5 Unique Tips for Driver Retention

The ability to retain truck drivers is a major source of competitive advantage in the trucking industry. If you are bad at driver retention then you are stuck competing in a market with a severe shortage and high hiring costs.

Common advice for driver retention includes things like increasing pay, treating drivers with respect, and collecting driver feedback. However, there are plenty of other ways to make your company stand out as a place drivers want to be. Here are 5 unique tips for driver retention.

  1. Encourage Drivers to Drive With Pets 
  2. Provide Top-Notch Amenities 
  3. Party Party Party and Party Some More
  4. Promote from Within
  5. Social Media Spotlight Posts

Encourage Drivers to Drive With Pets

For decades truck drivers have been sneaking their pets on board with them to take on the road. Drivers had to sneak their pets onto the truck because in the past companies forbid any furry friends on the road.

Long voyages on the road can lead to drivers feeling alone and depressed. Across America, 1.5% of people suffer from depression, among truck drivers that number rises to 13.6%. Feelings of loneliness and depression lead to job dissatisfaction and ultimately leaving the industry.

Encouraging truck drivers to drive with pets is one of the best ways to help keep your drivers happy. Your drivers will never have to be alone on the road and pets are known mood enhancers.

Deploying a pet-friendly policy may be the reason why a driver sticks with your company instead of accepting a higher-paying position with someone else. Truck drivers who love driving with their pets will want to stick with carriers that support their pets.

The driver recruiting manager demonstrates the retention strategy plan.

Provide Top-Notch Amenities

While sitting in a conference room discussing retention strategies, it can be easy to overlook the amenities. However, to truck drivers, the amenities are crucial to a comfortable OTR trip.

Amenities include things such as a microwave and refrigerator, a comfortable mattress, room for storage, temperature control, and anything else that makes living in the truck more pleasant.

The truck cabin is not the trucker’s home, but amenities can make the truck feel as home-like as possible.

Keeping your drivers comfortable on the road is a great incentive for drivers to stay with your company. Even if they start looking at positions with other companies, your drivers will look at the amenities provided by your competition. If you offer nicer amenities than the competition, then that is a heavy incentive to stay with your company.

Party Party Party and Party Some More 

Who doesn’t love to party? A company culture that prioritizes celebrating accomplishments, milestones, and great performances is a culture that people want to be a part of.

If you are only celebrating the bare minimum (major holidays, driver appreciation week, etc.) then you do not prioritize celebration. Drivers may be influenced to leave for a company that “has more fun” than your company.

Also, celebrating your drivers is going to make them feel like they are appreciated. Appreciation is one of the cornerstones of driver retention.

Promote From Within

Not all truck drivers want to be drivers for their entire career. Some drivers have aspirations of accomplishing other things within the trucking industry.

You need to identify the drivers working for you that are eyeing other positions outside of “driver”. Give these drivers a chance to be promoted to the position they desire.

Promoting drivers from within your company sends a message to all of your drivers that they can grow with you. Plus, promoting drivers to managerial positions helps your management team be more empathetic towards the challenges of being a truck driver.

This dedication to letting your drivers grow and increased levels of empathy will help your company retain your drivers.

A team of workers on a gray background. The concept of personnel selection and management within the team. Dismissal and hiring people to work. Human Resource Management. Headhunting. Talented worker

Social Media Spotlight Posts

Like I mentioned earlier, drivers want to be appreciated by their employers. Company parties are one way to internally appreciate your drivers. Social media is a way to show your appreciation externally.

Spotlight posts let you share with your network outside of your company how much you appreciate your drivers. Plus, the driver that the spotlight is on gets a chance to show their network that they are a high achiever.

Check out the 7 Tricks to Social Media Marketing for Trucking Companies to learn more about social media spotlight posts.

All of these tips are to be used as supplementary strategies to boost your main retention efforts. Plenty of other trucking companies know the key components of retention. This means you need to go above and beyond to gain an advantage. Use these 5 unique tips for driver retention and differentiate yourself from the competition.

