companies Archives

7 Questions Trucking Companies Must Ask About an Applicant Tracking System

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

Small carriers may be able to operate and recruit truck drivers without an ATS. However, as companies grow to be mid-sized and beyond they need to purchase an ATS to manage their driver applications. Here are the 7 questions trucking companies must ask about an applicant tracking system.

7 questions to ask:

What is the Price of This System?
Can You Use it to Contact Potential Truck Drivers?
Will you be Able to Speed up Your Process?
How Easy is it to Use?
Does the ATS Provide any other Tools?
Can You Easily Visualize Past Data?
Can Your Driver Recruiting Agency Send Leads to the ATS?

What is the Price of This System?

Service price symbol. Hand turns a cube and changes the words 'service' to 'price'. Beautiful orange background. Business and service price concept

This question may be the most obvious of all seven questions. Of course, you are going to try and figure out the price of any new system you need to purchase.

However,

There are many different pricing models used by companies. Pricing models include:

Cost per user
Cost per number of employees
Cost per hire
Cost per feature
A flat fee charged either monthly, quarterly, or yearly

Before you sign any contract, make sure to read the fine print. Some companies are going to try and charge you for things like support and employee training.

Can You Use it to Contact Potential Truck Drivers?

If the answer to this question is “no”, then you need to find another ATS.

Being able to communicate with truck driver applicants via the ATS makes the process significantly easier. Things like unread emails and missed phone calls will be reduced significantly if you can communicate through your ATS

Also, being able to contact drivers through the ATS is going to allow you to reduce the time from application to first contact. The moment the application hits your ATS you will be able to call the truck driver.

The faster you can call driver applicants, the higher your conversion rate will be.

Will you be Able to Speed up Your Process?

In addition to speeding up your time to contact new applicants, your ATS needs to speed up the other steps of your process.

The ATS needs to allow you to collect and file paperwork, collaborate with fellow recruiters, keep the driver informed, and facilitate background checks.

How Easy is it to Use?

An applicant tracking system is not good if none of the employees in the company know how to use it.

Also, keep in mind that some companies may charge you for company training sessions. So if you purchase an ATS that is too complicated and you need multiple training sessions, it can become quite expensive.

On the flip side of that, an ATS that is too simple may not provide all of the features you need. Think of yourself as Goldilocks looking for the “just right” amount of complexity.

Does the ATS Provide any Other Tools?

Many applicant tracking systems are great at helping you keep track of new applicants and getting people hired. However, some ATSs offer features that go above and beyond.

If you have a large budget and can afford these extra features, they can come in handy.

Tenstreet, for example, offers applications that allow carriers to market to drivers, track their applications, hire them, and make sure the driver is following safety guidelines.

Can you Easily Visualize Past Data?

Looking back at past data is essential to any effective recruitment campaign. Your ATS should enable you to look at past results and see what works.

The truck driver recruiting strategy your company uses needs to be constantly evolving. Strategy evolves by analyzing the data of past campaigns and responding to the market.

If your ATS does not allow you to easily create visuals that depict past campaigns it may be tough to figure out what is working and what is not.

Visual statistics. Data visualization, creative office people and dashboard. Business technology, working programmers vector. Data infographic, digital statistics analysis, dashboard illustration

Can Your Driver Recruiting Agency Send Leads to the ATS?

What good is your applicant tracking system if your driver recruiting agency can not submit applicants to it? If you have to submit the applications by hand after they are sent to you by the agency, you are losing valuable time.

Having a truck driver recruiting agency run your digital advertising and sending the leads they generate to your ATS is the most efficient way to get applicants.

A process where your digital driver recruiting agency feeds leads into your ATS for your recruiters to contact is best. This allows recruiters to focus on recruiting and not worry about anything else.

If you are a small carrier looking to expand into a mid-sized carrier, you will undoubtedly need an ATS. Use the 7 questions trucking companies must ask about an applicant tracking system to ensure you get the right ATS for your growth.

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.

7 Tricks to Social Media Marketing for Trucking Companies

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Jake Peters

Social media marketing can be one of the most beneficial forms of marketing for your company. The highest performing trucking companies have figured out that, when done properly, social media boosts recruiting and generates business. Follow these 7 tricks and you will be on your way to social media marketing for trucking companies.

