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6 Steps to Successfully Hiring Truck Drivers

Posted on November 16, 2020 by Jake Peters

Truck driver recruiting is a career that requires creativity, the ability to be a salesperson, and extreme dedication. Given the driver shortage and constantly changing industry, it is common for recruiters to feel like they have lost their “hiring touch”. If that sounds like you then follow this guide and you will reignite your hiring touch with the 6 Steps to Successfully Hiring Truck Drivers.

Generate awareness with paid advertising
Inform the driver with your website content
Get the driver to apply for your company
Call the driver ASAP after they apply
Ensure the driver attends orientation
Officially hire the driver

Two truck driver recruiters successfully hire a driver

Paid Advertising Generating Awareness

Launching a paid advertising campaign is the first step to hiring professional drivers. Paid advertising campaigns are the best way to generate awareness for your company within your desired driver demographic.

Paid advertising includes social media advertising, retargeting, geofencing, buying ads on Google, and much more. Each avenue of paid advertising works together to touch the driver during different use cases.

For example:

A driver may first come across one of your banner ads while they are surfing the web. This first touch doesn’t create much of an impact, but then while stopped at a truck stop a geotargeted ad pops up on the driver’s phone. They take more notice the second time but not enough to act.

Finally, while scrolling Facebook a driver testimonial comes across their feed. This interests the driver enough that they click on your Facebook page.

On your Facebook page, the driver consumes enough content they decide they want to learn even more about your company. So they go to visit your website.

It is important to note in this example that the driver never clicked directly on a paid advertisement to apply. Paid media rarely generates direct applications.

Instead, paid advertising is amazing at generating impressions for your company. In the example, the driver never would have known about the company if it were not for paid ads.

Website Content Informs Drivers

If your paid advertising campaign does what it is supposed to do, your website will be flooded with traffic. The majority of this traffic will be from drivers considering the idea of applying to drive for your company.

Think about the example above.

The driver in the example was exposed to enough paid advertisements that they took the next step and visited your website.

Now that they are on your website they still need to be convinced to apply to drive for your company. The reason they are on the site is to learn more.

Drivers are looking for content that tells them the logistics of the position (pay, route type, required certifications, etc.) and what it is like being an employee for your company.

The logistics of the position should all be covered in the job description. To show what it is like to be an employee for your company you need things like driver testimonials, write-ups on top-performing drivers, and messages from upper management on their views of the drivers.

Driver Submits an Application

At this point, you have made the driver aware that you are hiring and informed them about your company’s driver experience.

Assuming the content did its job, the driver will click on your CTA and apply to drive for your company.

The most important thing with this step in the process is to make your application quick and easy to submit. A complicated application form can deter drivers from applying.

Job resume document out from laptop. Hands holding cv resume papers. Human resources management concept, searching professional staff, work. Found right resume.

Recruiter Calls the Driver ASAP

Just because the driver applies to your company does not mean they are completely sold on being employed by you. Plus, they are often applying to multiple companies at once.

If you take too long to call the driver, you are going to lose them to another company.

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

Use software like Zappier to notify you of the moment an application is submitted. The moment you receive the notification call the driver.

You are far more likely to get a hold of the driver, verify their credentials, and get them to commit to your company before another company does.

Recruiter gets the Driver Through Orientation

Truck drivers are constantly being sent new job opportunities. They are in a position where their skills are in high demand.

It is very common for a driver to apply, accept a job offer, and then take a different job for another company before making it through orientation.

Truck driver recruiters can not lose contact with the driver once they get a commitment. It is up to the recruiter to do whatever it takes to get that driver through orientation and officially hired.

The Driver is Officially Hired

The final step in the recruiting process is officially sending the driver off on their first run for the company.

However,

The driver recruiter should never stop recruiting drivers hired.

Considering the driver shortage, there is no guarantee that a hired driver will last long with your company. Recruiters should take it on themselves to value the drivers and make them want to stay with the company over others.

Awareness, content consumption, application, direct contact, orientation, and officially hitting the road are the 6 steps to successfully hiring truck drivers. Keep in mind that it is rare for a driver to go through all 6 steps in order. Most people will go through steps 1-4 multiple times.

