but has very little room for error or unexpected incidents. Think twice before accepting this kind of load.

The profit is often tantalizing, but if you’re compromising drivers, the cost is too high. Drivers who regularly face impossible loads will quickly become frustrated, and you may start losing drivers. 

Instead, try to give drivers (and yourself!) a small compliance cushion. That way, when things do go wrong or there are unexpected delays, everyone has a little breathing room. This eases the tension for everyone. Drivers will appreciate not being penalized for things out of their control, and as a dispatcher, you’ll have more happy customers receiving on-time loads.

4. Give and Take Feedback

employee feedbackLike any hard-working employee, truck drivers want to feel respected and appreciated. To help develop a climate of respect, make the trucking dispatcher and driver relationship a partnership. Ask drivers for feedback throughout the year and make sure to implement their suggestions when possible! Drivers will feel good knowing that their input matters, and it’s an important way to build social credit. Then, once you’ve developed a rapport, you can give drivers constructive feedback as well. Mutual respect is the foundation for good feedback and communication.

ultimate guide to retaining truck drivers

Ultimate Guide to Retaining Truck Drivers

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

Get the Ebook

Work Life Balance: The Key to Truck Driver Recruiting

/by

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.

Request a Demo

5 Tips to Recruit Millennial Truck Drivers

/5 Comments/by

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

Is the Truck Driver Shortage Real?

/by

For the better part of ten years, the trucking industry has been faced with what’s commonly been called a “truck driver shortage”. The thought is that there’s simply not enough drivers to fill the open positions that trucking companies have.  

Only recently have people started to challenge that narrative and ask themselves, “Is the issue a true shortage of truck drivers, or is it an issue of retaining truck drivers?” 

How did the “truck driver shortage” start?

There are differing accounts of when this issue started, but most agree that the deregulation of the trucking industry in the 1980’s kickstarted what we know as the “truck driver shortage”. Among many other things, less government involvement in the industry meant that carriers could pay drivers less and afford them less benefits.  

This helped to create the conditions that the industry finds itself in today. Fast forward to today, and due to a variety of factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s a huge demand for moving freight and subsequently a huge demand for truck drivers.  

Couple that with fewer drivers on the road due to tight insurance requirements and suspensions from the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse, and the drivers who are left have the upper hand in which company they’ll drive for. Many carriers have already found out that truck drivers aren’t in a position where they have to accept poor working conditions, low pay, and subpar benefits anymore.  

This tight labor market isn’t just an issue known by people in the transportation industry anymore. It’s been making headlines for the better part of two years. Time Magazine, CBS News, the NY Times and more have covered the issue. Late night host, John Oliver even did a 24-minute segment on the “truck driver shortage” in early 2022.


Do truck drivers not want to work anymore?

A common misconception is that truck drivers, like a lot of other workers in our country, don’t want to work anymore and are exiting the industry. The fact is that there are many drivers who do want to work. They just have more options for where they can work and won’t hesitate to make a move if they find a carrier that’s offering better pay, a better work environment, and better home time

This leads to the metric we hear about all the time; driver turnover. Many people talk about it, but there’s a common misconception as to what it actually measures. The American Trucking Association, (ATA) who calculates the metric, clarified the issue in a recent blog post. 

“Turnover is not an indicator of people exiting the industry (we know, because ATA created and tabulated the metric). Rather, it more accurately measures drivers moving between carriers. It captures churn within the industry—not attrition from the industry. While retirements and exits account for a small percentage of turnover, by-in-large that is not what this figure is counting.”

In the trucking industry, turnover (as calculated by the ATA) measures drivers leaving one carrier for another, not drivers leaving the industry all together. 

This means that while there are drivers exiting the industry, it’s not happening at the rate that we’re led to believe. Instead, drivers are switching from one carrier to another for better pay, benefits, and routes. It’s not that there’s a shortage of truck drivers, it’s that drivers are in control of where they can sell their labor to.  

How will the “truck driver shortage” be resolved?

