Author: admin

How to Set Up Your Company for Recruitment Success

Posted on by admin

Today, drivers are more accessible than ever. You can reach drivers 24/7 because of the internet. So why is it that companies across the nation are struggling to recruit talent? The problem may be that companies are not setting up their recruitment team for success. In order to effectively find qualified drivers online your company needs to utilize digital marketing specialists. Either hire specialists in-house or work with an agency. Recruiters have enough to worry about, don’t put too much on their plate by expecting them to also become digital marketers. The more time recruiters spend online trying to implement digital marketing strategies, the less time they can spend recruiting. Here is how to set up your company for recruitment success.

Recruiters Need to Recruit!

Recruiters are intended to contact quality drivers, get them through orientation, and keep them in the company. Digital marketing should not be one of their responsibilities. Recruiter efficiency will be maximized in a system where they are provided a pool of warm leads. Then the recruiters can focus on phoning.

Kelly Anderson talks about distracted recruiters in his webinar, Latest Techniques for Finding & Recruiting Truck Drivers. Here he mentions that recruiters get distracted with finding drivers online and forget to call them. This leads to poor results.

If a recruiter is not on the phone trying to bring drivers into the door then they need to be focused on orientation, building trust with drivers, and retention. Articles by CDL Training Spot, and Tenstreet discuss what it takes to be a successful driver recruiter. Neither article mentions anything about learning digital marketing strategies that find qualified drivers online.

Every work related task that the recruiter does needs to be directly related to speaking with potential drivers, getting drivers through orientation, and retaining top talent. Anything else the recruiter does is not optimizing their time.

Team of digital marketers

Recruiters are NOT Digital Marketers

Recruiters should not have anything to do with implementing a driver focused digital marketing strategy. Digital marketing and driver recruiting are two fields that require an immense amount of time and attention to detail.

An effective digital campaign will involve technical strategies such as social media interaction, geofencing, mobile-first design, and building a recruitment landing page. Randall Reilly wrote an article on the Top Four Digital Trends for Recruiting Truck Drivers. According to the article the top trends are: mobile, social, video, and hot topics. Do you want your recruiters spending their days making videos and writing blog posts or contacting potential drivers?

Trying to recruit and market will lead to recruiters not doing either one particularly well. You do not want your recruiters to be a ‘Jack of All Trades, Master of None’. Set up an environment where recruiters can be master recruiters and another team can be master digital marketers.

Trucking companies need to setup an ecosystem where either an agency or an in-house team focus solely on digital marketing strategies that find qualified drivers. Then recruiters start smiling and dialing their way through that pool of drivers. Finally, the recruiters need to devote some time to orientation and retention. This system is how you set up your company for recruitment success.

You Need a Well Designed Recruitment Landing Page

Posted on by admin

One of the key messages that Driveteks conveys is the importance of your company’s web presence. Last week I watched Latest Techniques for Finding & Recruiting Truck Drivers,a webinar by Kelly Anderson and Matt Lee, and in it they discussed how important it is to have a well designed recruitment landing page. Boost your recruitment efforts with a well designed landing page. A landing page is the section of a website accessed by clicking a link on another web page. During your recruitment campaigns, the link you provide on your job posts will take applicants to your recruitment landing page. Implementing a well designed landing page will create a great first impression with applicants, provide the necessary information, and increase the number of applicants.

Team building a well designed landing page together

Nail Your First Impressions

The first thing drivers will do if interested in your job posting is click on the link to your website. That recruitment landing page is the first interaction your company has with potential drivers. Studies show that your landing page has 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression.

Driver applicants are going to click on your link, visit your landing page, and before reading a single word, make a judgement about your company based on the design of the page.

A well designed landing page will look good on a computer screen and a mobile device. If applicants are having a poor experience on your landing page then your recruiters are fighting an uphill battle.

Drivers that are impressed by your landing page will become excited about the possibility of working for your company. They will be happy to work with your recruiters. In some cases, a powerful landing page can inspire driver applicants to contact you about open positions!