5 Key Performance Indicators Driver Recruiters Must Know

Recruiting truck drivers without data is like Dave Roberts setting the Dodgers’ batting line up without looking at the players’ batting averages. But what data is the most important to measure? Here are the 5 key performance indicators driver recruiters must know:

  1. Time Taken to Contact Applicants
  2. Average Time to Hire
  3. Average Cost per Hire
  4. Percentage of Offers Accepted
  5. Quality of Applications Being Received by Sources

Time Taken to Contact Applicants

The speed at which it takes you to contact a driver applicant is of the utmost importance.

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.

Simply put, the faster you contact drivers after they apply, the more truck drivers you will hire.

Measuring the average time it takes for you to contact driver applications will tell you a lot about why or why not you are having success.

The goal should be for you to get your average time to contact 5 minutes or below.

If you are above 5 minutes to contact an application then there is room for improvement.

One of the easiest ways to boost your contact time is by working with a recruiting agency that sends the applications directly into your ATS. Do not let an agency convince you that sending leads once a day, once a week, etc. is okay.

You need the applications delivered to you in real-time so you can beat out other driver recruiters at contacting that truck driver.

KPI symbol. Wood cubes with acronym 'KPI, key performance indicator' stacking as step stair on orange background, copy space. Male hand. Business and KPI concept.

Average Time to Hire

The sooner you can get a truck driver from applicant, to interview, through orientation, and out on the road, the sooner they can start earning money.

Also, keep in mind that while you are trying to officially hire a driver, they are receiving offers from other companies. If your time to hire takes long then the driver has more time to accept someone else’s offer.

On average, trucking companies take 20-24 days to hire a driver. If you are above the industry average then your competition is beating you. Every day your truck sits idle costs your company thousands of dollars.

It is important to keep track of the entire time from application to hire. However, it is just as important to keep track of the time in between each step of the process.

Knowing the time it takes in between each step will tell you where to focus your efforts. The longest step in the process is the first step you should begin speeding up.

Keep track of your time to hire so you can implement strategies that try to speed up your process. A faster process will make your company more money.

Average Cost Per Hire

Figuring out your average cost per hire is not a complicated process. Simply calculate the sum of money spent on recruiting efforts and divide that number by the sum of drivers hired.

The industry average cost to hire a truck driver is $8,234. Calculating your average cost and comparing it to the industry average is a good measuring stick for your company. Obviously, you should try to have a cost per hire lower than the industry average.

Once you know your average cost per hire you can begin working to lower that number. Implement different recruiting strategies, try different lead sources, etc. and measure which process changes save your company money.

New technologies constantly provide opportunities for your company to optimize hiring processes. Improvements can always be made.

Percentage of Offers Accepted

Convincing truck drivers to apply for your company and convincing them to accept an offer are two different things.

There are agencies you can hire that specialize in getting truck drivers to apply to work for your company. However, you still need to convert those applications into hires.

If a low number of your offers are being accepted by drivers, that is troublesome. It could mean that your offer is not strong enough, the drivers do not like your company culture, your recruiters are underperforming, and many other things.

Losing drivers that you offer the position hurts your company. You are losing out on a driver that you identified as qualified and a good company fit. Those types of drivers are not easy to come by.

Working to increase the percentage of offers accepted is crucial.

hand holding percentage sign over yellow background

Quality of Applications Being Received by Sources

Unless your company only hires 1-2 drivers a month you are more than likely receiving applications from different sources.

It is up to the driver recruiting department to monitor the quality of truck driver applications they receive from different sources. Using an applicant tracking system can help you sort the sources of applications.

If it is clear that one source is sending you poor quality leads stop spending money on that source.

On the other hand, if you notice one source is sending you high-quality applications then you should increase the spending.

There is some variance in the performance of each source. Some months you will see a specific job board send a bunch of quality applications, and the next month you get zero from the board. Measuring the sources over an extended period is necessary to notice trends.

If your company is not keeping track of any key performance indicators then you are below average. These are the 5 key performance indicators driver recruiters must know to optimize their performance.

What other KPIs does your team measure? Comment below!

Top 5 Driver Recruiting Techniques for 2021

The trucking industry saw its typical driver recruiting techniques flipped on its head in 2020. Last year the industry had to rapidly adapt and implement web-based recruiting strategies.