Since the problem isn’t a shortage of drivers, but a problem of retaining drivers, the solution is simple; make working conditions better for truck drivers. If you look at any data around truck driver happiness, you’ll see that there’s a laundry list of issues that frustrate drivers.  

Long wait times at shippers/receivers, lack of parking, little home time, and no input on company/driver policies are just a few of the issues that are causing drivers to look elsewhere for employment opportunities. 

It’s not surprising that the carriers that have an answer to these problems are also the ones with the highest driver retention rates.  

What can recruiters do?

Recruiters should focus on what they can control. This includes knowing your positions inside and out, making sure the driver’s first impression of your carrier is a positive one, and being communicative with candidates from start to finish. 

Another great practice for recruiters and HR professionals is to conduct exit or stay interviews with your drivers. This will give you extremely useful information as to why drivers are leaving your carrier, or why they’re choosing to stay.

While recruiters and HR professionals aren’t usually the ultimate decision-makers for things like pay, benefits, and work perks, that doesn’t mean they can’t influence those decision-makers.  

Do some research on what competitors in the area offer drivers in terms of pay, benefits, and home time. If your carrier doesn’t match up to them, make it a point to try and talk to management about making some changes.

The Bottom Line

Referring to the problem that the trucking industry is facing as a shortage of truck drivers shifts the blame off of carriers and onto truck drivers. Instead of focusing on improving the conditions that drivers are faced with, (low pay, sparse home time, demanding deadlines) calling it a shortage simply writes off the issue as “truck drivers are too picky and don’t want to work.” 

As more and more carriers begin to see that investing in their drivers’ happiness is the way to increase retention, the industry should begin to see those turnover numbers drop.  

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

Trucking Truth with April Smith from Lansing Building Products

, /by

Lansing building productsApril Smith is the Recruiting Manager with Drive My Way client, Lansing Building Products. During her 7 plus years with Lansing, April and her team have helped the company grow their fleet while increasing retention rates. We were able to speak with April and fellow Lansing recruiter, Kelsie Rudd about the biggest changes they’ve seen during their time recruiting, how Lansing uses driver feedback to inform their decisions, and how they’re able to screen for drivers who will be a cultural fit for Lansing.

How are you able to properly screen candidates so that you only hire drivers who will fit Lansing’s culture?

We ask some specific questions during the interview process to see how the driver will align with our culture. For example, we ask, “What does respect, service, and excellence mean to you?” This question comes directly from our mission statement.

We also have noticed that drivers sometimes tend to get boxed in by recruiters as simply drivers, and we assume that’s all they’ll want to do for the rest of their career.

During the interview process, we always talk to the drivers about where they see themselves down the road and what their long-term career goals are. We ask these kinds of questions because Lansing offers a number of opportunities for advancement, and we love to bring drivers in who will take advantage of them.

What are some of the things that Lansing does to promote driver retention?

There are a couple different things we do to promote retention. One is the safety program that we’ve implemented. If a driver doesn’t get in an accident for an entire year, their name goes into an end of the year raffle, with the winner getting a free YETI cooler.

Aside from that, we participate yearly in the Great Place to Work survey. Once we collect the data from the survey, we don’t just sit on it. It gives us some really great insights into how our drivers feel about working for us and what we could be doing better for them.

We’ve actually started a few different programs directly because of the data we’ve gotten from the Great Place to Work survey. One is our CDL Reimbursement Program. Through this program, we financially assist any current Lansing employee who wants to either get their CDL A or upgrade their CDL B to an A. It’s just one of the ways we want to show our drivers that we’re committed to their professional growth.

What’s been the biggest change in the driver recruiting space since your first started?

I think what’s changed the most has been the technology we use. There’s much more automation involved in the hiring process now than ever before. It all starts with our Applicant Tracking System (ATS), then from there, we figure out who the partners are that will work within that ATS to help us fill our hiring needs.

That’s how Drive My Way became one of our most valuable partners. We were able to easily integrate their platform with our ATS of choice, Lever. Because of this, we were able to get more quality applicants for our jobs faster.

