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4 Ways Your Carrier Can Appeal to Female Truck Drivers

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female truck drivers

The trucking industry is changing, albeit slowly. While the percentage of female truck drivers is still a fraction of males, research shows that it’s rising steadily each year, with 7.8% of truck drivers being women in 2021.  

As more and more women enter the industry, carriers should be asking, “What are we doing to attract these drivers?” This is something that all carriers should be thinking about, but especially carriers that are finding it difficult to recruit and are dealing with poor retention. Here are 4 ways that your carrier can appeal to female truck drivers.  

1. Understand the Wants and Needs of Female Truck Drivers

millennial truck driver

So how can carriers appeal to female truck drivers? First, carriers need to recognize that women drivers will have different concerns than their male counterparts. Since trucking has been a male-dominated profession for so long, many of the policies, rules, and norms have developed accordingly. Making trucking a more appealing profession for women means questioning why things have always been a certain way and demonstrating a willingness to change them when needed.  

One of the biggest differences between male and female drivers is their reason for turnover. While men cite home time as the top reason, women cite a few others. Women were most concerned about the quality of equipment, the issue of safety, and poor relationships with coworkers. Let’s see how carriers can address these one at a time.

2. Equipment

The concern that female truck drivers have over equipment is two-fold. First, consider the ergonomics of a standard semi-truck cab. Generally, they’re built to fit the physical size of a larger man. It can be difficult for some women to reach the controls or get the seats adjusted into a comfortable position while keeping their feet on the pedals.  

How well the truck cab will fit an average female physique will impact whether women drivers will feel comfortable on the job. Luckily, there are manufacturers who make specialized seats for women truck drivers that fleets can invest in. 

Secondly, there’s the issue of truck maintenance. Women drivers want equipment that they can count on, so that they aren’t left on the side of the road by themselves waiting for maintenance. While no driver enjoys having that happen, it’s especially important for women drivers to avoid these situations. For them, it’s not only an inconvenience, but a dangerous situation to be in, especially at night. 

Apart from investing in newer and better equipment, carriers can also purchase fleet amenities, or make mechanical adjustments to the cabin to better accommodate female drivers. Carriers can also either provide simple mechanical training to female drivers or offer that company mechanics will always walk them through any troubleshooting in the form of real-time roadside assistance.

3. Safety

The issue of safety is one that female truck drivers of all ages and backgrounds are aware of. Safety from physical harm or the threat of sexual violence is important for all women but affects female truck drivers in unique ways.  

A truck driver’s lifestyle is in constant flux since they are always on the road. Female truck drivers may find themselves in unsafe or uncomfortable situations at truck stops, or shipper/receiver locations. Women in Trucking has been working with several truck stops to make them more friendly to women drivers. Carriers can also aid in this effort by pointing out which truck stops are safest, and which should be avoided.

4. Pro-Woman Culture

Women also tend to leave carriers for reasons related to poor company culture. For all drivers, relationships with dispatchers and management are very important, but this is especially true for female drivers. Women stay longer if they have a good relationship with their dispatcher but will leave quickly if that relationship becomes difficult or strained. Similar difficulties may arise with others such as shippers, receivers, fellow drivers, and even recruiters.  

The problem is that the culture of the workplace isn’t friendly to the wants and needs of female drivers. The good news is that carriers can lead the way in changing the culture, improving workplace relationships, and making women feel more accepted. 

But what does having a “pro-woman” culture mean? One example would be offering generous maternity leave. If the carrier you work for has historically only hired male drivers or older female drivers, maternity leave is something that you may not have thought about before. If your carrier is looking to attract younger female drivers, consider upping the amount of maternity leave your carrier offers and making that known in your job descriptions.  

Another example of creating a pro-woman culture would be pairing new female drivers with other women drivers during training. This creates a comfort level that is helpful to integrate them into the job. 

Similarly, carriers can create a social group for female drivers to share advice, feedback, and advocate for their concerns.

 Small steps like these are not just a good marketing move for carriers, but also signal to the industry and other women that you’re serious about hiring more female truck drivers, changing the culture, and making women feel welcome in trucking. 

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 Things Wrong With Your Truck Driver Advertising (And How to Fix Them)

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truck driver advertising

Nine times out of ten, the recruitment process starts with advertising your jobs to truck driver candidates. With a tight labor market and high turnover across the trucking industry, carriers are starting to put an increased emphasis on this first part of the process. 

This issue is that many carriers either don’t advertise their jobs aside or have a dated advertisement process that isn’t bringing in the quality drivers they’d like. Here are 5 things wrong with your truck driver advertising and how to fix them.  

1. Not Including Driver Testimonials

You’ve boasted about your carrier’s benefits and perks on every possible advertising channel, but still aren’t getting many leads. Meanwhile, a competitor spends less on advertising but has stronger recruiting. What’s going on here? Most likely, they’re using driver testimonials are you’re not.  