The Basics of Social Media Marketing for Trucking Companies

Posted on November 9, 2020November 9, 2020 by Jake Peters

Social media marketing has become more popular than television advertising for businesses. However, there are not many resources that teach transportation companies how to market their company on social media. Follow this guide to learn the basics of social media marketing for trucking companies.

Start With Facebook and Expand to Other Platforms

Facebook is by far the most useful social media platform for trucking companies. The platform provides carriers with the ability to post multiple forms of content that share the company’s story.

Other platforms (Instagram, Twitter,etc.) all specialize in one area of content. Instagram is for visual content. Twitter is for short-form written content. If you start on a platform other than Facebook then you will limit the amount of content you can create.

Here is the real benefit to Facebook:

Facebook is a top-three cost-per-hire driver recruiting strategy.

By effectively marketing your company on Facebook, you will attract quality drivers to apply for your company. Considering that over 96% of professional drivers have a Facebook account, the pool of drivers using Facebook will never run dry.

Truck drivers that are interested in working for your company, no matter where they are exposed to your company, will search for your company on Facebook. They want to know what it is like to work for you before they apply.

Facebook is the most important platform when it comes to social media marketing for trucking companies. Starting on the platform will enable you to effectively tell your company’s story and recruit truck drivers.

Build Your Company Page

Now that you have decided to begin your social media marketing campaign on Facebook, you need to build your company page. This is the page that drivers will land on when they search for your company.

Visit this link to get started building your page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/create

Facebook does an excellent job of walking you through each step of the process. It will be clear what information is needed for the page and what content you need to publish.

However, certain strategies will further optimize your page.

To have an optimized Facebook page you need to keep things as simple as possible. Instead of describing your company in length with words, use pictures.

Keep your company description succinct and make sure that you link to your company website.

Join the Right Groups With Your Page

After you finish creating your company page you can join Facebook groups with your page. You do not need to join the groups with your personal account.

Go to the search feature on Facebook, type in “ trucking”, and filter to only see groups. You will quickly realize there are thousands of trucking-related groups across the country.

Go through all of the groups and join the ones that make sense for your company to join.

When you join a new group make sure to read the group rules so you can avoid being kicked out of any of the groups you join.

Creating Content for Social Media

For a more in-depth content creation guide check out this article: https://driveteks.com/guide-to-content-creation-for-driver-recruitment/

Content creation is what will motivate drivers to learn more about your company and potentially apply to drive for you.

You need to create content that people can read, photos/infographics, and videos. Creating different forms of content allows drivers to engage with your company any way they wish.

Not all of the content you create should be sales content. You need to create content that your target market will find interesting. Your content will lure people to your page and/or website where they will then consume your sales content.

Gathering Followers

The more followers you have the better. Your published content will reach more eyes for free as your following grows.

As you publish your content keep track of which people are interacting with it. These are the people that will be most likely to follow you. You should reach out to them and encourage them to follow your page.

Another great way to grow your following is by highlighting individuals that work for or with your company in an occasional post. The individuals you highlight will want to share the post about themselves and will expose you to all of their friends.

Finally, you should ask your current employees to follow your company.

Paid Advertising

Doing everything above will help your company get started on social media; however, to experience success you need to implement paid advertising.

Each of the social media platforms makes large sums of money from ad-buying. Because of this, their algorithms are built so that companies have a limited reach with free posting. They have built a product that requires paying for a large amount of exposure.

Paid advertising on social media is a complicated process. If you do not do it properly, your company will waste their money on an inefficient campaign. Done the right way, a paid advertising campaign will boost your web presence which increases site traffic and drive applications.

It is recommended you hire a professional to handle the campaign due to the complications of paid advertising.

Social media marketing is a necessary element of any business marketing strategy. Trucking companies need to take a different approach than other industries because of the nature of the industry. Follow this guide and you will cover all the basics of social media marketing for trucking companies.

5 Tips to Get Truck Drivers to Engage With Your Content

Posted on November 2, 2020November 2, 2020 by Jake Peters

Content creation has always been an essential element of recruiting truck drivers. In the past trucking companies would create newspaper ads and radio advertisements. Today, recruiters need to be creating content that engages truck drivers online.

This is the question:

How can you get prospective drivers to interact with the content you work hard to create?