April and Kelsie finished with these thoughts,

As a recruiting team, it’s important to not only fill the jobs, but to make sure we’re communicating with all the other teams and individuals involved in the hiring process as well. Having a high level of communication with candidates, hiring managers, and our vendors every step of the way has increased our ability to be more productive and to have the right people on our teams.

Lansing Building Products Partners with Drive My Way for Success

Lansing Building Products partnered with Drive My Way to hire CDL A and B straight truck drivers for a number of locations nationwide. See the results below.

View the Case Study

Why Truck Driver Feedback is the Key to Recruiting

/by

driver feedbackThe trucking industry is years into the “Driver Shortage”, and carriers are still having a difficult time hiring and retaining top talent. Drivers now have a lot of options for which carrier they work for, and they’re choosing to work for ones that have a proven track record of listening to their drivers.  

That’s why in today’s labor marketplace, any carrier that wants to recruit and retain top talent needs to collect and utilize driver feedback. But how do you collect drive feedback? What are the benefits to collecting it? And, once you do have it, how do you utilize it for your business? 

Why Should You Use Driver Feedback?

Driver feedback can help carriers solve the two biggest problems facing trucking right now: recruiting and retention. 

Nobody enjoys working somewhere where they have no input in what goes on; especially truck drivers. This type of environment can lead drivers to become actively disengaged and eventually start looking for another job. 

On the flip side, when drivers feel their voices are being heard, they’re more likely to stay. In Drive My Way’s Happiness and Retention survey, we found that a strong company culture where drivers feel valued is the second leading reason that drivers are attracted to working for certain carriers.  

We talked with Bryce Kjellander, Recruiter with Stevens Trucking about why collecting driver feedback is important to them.  

“We collect feedback from our drivers because they’re at the front lines and can be a huge asset when it comes to staying on top of maintenance issues. One of the main ways we communicate is by having an open-door policy with our drivers. This includes everyone at the company from the top down. Secondly, as a company we use an anonymous software service that allows drivers  to give input to the owners and upper management. We’ve been using this tool for about a year and a half now with a lot of success. Throughout this process we have received all kinds of feedback, some of which we have been able to implement. One of the ideas we are looking at incorporating is setting up an inbound service lane for all of our trucks and trailers to pull into so they can be checked out before leaving the yard. Our goal is to help catch some of the minor stuff that could have been missed when guys are in a hurry to get back on the road.”

Gathering Driver Feedback

driver feedbackPutting up a suggestion box in the break room probably won’t be enough to get the kind of feedback your carrier needs to really make a difference. You’ll want to create multiple avenues for drivers to share their thoughts.  

A suggestion box is one way. Others could be having an open-door policy with drivers, holding monthly/quarterly meetings, or using anonymous feedback services.  

Anonymity is a huge part of collecting driver feedback. While some drivers may be fine putting their name with their feedback, many won’t be. Having options for both is the key to collecting as much as you can. 

Another reason these anonymous feedback services work well is because drivers can use them to submit feedback from anywhere. This is very important in trucking since drivers will probably be on the road when an issue occurs. 

Exit Interviews are another great way to gather honest driver feedback. These are interviews done with a driver who’s planning on leaving your company. While the drivers may be leaving simply because of a better pay package, there could be other factors that led them to leave that you’re unaware of. Having productive exit interviews with drivers can help you uncover those reasons. 

Utilizing Driver Feedback

This is the biggest part of the equation, and one that many carriers may fall short on. You’ve collected all that driver data, but that’s only half the battle.  

The first step is to analyze the feedback you’ve gotten. Do you see any trends? Are multiple drivers citing the same issues time and time again? You’ll want to gather your results and plan to meet with decision makers in your organization to see what can be done.  

From there, you can begin the process of implementing solutions to the feedback you were given, just like Stevens Trucking did with their inbound service lanes. You may not be able to work on every issue raised by a driver, but just communicating that it was received shows drivers that your carrier is listening.  