A driver testimonial is a short video or quote from a driver where they talk about what they enjoy about working for your carrier. What makes these so important? Think about it from a driver’s perspective. Who are they more likely to believe: a fellow driver or a company? 

Peer recommendation is one of the strongest factors that can influence human behavior. That’s why your truck driver advertising should consistently include driver testimonials. These could be as simple as gathering quotes from your current drivers about why they like working for your carrier, or it can be as ambitious as compiling a short video of your drivers speaking freely on what they enjoy about the job.  

Here’s an example of a testimonial that shows some of the reviews that drivers left after using Drive My Way 

Aside from increasing the effectiveness of your job ads, driver testimonials can be used to build trust with drivers and leave you with a positive reputation. 

2. Using Only Print Media for Advertising

It’s not breaking news that print media is on the decline. While ads in newspapers and magazines may have been the primary advertising channel decades ago, readership has gone down significantly.  

While print media isn’t entirely dead, digital is definitely king now. If your carrier is still using print media as your main channel for job advertising, your first priority should be adjusting your advertising budget and resources accordingly.

3. Heavy Information Dumping

You’ve seen these ads everywhere: Ones with 20-30 bullets listing out every facet and minute detail of a job. But the more information available for prospective hires, the better, right? Think again. In that very early stage of the job search, driver candidates are usually just looking for a few pieces of key information so they can decide if they want to learn more about the position.  

While it’s important to make sure you’re including the most important information in your advertising, don’t make the mistake of clogging the ad with everything you can think of. Keep the most important information like CDL / endorsement requirements, pay, and route at the top of the ad and include details on benefits and equipment below.  

Take a look at our Truck Driver Job Description Template for more details on how to optimize the copy of your job ads.  

4. Not Utilizing Social Media

To simply call social media popular anymore is a gross understatement. It’s become so entwined with people’s lives that we almost can’t imagine life without it. This is why it’s important for carriers who are looking to reach more drivers through their job ads to build up a presence on these social media sites.  

But what does posting memes and pictures of your company events have to do with reaching more driver candidates? Think of it this way. A carrier that has built up a following of 3,000 drivers through their social channels can post a job ad and have it reach 3,000 drivers without spending a dime. For a carrier with no social media presence to get that kind of reach would cost serious money.   

For more information on how to build up your carrier’s social media presence, you can visit our blog on the subject.  

5. Not Partnering with a Job Distributor

Where the ad is placed is just as important as how it’s written. With hundreds of job boards and social media channels out there, it can be a pain to know where your time and resources are best spent to reach the drivers you’re looking for.  

Partnering with a recruiting platform like Drive My Way is the perfect way to get your jobs in front of qualified driver candidates.  We create customized advertising campaigns that reach drivers in the right place and the right time. Just like we did with Button Transportation, a family-owned and operated trucking company in California, that hired 10 new drivers within the span of just two months.   

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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3 Reasons Truck Drivers Leave CDL Trucking Jobs

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why truck drivers leave

Carriers across the country are dealing with high turnover for CDL drivers. While the problem isn’t as severe as some news outlets would have you believe, truck drivers are leaving jobs (or the industry altogether) at a higher-than-average rate.  

Carriers are spending effort, time, and money to attract drivers who may only stay with their carrier for a few months. For many of these carriers, the most frustrating part is not knowing why these drivers are leaving positions so quickly. Here are 3 of the biggest reasons that truck drivers are leaving CDL jobs.  

1. Pay and Benefits

It’s no surprise that pay and benefits are the biggest reason that truck drivers leave one position for another. Carriers are finding that they need to go above and beyond from a compensation and benefits perspective, as offering the industry average simply isn’t cutting it anymore. 

In addition to offering higher pay and better benefits, many carriers have also tried adding a large sign-on bonus to the offer to attract truck drivers. However, many of these carriers have found that offering a large sign-on bonus might attract truck drivers up front, but lead to low driver retention down the line. 

This is due to the mentality of some truckers staying long enough to collect the bonus, then transitioning to the next company offering the same large check. 

The best thing that carriers who are serious about driver retention can do is offer compensation above industry averages for their geographic area, and couple that with a generous benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, and even life insurance. These long-term benefits are what make many drivers stay at a carrier for a long time.  

2. Empty Promises

Carriers who over-promise and under-deliver are finding that that model for attracting drivers is no longer solid. Truck drivers have more options than ever before when it comes to which carrier they can drive for, so being honest and transparent are the best things carriers can do during the interview and hiring process if they want to recruit top talent.  

Employers who are transparent in nature with pay, benefits, job role, home time, etc. often reap the benefits. They may see more sustainable driver retention than those who exaggerate in a job description to get drivers in the door.  