These web-based driver recruiting strategies are not going anywhere, even as in-person events become normal again. Because of this, here are the top 5 driver recruiting techniques for 2021:

  1. Facebook Advertising
  2. Content Creation for Driver Recruiting
  3. Job Board Management 
  4. Streamline the Hiring Process
  5. Hiring Dedicated Specialists 

Turning the page from 2020 to 2021.

Facebook Advertising for Truck Driver Recruiting

Over 96% of today’s truck drivers are Facebook users. There is no other platform on the planet that can make such a claim.

Where else are you going to be able to reach this many drivers? This question is rhetorical of course.

Before 2020 Facebook was one of the top driver sources. However, thanks to restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 Facebook engagement skyrocketed last year. People had nowhere to go and nothing to do. So they hopped on Facebook.

Last year the overwhelming majority of truck drivers all increased their Facebook habit. These habits are not going away.

What does all of this mean?

Facebook has become the best place to recruit truck drivers.

Expert Facebook advertisers can promote your job positions to your desired demographic. No longer do you need to take a ‘spray and pray’ approach, hoping that some driver in your demographic will stumble upon your booth at a recruitment fair.

For a reasonable rate, your company can advertise to nearly the entirety of your driver demographic. Facebook advertising allows your company to reach the maximum amount of drivers without wasting a cent of ad spend.

Content Creation for Driver Recruiting

vector illustration of content creatin

Creating content for truck drivers to consume online is essential for recruiting in 2021. Content creation enables you to tell your story to truck drivers.

Quality truck drivers are going to research your company online before they ever apply. If you are not creating your own content truck drivers are going to read what other people are saying about you.

Control your own narrative. Create content.

There are three different types of content. Content that generates awareness, content that gets the driver to consider working for you, and content that gets the truck driver to apply.

If you want to learn how to create effective content check out this article:

Guide to Content Creation for Driver Recruitment

Job Board Management

Many truck driver recruiters will cringe at the idea of using job boards. Which is fair. We have all wasted money on boards that promise us results.

However, this does not change the fact that job boards are one of the best sources for driver applications.

Like the rest of us, one of the first places that truck drivers go to look for a new job is job board websites. Plus, the drivers on job boards are actively seeking a new position. It will take less time to get these drivers hired as opposed to passive job seekers.

The key to using job boards is to not rely entirely on one board.

You need to be posting on all of the job boards and closely monitoring the performance of each board. Each month, a different board will outperform the others.

You need to quickly identify which board is performing the best and then allocate the majority of your ad-spend to that job board.

Closely monitoring the job boards and allocating ad-spend frequently will flood your ATS with truck driver applicants.

Streamline the Hiring Process

The entire hiring process, from application through orientation, can be streamlined with the usage of technology.

Companies like Tenstreet and TruckRight offer software that enables truck drivers to only enter their information on one form and auto-populate all of the required documentation. Also, you can quickly verify previous employment and see any past safety violations of applicants.

Those same companies offer digital learning management software (LMS). Learning management software makes it possible for a truck driver to go through your company’s orientation anywhere in the country.

Streamlining the hiring process not only will improve your company’s efficiency but will also help you hire more drivers.

Truck drivers are more likely to be persuaded to come work for you if it takes little work for them to become employed.

Streamlining Word Road Improve Efficiency

Hiring Dedicated Specialists

Recruiting truck drivers is a full-time job. Driver recruiters need to spend their time calling applicants, interviewing them, convincing the drivers to accept the job, completing the necessary paperwork, conducting orientation, running retention programs, etc.

Digital driver lead generation is also a full-time job. Driver lead generation online takes constant job board management, staying up to date on the algorithms of different social media platforms, content creation, A/B testing, brand management, etc.

Your recruiters do not have enough time in a day to generate leads online. People who focus on lead generation do not have enough time to hire truck drivers.

Hire dedicated specialists.

Lead generation specialists will flood your ATS with driver applicants wanting to work for you now. Driver recruiting specialists will constantly be hiring new drivers, keeping your trucks on the road.