As for how to communicate, consider having a monthly or quarterly email that goes out to all drivers containing all the feedback you’ve received and the steps the carrier is taking to address it. You can also hold monthly zoom (or in-person) meetings or call the drivers who gave you feedback directly. 

As the “Driver Shortage” continues to roll on, carriers are finding it necessary to change their operations and policies in order to attract the best drivers. That’s why the carriers that actively seek out driver feedback and implement it into their businesses have a huge edge in the fight to recruit and retain top talent.  To see what other factors drivers consider when looking for a new job, check out our Driver Lifestyle & Job Happiness Survey below. 

driver happiness and retention survey

FREE SURVEY REPORT

Driver Lifestyle & Job Happiness Survey

We surveyed over 400 CDL truck drivers nationwide to discover what makes them happy in their career and life. Access the survey report to see the results.

Get the Results

3 Ways to Increase Your Trucking Company’s Social Media Presence

/by

social mediaLike most everyone, truck drivers are all over social media. It’s where they connect with other drivers, share tips for being on the road, and discuss current happenings. It’s also where they look for jobs and research carriers.  

As a recruiting team, how can you use that to your advantage? You want to make sure that drivers looking at your company come away with a positive impression, but that’s easier said than done. Here are 3 ways to strengthen your trucking company’s social media presence.  

Be on the Right Channels  

The first step is to make sure you’re in the right places to find drivers. While there isn’t much new data on what social media platforms truckers are on the most, you can find a lot of drivers using Instagram, Facebook, and now TikTok. 

The newest social platform, TikTok can be difficult for carriers to get on, as the majority of content is user-generated videos, and creating that on a regular basis takes a lot of resources. Facebook and Instagram on the other hand are easier social channels to manage and post on. You probably already have a Facebook, and maybe an Instagram account, but whether you’re leveraging them for their recruiting value is a different question.  

We were able to talk with April Smith, Driver Recruiter with Drive My Way client, Lansing Building Products. April told us about what Lansing posts on their social channels and how that helps attract drivers. 

April Smith,
Driver Recruiter,
Lansing Building Products

What kind of content does your company post on social media?

“We post company news and events, job postings, associate highlights and achievements, product, and customer accomplishments.”

What social media platforms is your company present on?

“We’re currently active on Indeed, LinkedIn, and Twitter.”

How does the content you post support your company’s recruiting efforts?

“Our social media presence promotes our company culture, engages job seekers, and helps attract top talent.”

Lansing BP’s recent Instagram post, celebrating Mother’s Day

Is there a certain kind of content that does particularly well?

“Photos and videos of our people do very well. A great example of this was our recent Mother’s Day post that shared pics of Lansing Mom’s and their kids.”  

What is the overall goal for your company’s social media presence?

“We want to build brand awareness and boost brand engagement through social media. We want people to have a genuine feel for our people, our culture and what makes Lansing Building Products a great place to work.”

3 Ways to Engage with Truck Drivers Using Social Media 

Driver Testimonials

Maybe the most powerful tool when it comes to social media recruiting, driver testimonials are great at showing potential candidates why your company is a great place to work. What makes this content so powerful is that it comes from a source that drivers trust.  

Many drivers have been misled in the past by recruiters. So, when a recruiter tells them all the great things about driving for a company, there’s a good (and reasonable) chance that they’ll be skeptical. They’ll be more receptive of that same message if it comes from a fellow driver. 

There’s a few different ways to driver testimonials. The most common is to ask drivers to send in a short video about why they enjoy working for your carrier. The other is to film drivers on site. Both are great, but asking drivers to send in a short video is usually more cost-effective, as you won’t have to pay for or rent video equipment. These videos also have an amateur feel that comes across as more authentic.

Mission Statement Video

One minute to show what your company is, what they do, and why they do it. That’s what a mission statement video is. These videos are used to give visitors to your social media pages (including prospective driver candidates) a bird’s eye view of your company. 