Here are the 5 tips to get truck drivers to engage with your content:

Create Different Kinds of Content
Create Content That Interests Drivers
Post Content Where the Drivers Already Are
Invite Drivers to Follow You
Pay to Play

Create Different Kinds of Content

Everyone on the planet enjoys consuming content differently. Some people like to read, some enjoy infographics, and others love videos. Depending on the scenario an individual is in, their preferences may be completely different than what is normal.

Truck drivers are the same way. Each of them enjoys uniquely consuming content.

To get drivers to engage with your content, you need to cover all of your bases. You need to be creating content that drivers can read, view, watch, and listen to.

cartoon person creating different kinds of content

Create Content That Interests Drivers

It is tempting to focus solely on creating content that persuades drivers to work for your company. However, this is not a good strategy if you want drivers to engage with your content.

If all you are posting is content that tries to recruit drivers they will quickly begin to ignore your posts. You need to create content that will provide value to drivers other than introducing them to your company.

An example of a trucking company creating content that interests drivers is Driveteks’ client, Wave Express. They frequently post about things like driving safe in the winter, avoiding tired driving, and best road trip snacks.

Effective backlinking strategies will encourage drivers to click from your non-recruiting content to your recruiting content. Think of the non-recruiting content as a lure that brings drivers to your site. Once on your site, they are more perceptive to your recruiting content.

Post Content Where the Drivers Already Are

If you have not posted much content online in the past then chances are your company has a very small following, if at all. Growing an online following takes a lot of time and diligence.

Fortunately, there are already groups built for you filled with your target demographic. Find as many as you can and join them.

Posting interesting content to social media groups filled with truck drivers will immediately kick start your company’s web presence.

Invite Drivers to Follow You

Once you begin posting in trucking groups and are getting truck drivers to engage with your content you need to invite them to follow you.

This can mean asking them to follow your social media, subscribe to YouTube, signup for emails, etc.

Nearly every piece of content you publish should have some reminder (that is not annoying) to follow your company.

The larger your following is, the more prospective drivers you will be able to reach for free. Plus, if people go out of their way to follow you, that means they like your company. It will be easier to convince these drivers following you to apply to work for your company.

Excited man inviting the reader

Pay to Play

As frustrating as it is, paid advertisements are the best way to get your content in front of as many eyes as possible.

Facebook and other platforms make a lot of money from advertisements. It makes sense that they would build an algorithm that limits exposure for free content and encourages paid advertising.

Working with a trucking company advertising agency will ensure that your ad spend is being used optimally. You will not waste money on ineffective advertising. The money you spend will generate the maximum amount of impressions, clicks, and engagement.

Without content, it is nearly impossible to recruit truck drivers. Content creation is useless if potential drivers are not interacting with it. There is much more to engagement than simply posting the content. Follow these 5 tips and you have potential drivers interacting with your content in no time.

The Best Truck Driver Recruiting Strategy

Posted on October 26, 2020October 26, 2020 by Jake Peters

As a small to midsize carrier you more than likely have grown accustomed to the fact that large carriers have their pick of the litter. Small to midsize carriers are forced to fight over the remaining drivers. What if I told you it did not have to be that way? In order to compete with the large carriers you need to implement the best truck driver recruiting strategies:

Guerilla Driver Recruitment

What is Guerilla Driver Recruitment?

No, guerilla driver recruitment is not the act of training great apes to get their CDL A license.

Guerilla recruiting stems from the term ‘guerilla marketing’ coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book Guerilla Marketing. Guerilla marketing is a marketing strategy that relies on surprise/unconventional interactions with potential customers to promote a company.

Traditionally, guerilla marketing campaigns have a smaller budget and focus on a smaller set of people than widespread media campaigns.

Building off this, guerilla recruiting is the truck driver recruiting strategy that involves your company surprising potential drivers with unconventional interactions that leave a positive impression.

Guerilla driver recruiting requires a smaller budget than traditional widespread recruitment efforts common amongst large carriers.

Guerilla Recruiting

Why is it Such an Effective Driver Recruitment Strategy?

