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How Drive My Way Helps Food & Beverage Carriers Hire and Retain Qualified Drivers

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The food and beverage supply chain depends on drivers who can handle specialized equipment, manage seasonal peaks, and deliver products safely.  

 

For carriers, finding drivers who meet these needs is a constant challenge in today’s competitive labor market. Recruiting the right talent requires more than traditional methods, which often result in wasted time and limited success. 

 

Foodliner and Button Transportation are two carriers that turned to Drive My Way to improve their recruiting strategies. By partnering with a platform built around matching drivers to jobs they want and qualify for, both companies were able to bring on new drivers efficiently while lowering costs and improving retention. 

 

Helping Carriers in a Niche Industry 

Recruiting in the food and beverage industry brings challenges that set it apart from other sectors of trucking. Many roles require additional endorsements for tankers, hazmat, or doubles. Companies may need to scale up hiring quickly during harvest or production surges, and, unlike general freight, specialized bulk and agricultural loads often demand experience that not every CDL driver has. 

 

Conventional recruiting solutions often fall short of these needs. Carriers receive large volumes of applications that may not meet requirements, leaving recruiting teams with more screening work and fewer viable candidates.  

 

Drive My Way approaches the process differently. By matching drivers with jobs based on their skills, experience, and personal preferences, the platform ensures carriers connect with drivers who are both qualified and interested in the work. 

 

For food and beverage carriers, this means a pipeline of candidates who are more likely to succeed in the role. It also translates to faster hiring, lower costs per hire, and stronger retention.  

 

“We work with Drive My Way because it produces results, and that’s so important when it comes to recruiting drivers,” said Rod Anstead, a Safety Director at Button Transport.  

 

Foodliner: Prioritizing Quality Over Quantity 

Foodliner, the largest bulk food-grade carrier in the United States, needed to expand its roster of regional and local CDL A drivers for both liquid and dry bulk loads. With a fleet of 500-1,000 trucks, the company’s standards for safety and fit are high.  

 

Their recruiting team faced the common challenge of balancing application flow with quality, and they wanted to avoid spending time sorting through unqualified or incomplete applications. 

 

That’s where Drive My Way could make a difference. In just five months, Foodliner brought four new drivers onboard through the platform, with an average cost per hire of $900 and a 60-day time to hire. More importantly, those hires matched Foodliner’s needs from day one. 

 

“The Drive My Way website and dashboard are very user friendly and provide a lot of great information,” said Tim Yochum, Director of Recruiting at Foodliner. “Drive My Way is out in front with their technology compared to other recruiting companies. They have developed tools with the end user in mind: drivers and transportation companies.” 

 

Beyond technology, Foodliner emphasized the collaborative nature of the relationship. “Drive My Way respects our opinion and decisions. We can be honest about what is working and what is not working from both sides, it is not a one-way street,” Yochum said.

 

For Foodliner, it wasn’t just about filling trucks, it was about working with a partner who understood their business and valued quality over quantity. 

 

Button Transportation: Meeting Seasonal Demands 

For Button Transportation, a family-owned company based in California for over 40 years, seasonal hiring is the biggest challenge. The carrier hauls fertilizer, harvest goods, and other agri-business freight, which means their hiring needs spike at two critical points each year.  

 

Finding qualified drivers quickly, especially those with hazmat, tanker, or doubles endorsements, can make or break a season. 

 

Partnering with Drive My Way allowed Button to tackle this problem head-on. In only two months, the company hired ten drivers, bringing their cost per hire down to just $180. The ability to meet seasonal needs without sacrificing driver quality was a game-changer. 

 

“It’s been a long time since we’ve filled our trucks, and thanks to Drive My Way, we’re so close to not only filling them, but also having rotational drivers,” said Rod Anstead, Safety Director at Button. “We are a seasonal carrier with two major hiring peaks throughout the year, and it’s important for us to fill the trucks with qualified, good drivers.” 

 

Safety Supervisor James Villanueva echoed the sentiment, saying “I would absolutely recommend Drive My Way to other companies. Our partnership has been a big part of my success here at Button Transportation.” 

 

 

 

In an industry where specialized freight and seasonal hiring make recruiting even more complex, Drive My Way helps carriers connect with drivers who are ready and qualified for the work. 

 

For more ways to stay ahead of the curve in the transportation industry in 2025, be sure to check out the rest of our Employer Blog posts and connect with us on social media.  

How Drive My Way Helps Building Products Clients Find Specialized CDL Drivers

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In the building products industry, the right drivers are more than just operators. They’re skilled professionals who combine safe driving with specialized equipment handling, customer service, and physical delivery work.  