The best way to ensure your company has a well designed landing page is by working with a design agency (preferably one that specializes in design for truck driver recruiting).

Provide Applicants With Information That Sells The Company

Few things are more annoying to a potential applicant than when they look for information beyond the job posting and they are unable to find any. The recruitment landing page is the ideal place to provide all of the position specific information an applicant may need.

Provide details such as pay, benefits, routes, etc., but also include information that will sell the applicant on the position. Include photos that show off where the driver will be based out of, the truck they may be driving, and employees that are happy to be at work.

Positive testimonials from current/former employees are another great source of information that will sell applicants on working for your company.

Place yourself in the drivers shoes, would you rather apply for a company that a) has a malfunctioning website b) shares basic facts about the position c) shares the basics along with high quality photos, a video, and strong testimonials?

Recruit like a marketer and implement a landing page that shares exciting information with driver applicants.

Watch as the Number of Applicants Climb

Drivers will research a company and position before they apply. If drivers have a strong first impression consuming information that sells the company then they are more likely to apply. The recruitment landing page will get the driver excited about the company. Then a carefully placed ‘call to action’ will encourage them to apply. Driveteks built a new website, including a recruitment landing page, for Nagle Trucks and this is what they had to say,

“Using Driveteks changed the way we utilize our website as a business and recruitment tool. Our website went from a site to store information to a tool for our business development and recruitment process. We went from having 1-3 candidates a week to 25-30 candidates a week.”

A well designed website and recruitment landing page drastically increased the number of applicants Nagle was receiving.

In today’s recruiting landscape, digital strategies are becoming more and more important. The recruitment landing page is one of the most critical elements to any recruiting campaign. A well designed recruitment landing page will create positive first impressions, share information that sells the position/company, and increases the number of applicants your job postings receive.

The Three Pillars to Driver Retention

Posted on by admin

Effective driver retention is key to operating a successful transportation company. The average cost to hire a truck driver is just under $8,000. Being able to keep drivers on staff and not leaving at the first opportunity will save your company thousands of dollars. There are plenty of articles that discuss different strategies to retain drivers, but driver retention truly boils down to three areas. I refer to these areas as the Three Pillars to Driver Retention. Think of a structure built on three pillars, it will stand strong in any circumstance. Knock down one of the pillars and the structure will still stand, however it will not be as strong. The same idea applies to driver retention. To be as effective as possible your company needs to excel at all three pillars, but if you can offer two of the three then your retention efforts will suffice. Only performing one pillar will result in a complete collapse. The Three Pillars to Driver Retention are: pay/ incentive programs, respect, and proper management.

Pay Your Drivers!!!!

According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook the median pay in 2018 for truck drivers was $43,680, or $21.00 per hour. $43,680 needs to be the minimum you are offering your drivers. If you think that you are saving the company money by lowering the drivers’ CPM, think again. Drivers are not afraid to leave your company for another that is hiring with higher pay. Every driver that leaves your company is another eight grand your company needs to spend to replace them.

If your company is small then it may not be able to afford to pay truckers top dollar. One way you can work around this is by offering high performance bonuses. Offer money to drivers who average a certain MPH, or who routinely arrive on time to drop off locations. All that matters with the performance bonuses is that the action needed to receive the bonus can be easily tracked by the company and the driver. Clear incentive programs will ensure the drivers are engaged and motivated to perform. The better your drivers perform, the more cash your company will bring in. This will allow you to afford paying the drivers the bonuses offered. It is critical that you never short change a driver on a bonus they have earned. Doing so will eliminate any trust built between the driver and company. Also, that driver will go on to tell all of their driver friends that your company does not value its drivers.

Treat Drivers Like Family, Not Employees

On the road, drivers are constantly dealing with unpleasant situations. Cars get annoyed any time a truck is in front of them. Unloading the truck can be a long process that the driver does not get paid for (if they are paid based on miles driven). Drivers will spend weeks away from their loved ones at a time. The last thing the driver wants to deal with is an ungrateful company. Your company needs to go out of its way to make the driver feel wanted.