Executed properly, guerilla driver recruiting efforts will spread via word of mouth which reaches a broader audience for free. Ideally, the truck drivers you interact with will be so pleasantly surprised that when they see their driver friends the first thing they will say is,

“You are never going to guess what happened to me today…”

Drivers are naturally hesitant to truck company advertising; however, they are far more receptive when learning about a company for the first time from one of their peers. Word of mouth will encourage drivers to search for your company and interact with your driver recruiting website.

In addition to word of mouth, guerilla driver recruiting campaigns have the possibility to go viral. A viral campaign will boost your company brand and have drivers talking about your company all over social media. Social media, particularly Facebook, is one of the best places to recruit truck drivers.

How to Execute a Guerilla Driver Recruiting Campaign

Guerilla driver recruitment campaigns require an immense amount of insight and creativity. Before you can catch truck drivers off guard with a surprise interaction, you need to understand how recruiters typically reach truck drivers. Ask yourself:

Where are drivers expecting to see recruiting campaigns?

The answer to that question will tell exactly where to NOT promote your company. For example, drivers are expecting to see your job ad in trucking Facebook groups, so posting within groups cannot be a part of your guerilla recruiting strategy.

However, are drivers expecting you to direct message them with a $20 Amazon gift card? Probably not.

If you google ‘guerilla marketing’ or ‘guerilla recruiting’ you will come across extravagant examples from companies going over the top. You do not need to do this. Extravagance makes execution much more difficult.

K-I-S-S. Keep It Simple Stupid.

Hand drawing a business concept about the process from vision through strategy and execution to success.

In order to execute a guerilla driver recruiting campaign you need to figure out a simple way to reach drivers in an unexpected way. Examples can include sending gift cards, providing food at truck stops, and much more. The possibilities are limitless.

Large carriers have recruiting budgets that allow them to reach any driver they want whenever they want. In order to compete with them small to midsize carriers need to be creative and use their smaller budgets to pleasantly surprise drivers. Guerilla driver recruitment is the best truck driver recruiting strategy because it enables smaller companies to compete with the big ones.

5 Steps to Recruiting Truck Drivers on Facebook

Posted on October 16, 2020October 16, 2020 by Jake Peters

Over 96% of professional drivers have a Facebook account. Truck drivers love using Facebook because it enables them to stay connected with fellow drivers and loved ones while they are on the road. Because of the large number of drivers using Facebook, the platform is one of the greatest sources of driver recruits. Here are the 5 steps to recruiting truck drivers on Facebook.

Build Your Company Page

The first thing you need to do before you start recruiting truck drivers is to build your company’s Facebook page. Drivers that are interested in working for you are going to search for your company on Facebook. Building a Facebook page ensures that you will be found by drivers.

Your company page needs to share the most relevant information about your company and tell the story of what it is like to work for your company.

Relevant information includes: company name, location, website, and a succinct description. Provide enough information for drivers to know who you are and become interested enough that they visit your website.

Tell the story of working for your company through your posts. Any driver celebration you conduct, company wins, driver testimonials, etc. need to be documented and posted to your page. Photos and videos are typically more effective than posts containing solely text.

Once you have your company page built you need to encourage all of your employees to follow the page. The more that people interact with your content, the more that the Facebook algorithms will blast your content out to people. This is free exposure, but you need to earn it with quality content.

Join the Right Groups

The Groups feature on Facebook is one of the best tools for connecting with truck drivers. There are groups dedicated to connecting drivers with recruiters across the country. Also, there are more geo focused groups to help drivers find jobs in your area. Take the time to do your research and join all groups relevant to your company.

Posting in groups enables you to reach a large amount of truck drivers for free. Because this strategy is so cost effective it is hyper competitive. Competing companies are going to be flooding the groups with their job postings.

In order to combat the competitiveness of groups you simply need to be more active than everyone else. This means doing more than posting your job ads. You need to like other people’s posts, comment, share informative content, and do your best to build relationships. Doing this will make it so that drivers look specifically for your posts.

The Science Behind Posting

There is a common misconception with Facebook that all you need to do is post your content and all of your followers will see it. Facebook’s algorithms are far more complex than that. The algorithms build individual feeds for every user and only show them the content users will interact with.

It does not matter how many followers you have if you are posting poor quality content. Everything from font color, time of day, device optimization, and much more effect whether your posts are seen by followers. Posting is a science.