Mission statement videos should be short and to the point. B-roll footage of company trucks, drivers, and your building over a narration of your mission statement is a great way to go. If you’re unable to do video, you can do the same thing with still images. 

Consider pinning this video to the top of your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn page. Many visitors to your page may want to get a quick overview of your business, and this is a great way to do it. 

Company Culture Posts

It’s always better to show than it is to tell. Sure, you can tell a driver that your carrier has a great company culture, but that probably won’t stick in their head. Using social media to show your company culture is a great way to send a message that will resonate with them throughout the recruiting process. 

Do you have any after work events? Parties during workdays? Do you celebrate work anniversaries for drivers? Documenting these events on social media is a great way to get engagement and showcase to drivers what it’s like to work for your company.  

The best thing about social media is that there’s very little (if any) cost to it. You can experiment with different post types to see what gets the best engagement with drivers and go from there.

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

Home Time vs. Pay: What’s More Important to Truck Drivers?

/by

home time

Home time vs. pay. For the vast majority of truck drivers, these are the two biggest factors they look at when choosing what carrier to work for. The question is, what do drivers care about more? As you could guess, the answer depends on the individual driver candidate. That being said, there are ways to make your jobs more appealing to drivers, no matter what they find more important. Here’s what to know about home time and pay.  

Pay

home time

 

Before all else, comes pay. A carrier can have the best home time and benefits, but they won’t be attracting many drivers if their pay is far below industry averages. And that average isn’t what it used to be.  

Due to Covid, stretched supply chains and other factors, many carriers have been steadily raising their driver pay over the past two years. Wal-Mart even announced recently that they would be raising driver pay across the board to between $95,000 and $110,000 annually.  

Paying that amount of money may be unrealistic for some carriers, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to hire quality drivers anymore. Offering overtime and detention pay are two smaller ways that carriers can show they’re committed to offering fair compensation without stretching the payroll budget. Referral, safe driving, and delayed sign-on bonuses are other ways to do this as well.  

Home Time

 

While money means a lot, it’s not always everything to drivers. It’s of course important to offer competitive pay, but recently truck drivers have been citing home time as a bigger priority for them. The Covid pandemic led many people, truck drivers included, to start valuing their home time and free time more and more.

For carriers who only hire local drivers, this isn’t an issue since drivers are home every night. For carriers looking to fill regional and OTR jobs, this new emphasis on increased home time may seem difficult to navigate.

As a carrier, it’s important to make an effort to understand each driver’s home time needs and make efforts to work with them. Instead of enforcing rigid schedules that can’t be adjusted, be flexible in what you offer drivers. Some drivers may prefer to be home 3 days every week, while others may want to be on the road for a full week, then home for a full week.  

You may not be able to accommodate every home time request, but listening to your drivers and being open to what they want will take you a long way in recruiting and retaining top talent.   

What Can Recruiters Do?

 

Know your driver candidate. In your first call, have a discussion about what their priorities are for their next position. Some family-oriented drivers may be willing to sacrifice a difference in pay if they’re able to be home an extra night every week. A young single driver may just care about getting the biggest pay package possible. As a recruiter, it’s your job to be aware of these priorities so you can see if they’re a fit for what your company can offer. 

Another tip is to never give an answer to a driver when you don’t know the answer yourself. If a driver asks if there’s any wiggle room on the home only two nights a week part of the job, don’t just say “yes” without knowing if that’s true. Inaccurate information from recruiters can lead to frustrated drivers, increased driver turnover, and possibly a poor company reputation.  

For the first time in a long time, truck drivers have real control and a lot of choice for who they drive for. For carriers, this means that offering competitive pay packages and flexible home time options is now a necessity if you’re planning on bringing drivers to your organization. But, home time and pay aren’t the only things drivers are worried about. Building a driver-centric company culture where drivers are valued is another great way for your carrier to attract drivers. 