In addition, if the truck drivers trust the organization, they won’t be shy to share this approval with their network. This can lead to an increase in driver referrals and a positive company culture that drivers will flock to.

3. Bad Dispatchers

As the saying goes, employees don’t leave the company. Employees leave the people at the company. If a truck driver finds themselves working with a dispatcher they truly dislike, it won’t be long before they start looking for a different opportunity. 

Why do drivers care so much about their dispatchers? The dispatcher is the primary representative for the company, and sometimes, a trucker’s only contact. Companies that spend time carefully matching dispatchers and drivers may see increased driver retention. Instead of randomly assigning drivers to dispatchers, factor in personality types, leadership styles, etc., and you will oftentimes see better relationships form and higher driver retention rates as a result.  

Another tip is to not wait for issues to arise, but instead be proactive and squash them before they happen. Carriers can do this by regularly collecting feedback from drivers about their dispatchers. You may find that multiple drivers have the same complaint about a certain dispatcher, which can help you to address the issue before drivers start leaving. 

Overall, the key to avoiding drivers from leaving your carrier is to remember that this is a driver’s market.  Focus on putting truckers first and remain transparent with job requirements. Offer competitive pay and benefits to continuously stand out against the competition. 

Comprehensive CDL Recruitment Solutions

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

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10 Fleet Amenities to Help Attract Truck Drivers

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semi truck amenities

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

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

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

Benefits of Offering Semi-Truck Amenities

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

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

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

10 of the Best Semi Truck Amenities

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

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

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

Comprehensive CDL Recruitment Solutions

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

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5 Tips to Recruit Millennial Truck Drivers

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

1. Advertise to Millennials on Social Media

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

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

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

2. Streamline the Application Process

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

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

3. Prioritize Work-Life Balance

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

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

4. Highlight Wellness Initiatives and Benefits

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

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

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

5. Showcase Company Culture

tuition reimbursement

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

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

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

ultimate guide to truck driver recruiting

Ultimate Guide to Truck Driver Recruiting

Current ways of recruiting truck drivers just don’t work anymore. That’s because recruiting isn’t a transaction. This ultimate guide helps carriers recruit for retention.

Get the Ebook

How the Semi Truck Shortage is Affecting Truck Driver Recruiting

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semi truck shortageIn the trucking industry, we hear a lot about a shortage of truck drivers and how that’s to blame for a lot of the logistics holdups our country is facing. While hiring and retaining truck drivers is definitely an issue that a lot of carriers are facing, there’s another that’s proving to be just as much of an obstacle; a shortage of semi-trucks.  

Why is There a Truck Shortage?

semi-truck shortageIf you’ve tried to buy a personal car, pick-up truck, or SUV in the past two years, you’re probably aware of the microchip shortage that the auto industry is facing. Unfortunately for fleet managers and would-be owner operators, this is an issue for the trucking industry as well.  

The problem is that there’s a shortage of the microchips that go into almost all consumer and commercial vehicles. These microchips are used to control important vehicle functions including everything from air conditioning to lane assist features.  

During the Covid-19 pandemic when lockdowns were initiated, people started driving less and staying in more, and using personal electronics like phones, tablets, and laptops. The factories that create these microchips started pumping out more and more of these personal electronic microchips while slashing the number of automotive microchips they made.  

Fast forward to today and the demand for new vehicles has returned to pre-pandemic levels. Lockdowns are over and the pandemic overall is pretty much in the rearview mirror in the United States.  

Unfortunately, these microchip factories haven’t caught back up with production of automotive microchips. Thanks to a huge number of factors including incentive to produce more profitable microchips for 5G smartphones, energy usage regulations, and strict ZERO Covid policies still being implemented in China, microchip production is still slowed.  

How is the Semi Truck Shortage Affecting the Trucking Industry?

The two main groups being affected by the semi-truck shortage are fleet managers and owner operators. Owner operators eager to either buy their first truck or upgrade to a new one are finding it hard to do so with limited inventory and skyrocketing prices for both new and used trucks. Many dealers across the U.S were sold out of semi-trucks by the end of January this year. 

Some fleet managers and recruiting teams are getting to the point where they can’t expand the way they’d like to because they’re not able to acquire the trucks they need.  

Jason Kent Crowell

Jason Crowell, Director of Recruiting, CCT

Jason Crowell, Director of Recruiting with Drive My Way client, Custom Commodities Transport is one such person affected by the trucking shortage.  

“We were getting very close to having to stop advertising our jobs because of the semi-truck shortage. Luckily, it didn’t come to that. It’s definitely a very interesting time for the salespeople, the operations people, and certainly for the recruiters.” 

What Can Recruiters Do?

The best thing recruiters can do is nurture the relationships they’ve built with driver candidates even if they don’t have the trucks to put them in right now.  