 

Finding these professionals, however, can be a challenge. Positions like CDL A and B straight-truck drivers, boom-truck operators, and yard spotters demand a unique mix of licensing, technical skills, and hands-on experience. 

 

Drive My Way offers an option for companies navigating these hiring needs. With a trucking-exclusive platform and experience in sourcing niche CDL talent, we connect employers with drivers who meet precise role requirements and are ready to bring their expertise to the job. 

 

A Trucking-Focused Solution for Niche Hiring 

Unlike general job boards, Drive My Way is built specifically for recruiting truck drivers. The platform is designed to match employers with drivers who meet exact requirements, not just in licensing, but in equipment experience, delivery type, and work preferences. 

 

For building products companies, this trucking-specific focus means they can quickly zero in on candidates who already understand their type of work. From CDL A/B straight-truck drivers with boom-operator certifications to local route specialists with customer-facing experience, Drive My Way helps employers connect with talent that fits. 

 

“What’s been different with Drive My Way is we seem to get a much higher caliber of candidates in the pool,” said David Ullman, an HR Manager at J&L Building Materials. “Our driving positions are very niche. We’re looking for a very specialized candidate.” 

 

Case Study: J&L Building Materials 

Family-owned and operating since 1958, J&L Building Materials supplies professional contractors throughout Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. They needed to recruit CDL A and B straight-truck drivers, including some with boom-truck operation skills, across multiple locations. 

 

Before partnering with Drive My Way in October 2019, filling these positions was slow and inconsistent. However, with DMW’s platform, the process changed dramatically. 

 

J&L’s David Ullman praised the clean, streamlined interface that made posting and managing jobs easy. “I’ve seen some other platforms out there that can be cumbersome. The Drive My Way solution is just a very clean, streamlined interface.” 

 

Even more important, the candidates were exactly what they were looking for. Average time-to-hire dropped to under 30 days, even for highly specialized roles. The company also benefited from personalized support from their Customer Success Manager, who took time to understand their unique needs and offer targeted advice. 

 

“I know we would not have had the success we have had without Drive My Way,” Ullman said. “Specifically, our Customer Success Manager took time to listen, ask questions, and then offered strategic guidance and insight that I wouldn’t have had.” 

 

Case Study: Lansing Building Products 

Lansing Building Products, a national exterior-products supplier with over 100 branches in 35 states, faced a similar challenge. They needed CDL A and B straight-truck drivers and yard spotters across a wide geographic range. The positions often required local deliveries, physical unloading, and customer interaction, making it critical to find candidates with the right qualifications.  

 

When Lansing partnered with Drive My Way in early 2021, they were able to integrate the platform directly with their applicant tracking system, Lever. This seamless connection allowed them to move candidates through the hiring process more quickly, resulting in a consistent average of more than two hires per month. 

 

“The great customer service is what I like best about Drive My Way,” said April Smith. “It’s what separates them from the other hiring resources we’ve used in the past.” 

 

Drivers themselves also reported a positive experience with the application process. Marc, a CDL A driver in Rockaway, NJ, said, “It was the easiest experience I’ve had applying for a job. It was amazing.”  

 

Russell, a CDL A driver in Greenville, SC, added, “It went great. I wasn’t familiar with Drive My Way before this, but I’m happy with the experience.” 

 

By delivering both volume and quality candidates, DMW helped Lansing maintain a steady driver pipeline and meet its hiring goals in a competitive market. 

 

Why Drive My Way Works for Building Products Companies 

We’re proud of these success stories from J&L and Lansing, which highlight several key strengths that make Drive My Way a perfect fit for building products employers. These include: 

 

  • Specialized driver matching: Ability to filter and match for boom-truck certification, local delivery preference, and customer service skills. 
  • Clean, trucking-specific platform: Built for driver recruiting, without the clutter of unrelated job categories. 
  • Quality over quantity: Focus on delivering high-caliber candidates who match both qualifications and company culture. 
  • Personalized support: Customer Success Managers who understand the industry and provide strategic hiring insights. 
  • Technology integration: ATS compatibility to streamline the hiring process. 

 

The Bottom Line 

In the building products industry, success depends on having the right drivers behind the wheel who can safely operate specialized equipment, deliver materials efficiently, and represent the company well with customers.  

 

These drivers may be hard to find, but Drive My Way’s trucking-exclusive platform and personalized approach make the search faster, easier, and more effective. 

 

For more ways to stay ahead of the curve in the transportation industry in 2025, be sure to check out the rest of our Employer Blog posts and connect with us on social media.