“Employees who feel valued are more likely to be engaged in their work and feel satisfied and motivated.” – Christy Matta, M.A

Show the drivers you appreciate them by hosting driver appreciation celebrations, inform them about available opportunities within the company, take the time to ask how their family is doing. Imagine your child (substitute any family member if you do not have kids) works as a driver, how would you want them to be treated? The answer to that question is how you need to treat your drivers.

Employ Excellent Fleet Managers

The trucker – fleet manager relationship is a valuable one. A fleet manager that is bad at their job will raise frustration levels among all of the drivers. Experiencing delays due to the fleet manager’s mistakes will frustrate the drivers because it is costing them money. In addition to being skilled in the logistics of running a fleet, the fleet manager needs to be able to manage people. Like most people, drivers do not enjoy being bossed around and feeling like their concerns are not being listened to. A fleet manager should avoid telling the drivers what to do, but instead take the time to explain why the rules are in place and get the driver to follow the rules on their own accord. Also, the fleet manager needs to take the time to listen to the drivers. Drivers will often bring up valid issues or ideas that they experience while out on the road. Listening to the drivers will also make them feel like they are a part of the team.

Drivers are well aware that there is a shortage. If they do not like something about the current company they drive for it is not difficult to find a new employer. Failing to utilize at least two of the three pillars will cause your drivers to leave you for a company that does. To retain your drivers you must offer competitive pay and benefits, treat your drivers with the utmost respect, and employ skilled fleet managers.

How to Keep Drivers From Backing Out

Posted on by admin

Hiring qualified truck drivers is hard! That is no secret. Writing enticing job posts, getting drivers to apply, going through the interview process, offering the position, and putting the driver through orientation is a long and expensive process.

The average cost to hire a new driver is $8,612. As a recruiter, nothing is more deflating than going through 95% of the process only to have the driver bail. Unfortunately, this occurs far too often.  A survey conducted by Robert Half staffing agency shows that 28% of people admit to backing out of a job offer after accepting it. Here is how to keep drivers from backing out before orientation.

Offer Competitive Benefits, and Shout Them From the Rooftops

Many truckers feel that they are underpaid, overworked, and treated with little respect. This feeling is one of the driving forces behind the high turnover rate. If your company is offering benefits that are on the low side then drivers are likely to back out.

The Robert Half survey mentioned earlier found that of all the employees who backed out of an offered position, 44% of them did so because they received a better offer from another employer. Offering competitive benefits is only part of the equation.

As the recruiter it is up to you to make the benefits of the position abundantly clear. Handing the applicant paperwork that lays out the benefits is not enough. Repeatedly through the hiring process you need to highlight the benefits offered.

Get the applicant excited about the opportunity. If you do not ingrain the company’s benefits into the applicant’s mind you are leaving the door cracked for another company to use their benefits to lure the applicant away.

Slow Onboarding Speeds Increase Frustration 

A slow onboarding process can be frustrating for new hires. Being hired by a company  is an exciting moment for drivers. Either this is the driver’s first driving job, it is a second chance, or they are being hired for a position that better aligns with their personal needs.

However, a painstaking onboarding process can kill that excitement the driver felt when initially hired. Difficult paperwork, manually submitting documents, figuring out how to get to orientation, delayed drug tests, etc. are all headache inducing actions.

In addition to increasing the levels of frustration, a prolonged onboarding process increases the amount of time other companies have to lure your hire away from you. High levels of frustration combined with an extended amount of time for competition to poach your applicants is a recipe for disaster.

Tenstreet has some excellent tools for increasing the speed of your onboarding process.

frustrated driver on the verge of backing out of their new job

Personally Call Your Applicants at Each Step

In the past, we have written about the importance of calling leads immediately after they apply. Phoning does not lose its importance as the hiring process goes on. In fact, phoning becomes more important. You must be calling your applicants as much as you can.

By calling the driver you will establish a personal relationship with them. Drivers are less likely to back out on a job offer, even if presented with a better option, if they have a relationship with the recruiter. Applicants will feel loyal to you if you take the time and effort to build a relationship with them.

