How Much is your Truck Driver Hiring Bonus?

It is more competitive than ever to hire truck drivers. Supply is decreasing and demand is increasing. One of the outcomes of this reality is that carriers are in an arms-race to offer the largest hiring bonus.

Is your company apart of this arms-race?

If so, how much is your truck driver hiring bonus?

Bonus word written on wood block. Bonus word is made of wooden building blocks lying on the yellow table. Bonus, business concept, yellow background

$10,000 sign-on bonus is now normal

In June 2021, the driver candidate pool of available CDL drivers is small and the competition for these drivers is fierce. The need for qualified drivers has never been higher. Freight rates are high and demand is high.

Carriers however, are having to pass on freight loads because they do not have the drivers to meet the demand. The old way of attracting drivers does not work. A new approach is definitely needed. Still, the number one way to attract drivers to your company is to have a competitive “offer”.

The best way to hook drivers on your job offer is by providing a large sign-on bonus. Currently in the industry, $10,000 is what it takes for a carrier to offer a competitive bonus.

Hiring Costs are Skyrocketing  

In 2021, according to our conversations with carriers, the cost of hiring drivers has doubled and the time it takes to attract and onboard new ones has tripled in some areas.

Since the old ways are not working, carriers are realizing they must increase their budgets to be competitive.

Having a $10,000 sign on bonus is not new. According to the American Trucker, some companies have been offering high value sign on bonuses since 2017.

But now, to stay competitive, many more carriers are jumping to the high value bonus.

Both your advertising and hiring budgets must increase along with you driver compensation budget. The old way of budget-minded, low cost driver recruiting does not work right now. 

When we talk to carriers, we are finding that many carriers are spending thousands of dollars on the old methods and get nothing in return.

How Much can you Afford in 2021? 

Do you offer a sign-on bonus? Was $2500 a lot of money last year? Did $5,000 seem like a lot? Right now, the old sign-on bonuses do not work.

If you look at job ads, job boards and company websites, the current bonus is $10,000 for experienced CDL drivers. There are even ads are offering a $30,000 sign-on bonus for team drivers.

Show off Your Hiring Bonus.

Truck driver recruiting advertisement showing off its sign on bonus

One thing is certain, there is no one way to attract drivers.

But, being boring is a good way to drive them away. Money is the best way to avoid boring.

Once you have determined your hiring bonus, you need to be loud and proud with that information. It needs to be at the forefront of your driver recruiting campaign.

A large hiring bonus in the title of the job ad will immediately hook potential drivers. Once they click on your ad, you are one step closer to hiring them.

Plus, your driver sign on bonus may be the determining factor between you and the competition. Go out of your way to make sure drivers know what you are offering so there is no confusion.

2021 so far is the toughest year ever to hire truck drivers. Carriers everywhere are scrambling to keep their trucks on the road. The hiring bonus is now an essential part of your job offer and needs to be used as a key recruitment strategy.

How much is your truck driver hiring bonus?

How to Use Email Marketing for Driver Recruitment

A truck driver’s email inbox is one of the best places to recruit drivers. However, email marketing is not a walk in the park. Here is how to use email marketing for driver recruitment.

  • Find an ESP That Best Fits Your Needs
  • Build a Strong Email List 
  • Segment the Drivers Accordingly 
  • Keep Emails Personal and Entertaining 
  • Create a Pipeline of Top Performing Drivers 
  • Semi-Frequent Job Alerts

Email Marketing Campaign concept. Digital Inbound advertising (useful newsletter, interesting promotional material) or Outbound (cold emails, spam) advertisement business strategy.

Find an ESP That Best Fits Your Needs

ESP stands for Email Service Provider. Email service providers allow companies to send email campaigns to a list of subscribers.

At the most basic level, ESPs do two things: store email addresses and send emails.

In addition to storing email addresses and sending emails, ESPs will help you build segments, create engaging email content, and report campaign performance.

Picking the best email service provider can be a difficult decision. To effectively make the decision you need to figure out what kind of features you are looking for before looking at different ESPs.

Ask yourself:

  • How much are we willing to pay?
  • How many people need to access the ESP?
  • Do we need extensive spam filters?
  • Do we need an ESP built specifically for trucking companies?
  • Or can we use any ESP?
  • How much design help do we need?

The answers to the above questions will help determine the best ESP for your company. It is good to ask these questions so you do not end up with an ESP that has too many features or not enough.

Build a Strong Email List

Your driver recruitment email campaign is only as strong as the list you are sending the emails to. If the drivers on your list are not interacting with the emails then the emails are being wasted.

One of the best strategies to get potential drivers engaging with your emails is to get them to sign up for your emails via different lead generation methods.

These lead generation methods can include:

  • Offer a joining incentive
  • Provide a free downloadable resource
  • Registration for a free webinar.