7 Tricks to Social Media Marketing for Trucking Companies

Develop a Strong Company Mission
Spotlight Drivers and Customers
Testimonials That Earn Trust
Cross Platform Promotion
Leverage Communities
Specific Platforms Require Specific Posts
Geofencing, Paid Media, and Other Tech

Develop a Strong Company Mission

Having a strong and authentic company mission is one of the best ways for your messaging to strike a chord with your audience.

Another way to look at your company mission is to think of it as your “Why”. It is why you exist to do business. Potential clients or drivers with personal “Why’s” that align with your company “Why” become loyal supporters.

Once you have developed your company mission, broadcast it to all of your followers across all the social media platforms. And NEVER post something that contradicts your mission.

For example, C.R. England’s mission is,

“Our mission is to deliver excellence to our team members and customers.”

When you look at C.R. England’s social media accounts, they are constantly promoting their awards and overachieving team members. They make sure to go out of their way to make it appear as if working for/with C.R. England is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Spotlight Drivers and Customers

Everybody loves to be acknowledged for their hard work. Each month your company needs to take one day to highlight a high performing driver. Once a quarter your company needs to take one day to highlight one of your clients.

Spotlighting drivers and customers helps your social presence in two major ways.

The first is that it makes your company come off as an enjoyable company to work with/for. Potential drivers will see your posts and want to work for someone who recognizes them. Potential clients will want to work with you because it looks like an enjoyable experience.

The second reason you must spotlight drivers and clients is because it broadens your audience. The drivers you spotlight will share your posts and everyone within their personal network will be exposed to your company. Your clients will also share your post about them which exposes you to all of their professional network.

Spotlighting your company’s drivers and clients attracts more people to work with you and expands your audience.

Testimonials That Earn Trust

Testimonials are one of the most influential pieces of content you can produce. It is one thing for the company to sing its own praises. But it is a completely different thing when other people sing the praises of your company.

Drivers do not fully trust employers; however, they really trust each other. Getting your drivers to discuss how much they enjoy working for you will go a long way in boosting your recruiting efforts.

Potential clients will not fully trust your sales people because they know they have ulterior motives. Seeing other companies talk about enjoying work with your company may be the final piece of content they need to trust your sales people.

Cross Platform Promotion

Each of your social media accounts across all the platforms will have different followers. This can be used to your advantage.

Make it a common occurrence to mention your other accounts on each of the platforms you post on.

For example, you should be posting your Youtube videos to your Twitter account, and on Linkedin post about all the success you are seeing on Facebook.

Doing this will remind people that follow you on one account to go follow you elsewhere. This grows your followers on all platforms.

Leverage Communities on Social Media

One of the best things about social media is that it is filled with groups of people that match your target market. Before you have a single follower, you can post in these groups and reach the people you want to.

If you are looking to hire more drivers, there are groups dedicated specifically to that. If you are looking to connect with brokers, there are groups dedicated specifically to that. There are even social media groups that connect trucking recruiters with each other.

As you begin building your social presence, the first thing you should do is join groups within your target market. Interact with the people in this group and post meaningful content. This will help grow your social media following.

Specific Platforms Require Specific Posts

Creating content can be an exhausting task. Because of this, it is very tempting to post the same piece of content across all platforms.

Do NOT post the same content across all platforms. Each social media platform was built to highlight different types of posts.

Instagram is a very visual platform. Post more photos and videos here and less words. Linkedin on the other hand, is a great place for long form posts that establish your company as a thought leader.

Each time you go to post, make sure you are conscientious of the type of content you are publishing to which platform.

Geofencing, Paid Media, and Other Tech

It is possible to grow your social media presence organically; however, it takes a large amount of time and effort.

Properly using tools that cost little money can kick start your business’ social presence.

Geofencing will place ads for your company in front of people that are physically located in your desired area. PPC advertising will place your ads in front of the people that match your desired characteristics.

In today’s world, social media marketing is a necessary element of good business. Social media is the best way to boost recruiting efforts and generate business. Improve your company’s social presence by following these 7 tricks to social media marketing for trucking companies.