As a truck driver recruiter dealing with applicants backing out of a position is part of the job. That does not make it any less frustrating. By taking a few extra steps, you can keep drivers from backing out before orientation. Make sure the driver knows the company benefits, speed up your onboarding process, and build a personal relationship by calling the driver frequently.

Building Trust Into the Truck Driver Recruitment Process

Posted on by admin

It is no secret that there is a growing disconnect between drivers and recruiters. The feeling that recruiters will say anything to get drivers into seats is growing amidst drivers. You need to work on building trust into the truck driver recruitment process. When asked about their skepticism of recruiters a driver said,

“Because recruiters are in sales… they’re selling their employer’s driving positions to you…”

So the question stands, how do recruiters establish trust with applicants?

 

Self Reflect, Where is the Miscommunication Coming From?

Cartoon between cat and dog depicts business miscommunication

Recruiters that we have spoken to about mistrust claim that they do not intentionally lie to drivers. They say that miscommunications occur when the carriers pass information intended for the applicants through the recruiters. Similar to the game telephone.

A recruiter I spoke with on the topic said,

“Most of the ‘lying’ is actually miscommunication. Trucking has a lot of moving parts in real time and things change constantly and instantly.”

In order to buck this trend you must analyze your current flow of information and identify points where miscommunication can occur. Identifying these points will enable you to attack them head on.

Deploy Radical Transparency Through the Entire Recruitment Process

Ray Dalio popularized the term ‘radical transparency’ in his book Principles. In layman’s terms, ‘radical transparency’ is being transparent in every step of the process. This will improve overall efficiency and effectiveness.

Throughout the recruitment process, you need to be radically transparent at each step. Inform the applicant about the possible areas of miscommunication. This may seem counterproductive; however, doing so will lay the foundation for trust that a mutually beneficial relationship can be built on.

By laying this foundation of trust, we can then begin to build the type of relationship that will make the driver want to stay with the company. While reflecting on all the times they had been recruited a driver said,

“The only recruiter that was truthful with me was the one for the company I’m with now.”

In the case of this driver, all it took for the recruiter to earn the driver’s loyalty was for the recruiter to deploy radical transparency.

Go out of Your way to Initiate Communication

As the recruiter, it is up to you to communicate with the applicant where you are at each step of the hiring process. Never assume that the applicant has no questions or concerns simply because they have not directly asked you. By repeatedly reaching out to the applicant and providing them with updates and asking if they have any questions you are establishing yourself (and vicariously your company) as a trustworthy source. Frequently initiating communication with the applicant will build a stronger relationship and ensure that all parties are on the same page.

Make the Every Element of the Process Personalized for the Driver

Even in an industry where turnover rate hovers around 100%, switching employers is a big decision for drivers. In the initial interview with the driver, it is up to the recruiter to find out what is motivating them to switch carriers. Is it money? Is it home time? Does the driver’s current company not value its drivers?

By figuring out the driving force behind the driver’s desire to switch companies you are able to accurately assess if the position you are filling is a good fit for the driver. If the position is a good fit then you are able to solve the applicant’s biggest employment pains by hiring them.

Use this to your advantage. Inform the applicant that your position will alleviate the problems they are experiencing. Solving the driver’s biggest employment pains will earn their trust for as long as you were honest with them throughout the recruitment process.

Trust is an essential element to truck driver recruiting. Unfortunately the level of trust drivers have in recruiters is deteriorating, so you must actively work to earn that trust. Building trust into the truck driver recruitment process will help you earn the loyalty of drivers hired. Analyze your hiring process to minimize miscommunications, deploy radical transparency, initiate communication, and personalize the process in order to build trust into the truck driver recruitment process.

How to Strategize for Successful Driver Recruitment

Posted on by admin

Prior to launching a new campaign do you layout the terms of success? Or do you gauge success solely on number of drivers hired? If it is the latter then you may want to change your strategy. In order to improve the overall recruiting efforts of your company, it is crucial that each recruitment campaign has its own terms of success. Here is a guide to help you strategize for successful driver recruitment.