“What we’re having to do is nurture some of those relationships that our recruiters are making a bit longer, because we may not have the truck capacity at the moment to hire them even if they’re a good fit for us.” – Jason Crowell, Director of Recruiting, Custom Commodities Transport

While it’s not the ideal situation, continuing to check in with quality driver candidates by maintaining regular touchpoints will give recruiters a better chance of landing them once their fleet has the capacity to bring them on.  

Will the Truck Shortage End Soon?

Some reports say that microchip production is ramping back up, but not to the levels we saw pre-pandemic. 

There’s some speculation that even when the supply chain for microchips returns to normal, we still won’t be seeing full lots of semis like we did in years past. Why?  

Through this ordeal, auto manufacturers have learned It’s more profitable and efficient to build only what’s needed instead of having huge numbers of trucks shipped out that may sit on the lot for months. 

The best thing for fleet managers and owner operators to do is to assume this is the new normal for the time being and adjust their plans to purchase new semi-trucks accordingly.

There may be a time when microchip production increases and we have a surplus of semi-trucks readily available for purchase, but that unfortunately doesn’t look like any time soon.

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.

View the Case Study

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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3 Tips for Hiring Local Truck Drivers

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3 Tips for Hiring a Local Truck Driver

As a truck driver recruiter, it’s easy to fall into the mindset that all driver candidates have the same needs and wants. But, just like candidates in any industry, truck drivers are individually unique in what they want out of a job, what motivates them, and how they like to be communicated with.  

While it’s impossible to have a truly unique approach for every driver candidate you’ll encounter, you should be tailoring your recruitment experience based on whether the driver is looking for local work or OTR/Regional work.  

If you’re hiring for local positions, here are three tips to help you fill your fleet with quality drivers.

1. Talk About What Local Drivers Care About

local truck driver

Home Time

While many OTR drivers are drawn to the call of the open road, local truck drivers highly value home time. In fact, it’s one of, if not the biggest reason these drivers prefer to drive local.  

When hiring local drivers, clearly state up front and early in the job description the amount of home time that this position will afford. If you don’t, you run the risk of losing quality drivers, just because it wasn’t obvious enough that your job is for local drivers.  

Pay

Every driver wants to know about pay, local truck drivers included. As a baseline, your carrier should be offering compensation near or above the average for your area. If you’re not sure what that average is, look at some of your competitor’s job postings and go from there.  

Just like home time, share pay information clearly in your job description and in early conversations with prospective drivers. If your company pays hourly, include the average hours that drivers typically work weekly. If they receive overtime pay after 40 hours, share the rate.  

Similarly, if your company pays CPM, share the average miles drivers work per week. Then, drivers can decide whether the job is a good mutual fit before either side invests any more time.

CDL drivers are aware that driving local routes generally means less pay than driving OTR, but they still want to know what they can expect.  

2. Don’t Leave Out the Details

Schedule

Local truck drivers expect to be home every day. That’s the bare minimum. But it’s a good idea to include additional information about their schedule in the job description as well. 

Will they have weekends off? What time does the shift start? How long is the typical workday? Will the days off be consecutive? All these questions should be answered by your job description or during the first point of contact with the driver.  

Route

There can be a lot of variation in job type and responsibilities for a local truck driver. As a result, including more specific information can be a helpful recruiting tool. Will drivers be primarily on highways or surface roads? Will there be frequent stops on a typical route? Is there one dedicated customer or is it always changing? 

Customer Service

Another important thing to discuss with local drivers is the level of customer service. If there is a customer service component to the job, don’t just assume that the driver will be ok with that. While a lot of drivers may be, some chose this profession to avoid customer service, so it could be a deal breaker. 

Have a conversation about it early on in the recruitment process and consider offering specific customer service training to your drivers if you feel it’s necessary.  

Level of Touch

Regardless of the level of touch required for your local truck driver position, include details about it in your job description. Loading and unloading isn’t usually a dealbreaker for local drivers, but be upfront about it just in case it is.

3. Articulate Your Value

Employee Value Proposition

Your value proposition is what sets you apart from other similar companies. In short, why should drivers choose to work for your company over competitors? It is critical that you are able to identify and stick to this value.  

It’s what will help you attract new drivers and prevent losing current ones to competitors. Your value proposition can be anything from an above average pay rate, to weekends off, or a great company culture. It’s whatever makes your carrier different from carrier B, C and D.  

Health Benefits

Many local drivers are very family-oriented, so offering immediate medical insurance might be particularly valuable. Having a full benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, and prescription is a huge incentive in getting these drivers to come onboard.  

Company Culture

Since local truck drivers see their supervisors and colleagues more regularly, a good work environment and company culture can be particularly strong assets. 

Comprehensive CDL Recruitment Solutions

Ready to start recruiting the right local 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

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.

View the Case Study

 

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

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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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