In order to perfect the science behind your posts, you need to be running A/B tests. Create different posts that are designed to test one specific variable. For example, one post may have red font and the other has blue. Publish those posts so that different drivers see them and see which perform the best.

After conducting multiple tests you will begin to figure out what post characteristics work the best. It is important to keep running tests because the algorithms are updated constantly. Also, the tests build on one another making each post better than the last.

Facebook Paid Advertising

There is no getting around having to pay for advertising when recruiting truck drivers online. Facebook is no different. You are going to need to pay to get your recruiting advertisements in front of the eyes of drivers.

Paid advertising on Facebook is the only way to guarantee that drivers will see your job openings. The Facebook algorithms make it so that non-paid posts have a limited reach. Facebook wants your money so they have built a platform that requires you to pay them.

Paid advertising is going to ensure that professional drivers see your company every time they open Facebook. This will keep your company on their mind and when drivers go to look for a new job they will search for your company.

Consistency Is Key

The most important thing to recruiting truck drivers on Facebook is to be consistent. You will not see results if you are super active on the platform one month and then absent the next month. The longer you are consistent on the platform the stronger your brand image will be.

Tools like Hootsuite make it easier to post consistently. With Hootsuite you are able to write out multiple posts at one time and then schedule when those posts will be published. Some companies will schedule posts months out in advance and others like to take it week by week.

Considering that over 96% of company drivers have a Facebook account, of course you need to be recruiting truck drivers on the platform. Facebook is the place for you to reach potential drivers and share your company’s story in real time. Follow this guide and your company will know how to recruit truck drivers on Facebook.

Wave Express Offers the Ultimate Side Hustle

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Jake Peters

Do you own a pickup truck? Do you like to travel? Do you want to get paid to drive around the country in your pickup truck? Then Driveteks’ new client, Wave Express, offers you the ultimate side hustle to put some extra money into your pockets. Or, if you enjoy it enough, you can turn it into a full time job.

Make Real Money

It is often questioned whether or not other side hustles pay you enough money for your time. Not with Wave. Driving for Wave Express gives you the opportunity to earn meaningful money.

Wave’s current pay rate offers up to $1.80/mile. That rate is significantly higher than a rideshare driver (Uber and Lyft) who makes around $1.00/mile. Considering Wave’s rate of $1.80/mile you can earn over $125,000 a year!

Even if you are only able to drive part time you can earn over $55,000 per year. The beautiful thing about driving for Wave is that you decide when you want to drive. There is no forced freight.

See The Country

Road trips are expensive. The average cost of a road trip across the country is about $2,500. However, when you are being PAID to take the road trip, road trips are not expensive.

If you want to experience more of North America, why not sign up for Wave and make money doing so? You have the option of seeing the country part time or you could even leave that desk job to see the country as a full time profession.

Having no forced dispatch means you get to decide how much of the country you want to see each week!

Road trip to see the country plotted out with pushpins on a map

No CDL Required to Transport RVs

The good news for people interested in driving for Wave that have zero professional driving experience is that they will not need to get a CDL A driver license. That means drivers do not need to spend the time and money necessary to earn a CDL license.

In order to become a driver for Wave you will need to pass a DOT physical and attend a Wave Express orientation. Orientation is a one day process and is held every day Monday through Friday. Also, orientation can be completed entirely online meaning you do not need to attend an in person orientation.

Consistent Freight

As a driver for Wave you will never have to worry about whether you can get a load or not. Wave’s Driver Mobile Assistant App has a ‘Load Board’ feature that is constantly updated with new shipments that need to be made.

If you are someone that only wants to make runs part time you will never have to worry about whether or not you will be able to get work from weekend to weekend. Drivers that are looking to make this a full time gig will not need to worry about running out of loads to run.

Consistent freight and 24/7 pickup means that you, the driver, have ultimate control over your schedule. You will not have to compromise in order to make money.

Driver Discounts

Driving for Wave provides you with discounts at fuel stops, hotels, auto part stores, and more! These discounts help you save money and earn even higher profits.

Plus, if you are someone looking to see more of the country these discounts are an excellent way for you to do so at a cheaper rate than if you did it on your own. Gas will be more affordable, hotels will be more affordable, and you will be able to keep your truck in pristine condition at an affordable rate.