Just because 2020 is in the rearview mirror does not mean that the industry changes last year brought are also a thing of the past. 2021 will only further cement these online trends. Follow the top 5 driver recruiting techniques for 2021 to stay ahead of the curve and hire the drivers you need.

5 Tips For Driver Recruiters to be More Persuasive

At its core, truck driver recruiting is a sales position. You are selling your company to potential drivers. To effectively sell, you need to be persuasive. Here are the 5 tips for driver recruiters to be more persuasive:

  1. Cater the Value Proposition to the Specific Driver
  2. Start With Small “Yes’s” And Work Your Way Up
  3. Mirroring the Driver’s Body Language
  4. Make the Process as Easy as Possible
  5. Share the Positives and Negatives of the Position

Man writing Persuasive Techniques in a note.

Cater the Value Proposition to the Specific Driver

Your trucking company may offer drivers routes that have them home nightly, competitive pay, and a rent-to-own partnership for drivers.

Each of these offerings is going to attract different people.

A younger driver, one without a family who hasn’t rooted down yet, may e more attracted by your company’s pay. This younger driver is not as concerned with being home nightly

On the other hand, an older driver that has young kids and is married is more than likely going to value the home time over everything else.

A truck driver with aspirations of becoming an owner-operator will want to take advantage of your rent-to-own procedure.

As the driver recruiter, you need to determine what the motivation is of the driver you are recruiting early in communication. Then cater your value proposition to that driver’s preferences.

Catering - words from wooden blocks with letters, making or serving food catering concept, top view gray background

Start With Small “Yes’s” And Work Your Way Up

Asking a truck driver to uproot their lives and start a new career with your company is a big ask. It can be daunting for the driver to say yes to such a proposition.

Instead of starting the conversation with the ‘big ask’, start by asking from small yes’s.

An example of a ‘small yes’ is, “Will you watch this video we made of our company culture?” That question is an easy task for the driver to complete and will get them to say yes.

Studies have proven that building up agreement has a lasting effect. Getting truck drivers to start saying yes in your conversation will increase your likelihood of hiring them.

Mirroring the Driver’s Body Language

The scientific term for mirroring is “limbic synchrony” and it is wired into our brain thanks to mirror neurons.

Using this technique makes the driver subconsciously feel like you are their friend because you are acting just like them.

Mirroring is the act of copying the body language of the person you are conversing with. This technique is highly effective at building trust with a person you are meeting for the first time.

If you are interviewing a potential truck driver, start by observing how they position themselves. Then slowly begin to position yourself with the same body language.

Also, mimic the truck driver’s gestures, tone of voice, and talking pace. Make sure to avoid mirroring any accents, as this can be seen as disrespectful.

Stanford-Northwestern-INSEAD study found that people who used mirroring in a negotiation closed more deals and got better results for all parties involved.

Make the Hiring Process as Easy as Possible

Truck driver recruiters are going to be able to hire more drivers if the hiring process is quick and painless. Truck drivers are more likely to say yes to work for your company if it does not require a huge amount of effort.

This is common sense. When someone asks you to do them a favor, are you not more likely to say yes if it does not take up any of your time?

If the driver you are trying to hire has to jump through hoops, struggles to get a hold of anyone in the company, and has to submit multiple forms by hand then they are going to be less likely to work for your company.

Use online tools to help automate this process. If a driver only has to fill out their information one time that will make the process much easier. Also, make sure to remain in consistent contact with the driver throughout the hiring process.

Illustration of lightbulbs act as metaphor to show that easy gets results

Share the Positives and Negatives of the Position

Truck drivers will call baloney if you try to tell them that working for your company is all sunshine and rainbows.

And they are right to do so.

There is no such thing as a position that is all good. Your position will inevitably have some downsides.

Share the downsides with the truck driver.

Being upfront about the negatives may feel contradictory. However, it actually helps you build trust with the driver. Trust is a key piece to successfully hiring drivers.

The trick to this strategy is to always end on a positive note. Ending on a positive note tells the driver that the positives of the position outweigh the negative.

The best truck driver recruiters are master persuaders. Follow these 5 tips to become more persuasive and start hiring more drivers.