Another strategy you can use for building your email list is creating a Facebook group for drivers and asking for emails to join the group.

Drivers signing up for your emails are interested in hearing from you. A list of willing participants is more valuable than a list that you purchase from another company.

Segment Drivers Accordingly

Groups of wooden people. The concept of market segmentation. Marketing segmentation, target audience, customer care. Market group of buyers. Customer analysis and customer relationship management

Even though your email list will be composed entirely of truck drivers, that does not mean that they will all want the same content from you.

Your campaigns will see much more engagement if you send drivers relevant content based on their preferences.

For example, if there are drivers on your email list that you have hired recently, and you don’t segment the list, then they are going to become annoyed seeing emails about job openings from the company they work for.

Common segmentation criteria for driver recruiting email include:

  • Experience level
  • Certifications
  • Location
  • Employment status
  • Activity level

Segmenting lets you provide drivers with tailor-made content which reduces your unsubscribe rates and increases open rates.

Keep Emails Personal and Entertaining 

People do not want to read cookie-cutter emails containing boring content.

Personalized emails have a 29% higher unique open rate and 41% unique click rates than non-personalized emails.

Drivers want engaging content that feels like it was personally made for them. A quick and easy way to make emails feel personalized is to use automation to address readers by their first name.

In addition to using their name, you can send birthday emails, skill-building opportunities, and industry updates for drivers with the same qualifications as the reader.

Create a Pipeline of Top Performing Drivers

As you implement email marketing into your driver recruiting strategy, you are going to hire drivers from your email list.

You need to keep tabs on the drivers you hire and measure their performance. The drivers you hire and are top performers need to be added to a special segment.

Having a pipeline filled with top-performing drivers is a huge asset for your company. Once the pipeline is built out, you will have constant communication with people you know for certain fill your driver criteria.

Even after the drivers leave your company you get to keep recruiting them and hopefully rehire them in the future.

Semi-Frequent Job Alerts

We hiring now banner job offer vector background. Hiring promotion megaphone employee illustration

The purpose of the email marketing campaign is to keep drivers engaged with your company. It is not intended to bombard drivers with your open positions.

Your first goal needs to be engagement. Once that has been established you can start sprinkling in job alerts.

However,

Make sure that the alerts you are sending match the segments you send them to. If the position you are hiring for requires certain endorsements then only send that segments of drivers you know have the necessary endorsements.

Make sure you are only sending job alerts a couple of times a month. Do not overwhelm drivers on your email list. Doing so will result in drivers unsubscribing from your emails.

Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective recruiting strategies. Once your company nails the process, you have a direct line of communication with truck drivers. Follow this guide and begin email marketing for driver recruitment.

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!

It is Time to be Intentional With Your Driver Recruiting

Are you intentional with your truck driver recruiting? Or are you reactive?

Intentional driver recruiting campaigns seek out drivers and interact with them at every channel possible. Reactive recruiting waits for drivers to find the job posting and respond. If you are reactive recruiting it is time that you become intentional.

Intentional recruiting is going to get drivers interacting with you more often and increase the amount of applicants you receive. Here is why you need to be intentional:

  • Reach 100% of Professional Truck Drivers
  • Market Your Company to Passive Job Seekers
  • Build Your Employer Brand
  • Focus on a Specific Demographic or Advertise to Everyone

be intentional phrase combined on vintage varnished wooden surface

Reach 100% of Professional Truck Drivers

What is the biggest problem with job posting websites? It’s that only a small percentage of drivers are on each of the websites.

In order for you to be seen on job boards, you have to pay to be at the top. But you are paying to only be seen by a very small portion of the truck drivers.

Imagine if there was a platform where you could pay to be seen by 96% of truck drivers.

That platform exists. It is called Facebook.

Not only are 96% of truck drivers on Facebook, but on average truck drivers spend 2 hours a day on the platform.

Taking an intentional approach to Facebook alone will enable you to speak directly to 96% of drivers for 2 hours every day.

Advertising on Facebook is just one platform. If you are intentional at advertising across the entire internet you will be able to reach 100% of truck drivers.

Being intentional includes social media marketing, geofencing, retargeting, content creation, and much more.

Market Your Company to Passive Job Seekers

Passive job seekers are truckers who are currently employed and not pursuing a new position, however they are open to changing companies if a good opportunity comes along.

These job seekers are far more valuable than active job seekers. Active job seekers are going to be applying to multiple companies and speaking with many recruiters at one time. They know that they want to work for a new company and are playing the field.

Passive job seekers will only apply to work for your company.

Because passive seekers were not looking for a new job, the psychology behind the application completely changes. The driver goes from thinking “I need to find the best offer I can” to “I like, what this company has to say, it would be great to work for them.”

If you are focusing all of your efforts on job boards, then you are focusing entirely on active job seekers. This means that you are missing out entirely on the passive market.

Be intentional and get passive drivers to want to work for you.