Speedometer depicts the low prices that Wave provides drivers through discounts.

Wave Express is offering people the opportunity to sign up for the ultimate side hustle. For anyone that owns a ¾ ton pickup truck, or larger, and is looking to see the country there is no better option. Wave pays a rate that enables drivers to earn real money and their discounts make it so that money earned is not entirely spent on the costs of the side hustle.

How To Advertise to Truck Drivers

Posted on October 5, 2020October 5, 2020 by Jake Peters

Advertising to truck drivers is much different today than it was ten years ago. It is even much more different today than it was ten months ago thanks to the changes forced by COVID-19. Now more than ever you need to rely on digital services to reach truckers. Follow this guide and you will know how to advertise to truck drivers.

All successful for advertising campaigns reach drivers at the minimum of five touch points. Before launching your campaign you must strategize for how to establish each touch point. Below are the five touch points that Driveteks recommends you use in your campaign.

Social Media Marketing

Person uses phone to respond to social media marketing

Truck drivers love social media. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram keep drivers connected to their loved ones during long trips on the road. Because of this, social media is the best way to reach drivers.

According to Conversionia, Facebook is a top three performing cost-per-hire strategy.

Content is king when it comes to social media. You need to be posting content that engages drivers multiple times a week on your company’s page and within groups. Doing this will build your brand and generate awareness around your company. Images and videos tend to be the most effective at spurring engagement.

In addition to posting content you need to be running a paid advertising campaign. Hiring a professional driver recruitment agency to handle your Facebook ads will make sure your company gets seen by the drivers you want. Facebook is constantly updating its algorithms and advertising standards so it is highly recommended you employ a professional to do your ads.

Job Boards

Job boards can be one of the top sources of driver applicants. The drivers are on that site specifically to look for a new job. However, job boards are highly competitive and the costs have risen through the roof.

Despite high levels of competition and prices job boards need to be a part of your advertising strategy. In order to succeed to focus on three key areas:

Succinct and enticing job description
Well built recruitment landing page linked in the description
Constant monitoring of board performance

Drivers on job boards are going to be scanning tens of job descriptions at a time. You need to do a good job of keeping your description short and enticing. If your description is written well, it should encourage drivers to click on your recruitment landing page and learn more about your company.

The most important part of advertising on job boards is monitoring which job boards are performing the best each month. Doing this will enable you to allocate ad spend to the boards performing and not waste money on underperforming sites.

Email/Text Campaigns

Email and text campaigns are an amazing way to communicate with drivers that have expressed interest in working for your company. The only way you are able to collect contact information from drivers is when they submit an application on your website/recruitment landing page.

Advertising to truck drivers through email/text is an excellent way to share your company’s voice. You will be able to share informative content, invite them to visit your website, and stay in touch with drivers.

In order to set up an Email or messaging campaign you need to use a tool such as MailChimp. MailChimp makes it easy to design visually appealing emails that can be sent out to every driver email you have collected with the click of a button.

Geofencing For Driver Recruitment

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.

A truck company advertising agency will know exactly where to place geofences so that the only people seeing your ads are truck drivers. No more wasting ad spend on ads that are being seen by people who are not truck drivers.

Common places companies like to place geofences are around truck stops, driver schools, truck driver conventions, and competitor truck lots.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising is the best way to stay on the mind of drivers. Your company will be in front of the eyes of drivers every time they open their internet browser.

Sometimes there is a false conception that paid media is going to directly generate more applications. That is not necessarily the case. Paid media indirectly generates applications.

Paid media is effective at keeping your company on the mind of drivers. Drivers will not click on these ads very often and apply. But, when the drivers are ready to start looking for a new job the first company they look up will be your company.

Illustration that depicts where people see pay per click advertising.

In order to successfully advertise to truck drivers you need to be able to reach them at a minimum of five times. The five touch points recommended in this article all complement each other and will spur the number driver applicants your company receives.

The Average Cost to Recruit Truck Drivers

Posted on September 28, 2020September 28, 2020 by Jake Peters

Every trucking company has to recruit truck drivers. Considering that the driver shortage is not going away any time soon you are going to need to keep recruiting drivers. So what is the average cost to recruit truck drivers and how do your recruitment costs compare?