Your Company’s Values are the Base of all Decisions

Before you do anything, you need to know what your company’s values are. Does your company pride itself on hiring the best talent and a high retention rate? If so your recruitment efforts should prioritize quality over quantity. Or maybe your company is determined to be the most tech-savvy trucking company.

In this scenario your campaigns should revolve around utilizing new tech, such as geofencing, to hire drivers. Every company has its own unique set of values. It is up to the recruiter to use these values to guide each strategic decision they make.

Set Recruiting Goals That Align With Company Values

Once you have defined your values, you need to use them to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-based) goals for your campaign. Vague goals such as “hire as many drivers as possible” or “increase the number of hires found on Facebook” are not effective.

If you are working for a company that values family than an example of a SMART goal for your campaign may be, “Hire five married team drivers from employee referrals by the end of the month”. Combining your company’s values with the SMART technique you are able to write goals that motivates your staff and gives your efforts a stronger sense of purpose.

Also, by using clearly defined goals it is much easier to tell if you achieved your goal or not. “Hire as many drivers as possible” is an impossible target to hit; however, “hire five married team drivers from employee referrals by the end of the month” gives you a number to hit, using a certain technique, within a time frame.

SMART goals graphic

Analyze Data Directly Related to Your Recruitment Efforts

As a general rule of thumb the more data you can collect the better. However, if you are focusing on the wrong numbers then your insights will be mislead.

Uncle Ben’s advice from Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility,” holds true with data. With great amount of data, comes a greater emphasis to focus on the right data.

For example, a company that sets out to hire more female drivers from Facebook will be mislead if they looked at the data on total number of driver applicants from Facebook. The company may falsely claim their campaign was a success because the total number of Facebook applicants went up but female applicants did not increase.

DiscoverORG did a study in 2015 and found that the average marketing/sales department lost 550 hours and $32,000 per sales rep from using bad data. When question the data set you are looking at it is helpful to ask yourself, “Does this data directly relate to the company values?” and, “Does this data directly show I am short or exceeding my goal?”

If the answer to either of those questions is “no” or you are unsure, it is best to not use the data and focus on the data you can confidently answer “yes” to both of the questions.

Focus on Achieving Your Recruitment Goals

The goal you defined prior to launching your campaign should be your only barometer for success. It is easy to focus too much on following the “process” to achieve our goals. In Jeff Bezo’s 2016 Letter to Shareholders he said,

“The process becomes the proxy for the result you want. You stop looking at outcomes and just make sure you’re doing the process right. Gulp.”

You may have a goal of hiring 10 drivers via referral for the month. If you come up short, instead of claiming you had a good process and will do better next month, take the opportunity to assess your process and find areas to improve.

Learn From Mistakes and Apply That to Future Recruiting

Every recruitment campaign you launch is a learning opportunity. As the recruiter it is up to you to document the entire process and learn lessons based on what happens. You must use the lessons you learned from previous campaigns to avoid repeating mistakes and improve overall effectiveness of future campaigns.

Having a plan for achieving success is equally as important as having an effective recruitment plan. Defining you values, setting clear goals, avoiding bad data, focusing on outcomes, and learning from previous campaigns are all steps for achieving success. Even the most well thought out recruitment campaigns need  to strategize for successful driver recruitment.

The Importance of Mobile-First Recruitment

Posted on by admin

Truck driver recruitment is changing before our very eyes. In today’s trucking world drivers are checking job opportunities 24/7. Smartphone technology is the driving force behind this shift in trucking recruitment. This shift is causing recruiters to focus on the importance of mobile-first recruitment.

Mobile-first recruitment is the practice of combining mobile advertising and optimizing your website for mobile performance.

Mobile Devices are Taking Over Trucking

As a whole, the trucking industry is rapidly becoming more reliant on mobile devices. Both truckers and carriers believe mobile devices are a necessity in the industry.

In 2017, half of all drivers utilized their mobile device to communicate with dispatch. Gfk Public Communications conducted a study that found 61% of drivers would choose to own a smartphone if they were forced to pick between their phone and their computer. 92% of recruiters believe that a seamless mobile application process is mandatory.