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

Trucking Truth with Josh Mecca from American Central Transport

/by

American Central Transport

Josh Mecca is the Director of Recruiting with Drive My Way client, American Central Transport. Josh has been in the trucking industry for over 16 years and was recently invited to the White House to hear about the current administration’s Trucking Action Plan. We had the chance to talk with Josh about his trip to the White House, why ACT is recognized as a Best Fleet to Drive For, his advice for recruiters, and more.

What did your experience in the industry look like before coming to American Central Transport?

I started my journey at a trucking company in the southeast. From there, I moved to Nashville, TN and worked at a transportation management company. That’s where I learned the ins and outs of the industry, including long haul, regional, day cab, and virtually every mode of truckload transportation. I really started to understand the trucking industry from a logistics standpoint during my time there.

Wanting to get back to working directly with assets, I moved to a Midwest carrier for a couple of years, specifically working with Owner Operators. Then just over six years ago, I moved back home to Kansas City to take this role with American Central Transport as their Director of Recruiting.

ACT has been named a Best Fleet to Drive For for 5 consecutive years now. How have you been able to do that?

Honestly, it’s become something that’s ingrained in our culture. Every time we think about a new program, whether that’s changes to compensation, home time, benefits, or anything that impacts our drivers on a daily basis, we ask ourselves “How does this fit into being a best fleet? Does it make the lives of our drivers better?” 

At the end of each year, we always do an internal debrief based on feedback from the Best Fleets to Drive For program.  We compare what we did well, what we can improve on, and what we’re missing. We do this because we want American Central Transport to be at the forefront of providing the best work-life balance that drivers deserve.

Historically, our industry hasn’t really taken those wants from drivers into consideration, but being part of the Best Fleets really challenges us at our core to do everything we can to make not only our company a better place for drivers, but to attract and retain more talent to the industry as a whole.  

The market for truck drivers has been extremely competitive for a while now. Do you feel this is because of a true shortage of drivers, or something else?

American Central TransportI’ve always been very skeptical of the notion that there’s a literal shortage of drivers who want to get into trucking. The reason I’m skeptical is because of the number of leads, applications, and people we see out there looking for jobs.

Drivers are realizing that, for a lack of a better term, they’re in the driver’s seat right now. They control where they go and who will employ them for their services, and rightfully so. They’ve got a hard job and they sacrifice a lot to do it. We as carriers really need to understand that if our job isn’t attractive for drivers, we’re going to fall short.

We’ve recently started a driver finishing program with two CDL schools here in Kansas City. We were noticing that a lot of times in our industry, a driver would finish their CDL training and immediately be thrown to the wolves before they had a real chance to get their feet under them. This led to a lot of careers in trucking being thrown away before they began because these new drivers would have such bad experiences.

Companies didn’t want to invest in the training that these new drivers needed beyond the bare minimum, so we decided to take a different approach. Once they’ve finished CDL school, we help our new drivers by giving them the support and knowledge they need from an experienced trainer while increasing their pay every 90 days for that first year they’re with us.

Recently, you were invited to the White House. Tell us about the experience and what you took away from it.

Josh at the White House

It was a great event to be a part of. It focused on this administration’s Trucking Action Plan to help our industry become more attractive. The plan focuses on a few pillars, one of those being more trucking apprenticeships to attract new drivers, especially women and minorities into the industry. 

The biggest takeaway from the White House event was that we need to support transportation as an industry and support the people who want to be in trucking. When I got my start all those years ago, I had a coworker with over 40 years of experience take me under his wing and give me guidance. We still stay in touch to this day and talk about what’s going on in my career and his retirement. It’s that type of support that all new drivers should have when they come into this industry.

To be invited to that event was validating on a career note. Sitting there on the White House lawn made me really feel that American Central Transport’s doing something right and positively impacting the industry.

When it comes to automation in trucking, what do you think the future looks like?

I truly don’t think the trucking industry will ever be fully autonomous. I think there are going to be segments where we see platooning or some other moves towards automation, but as a whole, I don’t think our industry will ever be there.