Have your own persuasive technique? Comment below!

5 Steps to Use the Holiday Season to Win the New Year

Through the rest of the year until early January, freight demand will continually slow down and drivers will be with their families, not on the road. Truck drivers are intentionally not applying for jobs right now so they can have time off to celebrate the holidays.

Even though drivers are not looking for jobs right now does not mean you can slow down your recruiting effort. This time can be used to set yourself up for a big recruiting year next year.

Here are the 5 steps to use the holiday season to win the new year:

  1. Increase Facebook Advertising
  2. Focus More on Content Production
  3. Cutback on Geotargeting Recruitment
  4. Revise Your Trucking Recruiting Website
  5. Reflect on Previous Year to Improve for the Next

Truck driver recruiter successfully using the Holiday Season to win the new year

Increase Facebook Advertising

Drivers spending time at home, and not in a truck, means that they now have an excess of free time. A large portion of this free time will be filled by scrolling through Facebook.

The essence of digital driver recruiting is getting your company in front of the eyes of potential drivers. If drivers are spending more time on Facebook then you need to spend to get your company on Facebook more.

Drivers are making a list of potential employers and checking it twice.

Make sure your company is on that list by flooding driver feeds with your Facebook advertisements.

Focus More on Content Production

You are going to have more time on your hands during November and December because you will not be hiring as many drivers. Do not waste this time.

The extra time you have on your hands could be spent wisely working on content creation.

You should be filming driver testimonials, recording interviews with upper management, and writing about how great it is to work at your company.

Post this content on social media for drivers to see and they will be more likely to apply for your company once the new year starts. Drivers are not going to apply for companies that fail to sell them on their company culture.

Cutback on Geotargeting Recruitment 

The amount of freight being delivered during the holiday season is lower compared to the rest of the season.

Since there is less freight being delivered around the country, there will be fewer drivers on the road. The locations you are geotargeting are going to be less occupied.

Do not waste ad-spend to target locations where drivers are not going to be.

In an ideal world, you would take the money you cutback from your geotargeting budget and allocate it to your Facebook advertising budget.

Revise Your Truck Driver Recruiting Website

It is best practice to constantly revise your company website to optimize for truck driver recruiting.

You should delete outdated content from your website to make room for the new content you are creating. Also, conduct some keyword research and update your page titles and headers to boost your SEO rankings.

Finally, make sure your website is built to work well on mobile devices. More people than ever are accessing the web from a mobile device, especially drivers.

Reflect on Previous Year to Improve for the Next

Reflect on the previous year to utilize the Pareto Principle

The final thing you should do during this time is to conduct reflection sessions on what worked and did not work during the previous year.

Strategize with your colleagues about how you can all cut out the processes that were not producing results and focus on processes that do produce.

Remember the 80/20 rule. 80% of your results are produced by 20% percent of your actions. The holiday season is a great time to find the 20% of actions producing results.

Truck drivers are not applying for trucking jobs right now. The applications will pick back up in January so you need to be prepared. Follow these 5 steps to use the holiday season to win the new year.

5 Tips to Get Truck Drivers to Engage With Your Content

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:

  1. Create Different Kinds of Content
  2. Create Content That Interests Drivers
  3. Post Content Where the Drivers Already Are
  4. Invite Drivers to Follow You
  5. 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.

5 Steps to Recruiting Truck Drivers on Facebook

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.

Magnifying glass used to symbolize a driver recruiter looking to recruit truck drivers on Facebook.

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.

Young boy conducting science experiments similar to the science experiments driver recruiters conduct on facebook

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.

5 Tips for the Best Trucking Website Design

Having a strong trucking website design is mandatory for recruiting quality truck drivers and generating business. Your company’s website is the first interaction drivers and customers have with your company. First impressions matter! Follow these 5 tips to ensure that your company has the best trucking website design.

Top 5 Tips for the Best Trucking Website Design

  1. Avoid Clutter

  2. Repeat Your Main Message

  3. CTAs Throughout Your Website

  4. Mobile First Design

  5. Easy to Digest Content

magnifying glass searching for the best trucking web design

You Must Avoid Clutter!