It is evident that every aspect of the industry is shifting towards being reliant on mobile devices, but the question is why?

Carriers are deploying mobile devices in their trucks and having drivers download certain apps because of the real-time data they receive from these devices. In addition to drivers being easier to contact, the companies can track the drivers and measure their efficiency.

Also, training drivers to use mobile devices can save the company money. Mobile devices help drivers avoid driving through storms, traffic jams, etc.

Truck driver finds a new job on their mobile device

Mobile Devices Increase Efficiency for Carriers

Truckers are able to use mobile devices to help them professionally and personally.

OTR drivers are on the road, away from loved ones, for weeks at a time. Mobile devices make it possible for drivers to stay in touch with their friends and family when they are on the road.

In addition to being connected with the people they care about, truckers can download apps that help them with trip planning, finding truck stops, logbook functions, and much more.

Mobile devices keep truckers connected and make their jobs less stressful.

Recruiters rely on mobile devices because drivers are heavily using their mobile devices. Certain technologies (geofencing, social media, etc.) enable the recruiter to send recruitment ads to the mobile devices of specific demographics. Utilizing mobile first strategy allows recruiters to recruit the exact kind of driver they are looking for at a cost effective price.

Mobile First Strategies Improve Business

FleetOwner wrote a story on how U.S. Express improved its business simply by increasing the performance of their mobile site. Using Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), U.S. Express optimized its recruitment site’s mobile performance.

AMP increased the load speed for U.S. Express’ site by five times and increased job applications by 62%.

By increasing their mobile site’s performance, U.S. Express expects to save $1 million annually. They can use that to improve other aspects of their business.

U.S. Express simply improved their site’s mobile performance, had they paired that with a mobile based campaign they would have seen even greater results.

In 2019, 67% of drivers used their smartphones to look for new employment opportunities. By combining a mobile campaign with a site optimized for mobile performance, your company will place itself in front of drivers seeking a new position. Then enable them to seamlessly apply for your position.

As time goes on each aspect of trucking becomes more reliant on mobile technology. Carriers becoming more reliant on mobile technology will force their drivers to use their mobile devices more frequently. Drivers being on their mobile devices more frequently will cause them to look for better employment opportunities more often. It is a positive feedback loop.

Now, recruiters must capitalize on this trend by running recruitment campaigns built for mobile devices and have recruitment sites that are optimized to be used by a mobile device. Using a mobile-first recruitment strategy will increase the amount of applicants your company receives and improve your business.

Want help executing a mobile focused recruitment strategy? Call Drive Trucking today at (801) 204-5499!

Seasonality of Truck Driver Recruitment

Posted on by admin

There are four distinct seasons to the trucking season. The seasons in order are: slow season, produce season, peak season, and finally the holiday season. Knowing the seasonality of trucking provides key insights to understanding the seasonality of truck driver recruitment.

Season 1 Peak Recruitment Season

It is of the utmost importance that recruiters are allocating the majority of their efforts to bring in as many new hires as possible between January 1st – March 31st.

As of 2017 the average time to hire (in work days) for the transportation industry was 24.9 days. Knowing that the produce and peak seasons are around the corner, recruiters need to put their company in the best position possible to capitalize on these busy seasons.

If a recruiter slows down their efforts because it is the “slow season” for drivers then they are positioning their company to scramble through produce and peak season.

During the busy seasons every trucking company in the country will scramble to fill all of their trucks. The companies that utilized their time during the slow season will be the ones to successfully fill their trucks.

Season 2 Season of Shifting Gears

By the time April hits you should have the majority of your fleet filled. Due to things like the high turnover rate and challenges associated with finding qualified drivers, it is more than likely that you still have some trucks to fill. That is okay.

If you treated season one as the peak recruitment season then your company will be well equipped to tackle produce season.

Filling the fleet needs to remain your top priority. However, during this time it is important for you to begin allocating some time to driver retention. Competing trucking companies will start to realize that they are short drivers for the upcoming seasons and ferociously recruit.