I do think trucking jobs are going to look different in 15-20 years, but I believe that behind every steering wheel there’s still going to be a driver piloting it.

What advice do you have to give to other recruiters in the trucking industry?

In trucking right now, drivers and recruiters absolutely need each other. But it’s extremely important that recruiters are painting an accurate picture of who the company is that they’re recruiting for.

The worst thing you can have is an orientation surprise. In the 8 years I’ve been in recruiting, an orientation surprise is never positive. You never want a driver to say, “Well I didn’t know about this”, or “I wasn’t told about that”. As a recruiter, you need to make sure that you’re upfront about everything with drivers, even if it’s something they don’t ask about, but you feel is important to the position.  

If you’re doing your job as a recruiter, you’ll start to realize when a driver is going to be a great fit for your company but also when a driver isn’t. If you say something like, “Hey, you sound like a great driver. I think we’d work well together down the line, but right now, I feel it isn’t the best fit. Let’s touch base in six months”, you’ll be surprised at how much drivers will appreciate that honesty. And once you do connect down the road, you already have that foundation of honesty built. 

ultimate guide to retaining truck drivers

Ultimate Guide to Retaining Truck Drivers

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

Get the Ebook

Trucking Truth with Bradley Bates from American Bulk Commodities

/by

American Bulk Commodities

In a time when demand is much higher than supply, it can be difficult for driver recruiters to be selective when bringing drivers into their organization. But, for Bradley Bates, safety is the one thing that you can never be too selective about. Bradley is the Safety Manager for American Bulk Commodities, parent company of Drive My Way clients, R&J Trucking and Southern Haulers. Bradley talked with us about how this background in safety has helped American Bulk’s recruiting efforts.

What was your original position with American Bulk Commodities?

I was brought in as Safety Manager after American Bulk had some safety concerns in one of their terminals. I started out solely in OSHA compliance and would travel to all our different terminals, running our training programs. I would give presentations and work to make sure mechanics were doing their yearly trainings and anything else OSHA-related. 

How did that role turn into what you do now?

As I got more comfortable in that safety role, I began to take on more, including managing our job advertising. At the time, we were still putting money into paper advertisements, which has showing less and less return. I stepped up and got our job campaigns posted online. 

I’m also the point person on the risk management side, including worker’s comp claims. Day-to-day, I’m talking with drivers about getting required paperwork, organizing return to works, and just doing what I can to get drivers back in a safe, but timely fashion. 

Then somebody left the company, and I started managing driver applications as well, running the MVR, PSP, and everything else. It was a big learning experience, finding out what we can move forward with from an application and what’s a total hard stop. I also learned to see trends in applicants as well, specifically what to look for to find a quality candidate.  

What are some of those trends that you look for?

Ideally, they’ve worked at the same place for the last 10 years and have nothing on their MVR or PSP. While this isn’t always realistic, we try to get as close to it as possible. It’s more important for us to bring in a driver whose work history shows they’re reliable and safe than bring in the first driver who checks all the minimum boxes.  

Also, asking questions related to how they’ve interacted with customers in the past, how they handle disputes and things like that is very important. Those questions are great at showing how the driver is on the customer service side of the job.  

Do you feel that being more involved in the recruiting process has improved American Bulk’s driver retention and safety scores?

We’ve definitely seen a decrease in terms of accidents and violations since I took over recruiting efforts. I can’t take all the credit though, as we’ve started to implement more safety features onto the vehicles as well. The biggest one being the Bendix Fusion system that helps collision and rollover mitigation.  

The system does a number of things, including braking automatically if there’s something in front of the truck that’s either not moving or moving much slower than the truck. I think the combination of the new safety features on our trucks and focusing on recruiting and retaining drivers with little to no accident history have been the main factors in improving our scores.  

R&J Trucking and Southern Haulers Partner with Drive My Way for Success

R&J Trucking and Southern Haulers are two of the nation’s leaders in the bulk commodities hauling industry. Find out how they found success by partnering with Drive My Way to hire CDL A Local Drivers.

View the Case Study