Industry Average to Recruit Drivers

There has only been one study published that calculated the industry’s average cost to recruit truck drivers, and it was published in 2001. The study conducted by Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute found that carriers spend on average $8,234 to hire a driver.

In today’s money that is $12,084. On average, trucking companies are spending over ten thousand dollars for every truck driver that they hire.

However, that industry average more than likely is not going to be reflective of your cost to recruit drivers. That is because the spread from the study ranged from $2,243 to $20,729.

Instead of worrying about the average across the industry, you should focus on calculating your specific costs.

truck driver recruiter in the middle of an interview with a potential driver

Calculating YOUR Hiring Costs

The industry average is a great measuring stick for your company. You need to calculate your company’s hiring costs and then compare it to the industry average. Ask yourself, why is it that your costs are either higher or lower than the average.

The metrics that should be used to calculate your costs are:

Entry and exit administration
Fixed asset costs due to idle equipment
Profit lost due to idle equipment
Other costs including safety/insurance/legal, maintenance, and productivity loss.

Inorder to calculate your cost per hire you need to determine a time period (this can be one month, one quarter, six months, or a year), calculate the costs for the metrics mentioned above, and divide those costs by the number of hires you made in that time period.

How to Improve Your Driver Retention

No matter how much your company is spending on hiring costs, it should be clear that the most effective way to reduce those costs is to improve your retention rate. If drivers are not leaving your company then you will not need to hire new drivers to replace them.

There are three pillars to truck driver retention: pay, respect, and management. Your company needs to offer competitive pay to your drivers (no low-balling them), treat drivers with the utmost respect, and employ fleet managers that know what they are doing.

By improving your driver retention, you will be able to keep your drivers on staff and not need to worry as much about your driver turnover costs.

How to Reduce Your Hiring Costs

The lion’s share of costs associated with driver turnover have to do with idle trucks. This means that if you are able to reduce the amount of time it takes to hire a driver then your hiring costs will also be reduced. Reduced hiring time means reduced time with idle trucks.

The best way to have a faster hiring time is to employ a truck company advertising agency that places your job ads at the best places to recruit drivers. Doing this will fill your ATS with branded (aka direct) leads.

Branded leads are truck drivers who apply to work specifically for your company because of your brand. These leads are anticipating a call from your recruiters or will even reach out to your company themselves.

Your recruiters will be able to hire drivers much faster when they are calling drivers that want to work for you. Branded leads will lower the amount of time your company has to deal with idle trucks, the biggest cost of driver turnover.

High efficiency and minimum costs

The average cost to recruit truck drivers is $12,084 across the industry. This average is a great measuring stick for your company to see how you stack up in the industry once you have calculated your hiring costs. Even if your company is below the average, it is wise to improve your retention rate and hiring costs.

The Value of Branded Leads

Posted on September 21, 2020September 21, 2020 by Jake Peters

Before the internet, truck driver recruiters were able to place an ad in the newspaper or run a radio ad and the applicants would come pouring in. Then as things began turning digital carriers started purchasing multi carrier leads from online companies that generated trucking applications and sold them to all their clients. Branded, or direct leads, are now the hot trend.

Multi-Carrier Leads are Wasteful

If your company is still purchasing multi-carrier leads from driver recruiting agencies, you are wasting your time and money. Your recruiters are forced to race against all of the recruiters from competing companies just to call the driver.

The drivers don’t even want to hear from the recruiters that are competing to call. Recruiters are rushing to be rejected immediately when you fill your ATS with multi-carrier leads.

Multi-carrier leads kill recruiter-morale.

Every time your company purchases a list of multi-carrier leads you are wasting your money on the list, wasting the recruiter’s time, and wasting salary spend on recruiters that are set up to fail.

Branded Leads Improve Everyone’s Performance

Branded leads are drivers applying directly to your company because they like your brand.

Loading your applicant tracking system with branded leads for your recruiters to call is going to improve everyone’s performance. Your recruiters will hire more drivers, the drivers hired will want to work for your company, and your company will become more profitable.

Place yourself in the driver’s shoes. Would you rather hear from tens of recruiters, even after starting a new position, that all got your number from the same multi-carrier list? Or would you rather speak with the one recruiter that works for the company you specifically chose to apply to?