As the pool of qualified shrinks your competition will look to poach your drivers.

Studies have shown that 70% of the global workforce are passive candidates. You need to begin retention efforts during season 2. If you don’t a large portion of your drivers will leave your for another one.

I recommend starting off this season focusing on recruitment, but then as each week passes by focus more on retention. Do this until you reach the point where your top priority is retaining your drivers.

Gear shifter of a semi-truck symbolizes season of shifting gears

Season 3 Retain, Retain, Retain Season

August through October is the most stressful time of year for drivers. At times it is going to feel like there is more units that need to be delivered than you have the capacity for.

That is okay, at this point you have worked your hardest to fill your fleet with qualified drivers and now your main focus needs to be retaining your talent.

Trucking companies that failed to properly recruit earlier in the year will now be desperate for drivers and will be allocating large amounts of resources to recruitment. You need to be prepared for the fact that your drivers are going to be tempted to join other companies.

If you do nothing to entice them to stay with you then the drivers will leave for another company. Here are some tips for driver retention:

  • Instead of paying per mile offer an hourly wage so drivers are paid for everything they do, like loading and unloading.
  • Offer significant performance bonuses during the peak months.
  • Make the drivers feel valued by having a company wide “Driver Celebration” day
  • Show you care about the drivers’ families by offering additional time off during the holiday season based on performance during the peak season.

It is important to note that despite your best retention efforts there will be drivers that leave the company. Make sure that you are still allocating about 20% of your time for recruiting new drivers during the retention season.

Season 4 Sourcing Season

Once Thanksgiving passes the industry slows down as people begin to take time off to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones.

Drivers are going to be more focused on their time off than finding a new job. You will be spending less time calling, meeting and interviewing candidates.

This downtime is an excellent opportunity for you to source prospects and build up your hiring pipeline. Find new groups to join on social media, iron out the details for a new referral program, and build out your contact list as much as possible.

The better job you do sourcing during Season 4, the more success you will have during the following year’s Peak Recruitment season. As mentioned above, a successful Season 1 is critical to a successful year.

Improving Driver Recruitment With a Faster Response Time

Posted on by admin

Digital marketing tools like geofencing, social media, SEO, etc. have enabled trucking companies to generate more applicants than ever before. However, the most important step in executing a successful campaign relies on technology that has existed since 1876, phoning. The rate at which recruiters are able to contact driver applicants has a direct correlation with improving your driver recruitment.

Slow Response Times Kill Your Recruitment Efforts

Forbes conducted a study of 10,000 businesses across multiple professions to see how effective they were at contacting internet leads and measure the results of contacting the leads.

On average it took businesses 46 hours and 53 minutes to pick up the phone to call a lead. Sales reps only attempted to get a hold of the lead 1.3 times before moving on. The study found that 71% of the leads generated were being wasted due to the slow response time.

One study conducted by Dr. James Oldroyd found some eye opening results:

  • The odds of contacting a lead are 100 times higher if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes.
  • The odds of qualifying a lead are 21 times higher if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes.

The moment a driver submits an application to drive for your company, a recruiter needs to be calling them. Every second that ticks by where a recruiter has not called the applicant the odds of hiring that driver diminish.

How A Quick Response Time Will Improve Campaigns

Think back to two days ago and I bet that you will struggle to remember everything that you did that day, let alone all the websites you visited. Drivers are the exact same way.

If your recruiters are taking the average amount of time (46 hours and 53 minutes) to call driver applicants, then chances are the applicant has forgotten about your company.

The applicant may remember applying for the position. However, they will have forgotten the information that made them want to apply.

By calling immediately after application the driver will still have all of your information fresh on their mind.

Also, a quick response time generates a “Wow Effect” with applicants. Place yourself in the driver’s shoes for a moment. You have applied to five trucking companies that are all claiming to value their drivers and take care of them more than the competition.

Four of the five companies take two days to call you about your application. One company called you within five minutes of submitting the application. Which company would you feel like wants you the most?