Keep it simple stupid. Nothing turns away site visitors like a cluttered home page. Visitors should be able to instantly know your company’s main mission. Sometimes your mission may be hiring drivers, other times it is promoting business.

You only have 50 milliseconds to nail your first impression with site visitors.

Site visitors will be able to process your message better the less they have to read, click on, or watch. Images and videos are excellent pieces of content, but not when they are overwhelming.

Each page of your site should have only a couple high end images and any videos need to serve a purpose. Do not put videos on your site for the sake of having a video.

Having a strong heading structure will make it so that visitors will be able to skim any writing on your website and understand the gist of what you are saying.

Be Redundant… Tastefully

Your main goal is displayed loud and proud on your home page. Now what?

As visitors interact with your website and scroll through different pages they will forget about that main goal.

For example, if your main goal is to recruit more drivers you would say that right on the homepage for drivers to see. Then as the drivers click through your site to learn more about your company they will forget to to apply by the time something else grabs their attention.

This can be avoided if you are strategically redundant.

Each page of your website needs to have a call back to your main goal. This will ensure that site visitors do not forget about that goal and they will be far more likely to act in favor of that goal.

Calls to Action Littered Everywhere 

Call to action symbol

The call to action is where you reach your handout and invite the site visitor to act in a way that benefits your main goal.

Most websites have a call to action at the top of each page, which is good but not best. In order to maximize on your website, you need to sprinkle your CTAs throughout your site.

Spreading CTAs throughout the pages on your site gives the site visitor more opportunities to act. Placing only one CTA at the top of a page is asking for the site visitor to act before you have convinced them to do so.

However, having CTAs littered throughout allows the site visitor to click on the CTA the moment they are convinced to do so. They do not have to scroll throughout the site to find the CTA again.

Mobile First Design

The majority of people that visit your site will be doing so on their mobile device. Studies have found that in the second quarter of 2020, mobile devices (excluding tablets) accounted for 51.53% of global website traffic.

Mobile users on the web have become so prominent that Google now crawls your site for mobile usability first before desktop usability.

Your website must be designed to be easily navigable from a smartphone. Doing so will make your site more accessible which increases the amount of traffic you receive. More traffic leads to more driver applications and more business.

Easy to Digest Content

Content is king. It is the best way for carriers to build relationships with potential drivers and customers.

The reason that people visit your website is because they have questions about your company that they want answered. Easy to digest content is the best way for your company to answer those questions.

Plus, well curated content will be shared on social media platforms and generate awareness for your company.

Your website should be filled with short videos, well written blog content, and info graphics.

Content is King

The website is oftentimes your first impression, and the first impression is the most important. Having the best trucking website design compared to your competition will lead to your company hiring more drivers and booking more business.

5 Tips to Get the Most Out of Video Interviews

In person interviews have not been possible since March. This means that if you have hired any drivers in the past three months, you had to conduct a video chat interview. Whether you are using Zoom, Google Hangouts, etc. you need to be prepared. Follow this guide to get the most out of your video interviews.

Man gets the most out of video interview

1. Set the Bar for the Meeting

As the interviewer, it is up to you to be an example of what it means to be a professional at your company. You need to set the bar for the interview.

One way that you can set the professional bar is by dressing professionally. Working from home it is tempting to remain in your comfortable clothes, but when you interview you are the face of your company.

Drivers are going to judge your company based on you. So dressing professionally will send the message that your company takes themselves seriously. Professional drivers want to work for professional companies.

The next thing you need to do is find a space that has quality lighting and is in a quiet space. Doing this will ensure that the driver will be able to see you clearly and there will not be any interruptions.

2. Understand Technical Difficulties

You need to remember that this world is new to the drivers as well. Many of them are going to struggle with interviewing remotely.

If a driver you are interviewing hops on the call late because they could not load the page, or if the call drops, you need to work with them.

Do not rule out hiring a potential driver because they could not figure out the video interview. Have patience, rushing to judgement will lead to you ruling out quality drivers.

3. Record and Review Later

There is no doubt that interviewing drivers in person is the best way to gauge a potential employee. However, video interviews have certain advantages.