In sales terms, multi-carrier leads are cold leads. Branded leads are hot leads. Fueling your company with hot leads is always going to lead to better results than cold leads.

Hand places a higher target to improve performance

How are Branded Leads Generated?

Branded leads are not easy to obtain. They require a high level of expertise. Carriers can generate branded leads with a dedicated in-house team or by hiring a trucking company advertising agency.

Either way, your company must have a team solely dedicated to branded lead generation.

A dedicated team is going to focus on three areas: digital driver recruitment, referral programs, and rehires. Those three areas should be the three main contributors to your applicant tracking system.

Digital driver recruitment is going to focus on things such as social media marketing, job board management, and google advertising to spur driver applications and build your employer brand.

To a trucking company, their most valuable asset is their truck drivers. Because there is a driver shortage your company is likely experiencing some turnover. You can not fill empty seats with multi-carrier leads. The true value of branded leads is that their ability to turn into drivers solves the driver shortage for your company.

Picking the Right Trucking Company Advertising Agency

Posted on September 8, 2020September 8, 2020 by Jake Peters

In today’s market it is necessary for all trucking companies to utilize digital advertising. Digital advertising will boost your overall business. The large carriers have the resources to employ an in-house ad team. Small to midsize carriers can save money and hire a third party agency. Here is how to pick the right trucking company advertising agency.

First Decide Why You Are Hiring an Agency

Are you looking for an agency to help your company acquire more business? Or are you needing to hire an agency that specializes in truck driver recruitment advertising?

The reason you need to know this is because it will guide your search for the right advertising agency. Also, you will be able to negotiate more effectively and the agency will respect you as a company that knows exactly what they are looking for.

If you are looking for a trucking company advertising agency to help you generate more business you have far more options. There are countless advertising agencies that specialize in growing business for their clients. They will have clients in multiple industries and bring you more clients.

However, if you are looking for an agency that will boost your truck driver recruiting, you are going to need to find a specialized agency. Truck driver recruiting agencies know how and where to advertise so specifically truck drivers will apply for company.

Also, traditional advertising agencies will not be familiar with advertising on job boards. Truck driver recruiting agencies will use your ad-spend to place your job openings on the job boards that produce applications.

Man confused about which trucking company ad agency to choose

Research Different Agencies and Contact Them

Once you have decided the type of agency your company needs (traditional or driver recruiting), start your due diligence.

You can begin by googling to find agencies near you. Then begin finding agencies in other parts of the country. The internet makes it possible to work with an agency on the other side of the country.

Read through multiple company’s websites and put together a list of your 5 favorite companies. Then call them.

Make sure you are contacting companies that offer all of the services that you are looking for. Some agencies focus solely on social media marketing, some specialize in job boards, and others offer the complete package with everything.

After calling all of the companies, pick the agency that you felt you would get along best with. They need to have great customer service and prioritize your success.

If Possible, Visit the Agency’s Office

You may be thinking that after researching online and calling the agencies you are interested in, you are ready to hire an agency. However, keep in mind that when you call a company, you are going to speak to one of their sales representatives. They are experts at selling you on their company.

The best way for you to truly judge an agency’s culture, and whether you will work well with them, is by going into the office.

Take note on how all of the employees are treated while you are there. Do not focus solely on upper management’s attitude. Does everyone seem happy to be there? Or do the employees look distressed?

Agencies that have positive company cultures will be better to work with and their employees are more likely to go the extra mile for you.

Hire the Agency of Your Choice

Now that you have gone through the steps above, it is time for you to hire the agency of your choosing. That does not mean that your work is done however.

In order to experience the best results you need to make it a priority to be in constant communication with the agency. It should not be up to you to initiate contact, but when a member of the agency reaches out, you need to make time to talk with them.

The reason it is so important to communicate with the agency is because it enables them to update your campaign in real time. If you are not seeing the results you were hoping for, tell the agency. They will update the strategy to improve results.

Digital advertising has to be used by your company. Large carriers are using in-house advertising teams that enable the carrier to continue to grow and hire drivers whenever they want. Small to midsize carriers can experience the same benefits if they follow these steps to pick the right trucking company advertising agency.