Applicants that receive a call immediately after submitting their application exhibit an emotional response. That emotional response creates a feeling like, “this is a company that truly wants me to be a part of their team.”

Tips for Decreasing Your Response Time

Hand starts stop watch to measure response time

Now that it has been proven how critical a fast response time is, you are now probably wanting to place a response system within your company to improve your response time. Here are some tips to help you:

  • Track your team’s response time: If you are not already tracking your response time then you must begin. This will give you a baseline to work from and enable you to prove you have made improvements to your response time.
  • Set goals: The ultimate goal for your team should be to respond in under five minutes of an application being submitted. However, if your response time is two days then it is unrealistic to expect your team to begin responding within five minutes. Start by trying to get the average response time down to one day, then twelve hours. Slowly work your way down to five minutes and then let your team know that five minutes is the expectation going forward.
  • Automation: Using a tool like Callingly to automate the response process is a sure way to improve response time. Callingly integrates with your website and will call your team as soon as a new lead comes in, routing the lead based on territory and schedule.

A fast response time is an essential element to any recruitment campaign. Slow response times are causing your recruitment campaigns to not be as successful as possible. By improving your response time you are bound to see more success with all of your recruitment campaigns.

Geofencing For Truck Driver Recruitment

Posted on by admin

Today’s technology enables recruiters to specifically target niche demographics of potential drivers. This heightened level of focus improves the effectiveness of recruitment campaigns. Geofencing for truck driver recruitment increases the focus of recruitment campaigns.

Restricting your ads to specific regions ensures that the people seeing your ads are involved in the industry, within your niche demographic, and in the vicinity that works for your company.

What is Geofencing

Geofencing is a location based advertisement strategy. It works by setting up a “geofence”, a virtual perimeter around the outside of a geographic area. Anyone who enters the perimeter receives the targeted ads.

Perimeters can be set up as a radius around a point or a predefined set of boundaries. Geofences can be placed around certain events, zip codes, specific buildings, etc.

By carefully placing geofences around areas where potential clients frequent your campaign ads are guaranteed to land in front of the eyes of the people who care. Hopefully the wheels are starting to turn and you can see how this strategy is highly effective when used properly.

Why Geofencing Works

If you do the due diligence to place geofences in the right place, then you will know exactly what kind of people are within the fence. With this knowledge you are able to build ads that cater specifically for the people in the geofence. Sending these curated ads out increases the level of engagement compared to other less focused paid media.

Considering 75 percent of job applications come via mobile phones, the more candidates that interact with the mobile ads you send them the more applicants you will get. Wayne Cederholm III, vice president of driver recruitment for C.R. England, is a big proponent of geofencing. Here’s what he said on the topic,

“There’s not a lot that differentiates these carriers, so the smallest thing can make a big difference.”

Another example of a company succeeding with geofencing is Parker Staffing Services. They saw a 40 percent increase in web traffic after they began using geofencing.

Arguably the most important thing that geofencing does is dramatically improve your ability to avoid wasting ad dollars on people outside the trucking industry. Attracting only those interested in trucking to your site decreases marketing expenditure and increases ROI.

Impactful geofencing strategies will attract droves of driver candidates to your site without having to increase marketing spend.

How to be Successful With Geofencing

Icon that depicts geofencing for truck driver recruitment.

The first thing that you must do for a successful geofence campaign is select where you want the campaign to take place. The location of the campaign must be based off of the type of candidate you are looking for.

Placing a geofence around truck stops is an excellent way to target drivers who work for another company and are considering switching companies. Another way to target drivers looking to switch companies is by placing geofences around other trucking companies’ property.

Target CDL schools if you want to attract brand new drivers.

Trucking conventions will be filled with new and experienced drivers so you should place a fence there.

Once you have chosen your location(s) the next step is to create content specifically curated for your niche. Experienced drivers are not going to respond to ads designed to recruit brand new drivers and visa versa. If you are targeting a womens trucking convention then your ads better depict women fulfilling the driver role.

It is easy to diminish your budget quickly if you are targeting ineffective areas. The best way to ensure success with geofencing is to know your audience and where you are targeting.