The biggest advantage that video interviews have is that it is easier for you to record the interview and review it later.

You will become fatigued if you conduct multiple interviews in one day. This can lead to you overlooking a great driver.

Recording and reviewing the video interviews will help ensure you offer your positions to the most qualified driver.

4. Provide Clear Instructions

As mentioned earlier, drivers are likely to struggle technically with the video interview. The best way to avoid this is to provide clear, step-by-step, instructions prior to the interview.

The more you can do to eliminate technical barriers, the more you can focus on the driver. This way you can get a better idea of who the driver is as a person.

5. Ask Questions That Generate Articulation

Because you won’t get to have the human interaction like a typical interview, you need to ask questions that get drivers to explain themselves.

Here are some common video questions to ask drivers:

  • Why did you decide to apply with our company?
  • Why are you a truck driver?
  • Describe the best work environment you have been a part of
  • How did you manage driving your toughest routes?

Driver providing articulate answers on video interview

Video interviews will not allow you to test a driver’s capabilities so you must get drivers to describe their skills to you. You will have to make your hiring decisions based on how drivers are able to articulate their thoughts. Because of this, the questions you ask directly affect retention and overall company performance.

If you don’t know what you are doing with video interviews, it can lead to hiring the wrong person. Follow these 5 tips to get the most out of your video interviews.

5 Biggest Mistakes First Time Digital Recruiters Make

Digital driver recruitment is becoming more common in the transportation industry every year. Carriers that do it properly are keeping their trucks on the road and thriving. When one succeeds, others follow close behind. However, not every company succeeds at digital recruitment right away. Here are the 5 biggest mistakes from first time digital recruiters.

Not Designing for Mobile Users

It is easy to get lost in the design process and design for only desktops. You are designing on a desktop so it makes sense to think people will view it on a desktop. That is not the case.

Drivers do not have access to desktops while on the road so they do their web surfing from mobile devices. 61% of drivers would choose to own a smartphone if they were forced to pick between their phone and their computer.

Not designing for mobile users makes it incredibly difficult for drivers to interact with your content. Drivers will quickly move on from your company and interact with the carrier’s content that is easily accessible.

Relying Too Much on Social Media

Recruiting on social media can have huge ROIs for digital campaigns. Recruiting within the groups is free and advertisements are cheap.

The biggest problem with focusing on social media is that it is extraordinarily competitive. Carriers nationwide think they are being smart and saving money by doing all of their online recruitment in Facebook groups.

Placing all of your eggs into one basket is never a good strategy. Companies that focus on social media set themselves up to fail when social media is producing low results.

Insufficient Funding

Many companies are hesitant to jump right into digital recruitment. They often test the waters first by running a low budget campaign.

Low budget campaigns have little money for ad-spend and the carrier did not hire a professional to run the campaign.

Not spending the needed amount

of money on a digital leads companies to draw false conclusions about the effectiveness of digital recruiting.

Giving Up Too Soon

Companies embarking on their first digital recruitment campaign can have too high of expectations.

Carriers will stop their digital campaigns if all of their empty trucks are not filled after the first month or two.

Even working with professionals, the first campaign takes some time to get rolling. Digital Professionals will collect data on which platforms are producing the best results and modify the campaign to be as efficient as possible. However, they need time to collect enough data to make the best decisions.

Not Hiring a Professional to Run the Campaign

The biggest mistake carriers make is assuming that their recruiters can also digitally recruit. Carriers will force their recruiters to try and find drivers online. This does not produce results.

Recruiters are meant to be on the phones talking to potential drivers, running orientation, or working on retention efforts. Their plates are already full.

People standing at target where they missed the bulls-eye. Represents missing the mark on a digital campaign.

They do not have the time to learn how to digitally recruit and then implement a comprehensive digital campaign.

Digital recruitment agencies will be able to use the best strategies that fill your seats fast. They also know what it takes to work with a transportation company. Digital recruitment agencies are familiar with your pains and how to relieve them.

 

Do not make the same mistakes as other carriers. Learn from their errors. Avoid these five common mistakes and digital recruitment campaigns will be one of your company’s most valuable assets.