Passive and Active. Text from letters of the wooden alphabet

Build Your Employer Brand

Another great thing about intentional driver recruiting is that your employer brand will grow when you are intentional.

Simply put, an employer brand is your reputation as a place to work.

How do drivers outside your company view what it is like to work for you?

If you are taking a reactive recruiting approach then your employer brand is reliant on word-of-mouth. However, taking an intentional approach means you are taking an active role in shaping how drivers view you.

The content you create and send out to truck drivers is going to mold how they view your company. This lets you control the narrative around your company instead of hoping your current drivers say positive things about their experience.

Recruit a Specific Niche or Advertise to the Masses

Is your company looking to hire from a very small niche? Or are all of your trucks full and you just want to run ads to keep your company on the mind of drivers for the future?

Intentional driver recruiting allows you to easily switch between the two. You can even target specific niches and advertise to the masses at the same time when you are intentional.

During a reactive recruitment campaign you can put the position requirements in the job description and only call qualified candidates. But, this strategy is not nearly as effective as using digital tools to advertise directly to drivers who meet your needs.

There is no way to generate widespread interest in your company with a reactive campaign. Sure, many drivers may see your job posting on a board somewhere, but that post is surrounded by other job openings.

Even if you do not have any current vacancies, generating widespread interest in your company is a good idea. Doing this will help you fill your trucks faster, earning higher profits for your company.

Driver recruiting needs to focus on both niche and mass audiences. Mass or niche market symbol. Businessman flips wooden cubes and changes words 'mass market' to 'niche market'. Beautiful white background, copy space. Business and mass or niche market concept.

Intentional driver recruiting tactics like social media marketing, geofencing, retargeting, and content creation all take time and money. It may seem like a reactive approach is the smart move. However, intentional campaigns far outperform reactive campaigns and help your company earn higher profits.

Interested in learning how your company can become intentional? Call us at (801)419-0164 or you can fill out the form on our homepage.

Truck Driver Recruiting in a Post COVID World

The Coronavirus pandemic will come to an end at some point (… hopefully). However, the trucking industry will never go back to its pre-COVID state. So what will truck driver recruiting in a post COVID world look like?

Here is how driver recruiting will look like moving forward:

  • An Increased Driver Shortage 
  • Less in Person Recruiting 
  • Remote Driver Learning
  • Recruiting From Home
  • Tech Savviness Will Continue to Win

An Increased Driver Shortage

Thought the driver shortage was bad during the previous years?

Just wait until you see the numbers for the years that follow 2020/2021.

I am not sharing this message to simply scare you, but instead to warn you. I want you to have enough time to prepare for what is to come.

Before the Coronavirus Pandemic, when CDL schools were at full attendance, the industry was still short 60,000 truck drivers.

CDL school attendance dropped 50% in 2020.

For the start of the pandemic, CDL schools were not capable of admitting any new students. Once the schools figured how they could admit students again safely, they could not find any people that wanted to become drivers. People were not willing to drive across the country during a pandemic.

If we were short 60,000 pre-pandemic, think about how short we are going to be post-pandemic.

You need to be gearing up your efforts.

Less in Person Recruiting

Online job hunting Hands with computer reading employment ads

COVID-19 forced the entire country to recruit truck drivers online for some time. During this time many trucking companies realized how impactful digital recruiting can be.

The companies that realized how impactful recruiting truck drivers online is are going to keep investing heavily into this strategy. That means less money will be spent on recruiting drivers at in-person events.

In addition to companies spending less on in-person recruiting, drivers are now accustomed to being recruited online.

They are not going to want to travel long distances to attend recruiting events. Job hunting online is easier for truck drivers, and now that there are a lot of companies online, truckers have zero incentive to go to in-person events.

Remote Driver Learning 

If you hired drivers at any point in 2020 you probably were not able to bring the driver into your facility to conduct orientation. You had to find a way to get your drivers through orientation virtually.

This was a huge benefit for drivers. If a driver was in Nashville, they could accept a job and go through orientation in St. Louis. Orientation has become much less of a burden for truck drivers.

Moving forward post-pandemic you need to keep driver learning remote. Not only will it help with orientation, but you can also train drivers new skills while they are out on the road. You do not need to keep your drivers at your headquarters to train them.

Companies like Tenstreet and TruckRight offer trucking companies excellent remote learning management software.

Recruiting From Home

Do you love recruiting from home or do you hate it?

Either way, you can expect to continue to work from home going forward.

According to a survey conducted by Gartner, over 80% of company leaders plan to permit remote work after the pandemic.

Businesses have realized that employees are just as or more effective working at home compared to going into the office every day. Employees spend less time commuting to work, are more comfortable in their homes, and employees work more when they are at home.

If you are recruiting from home you need to make sure that you are getting the most out of your video interviews and effectively recruiting drivers on social media.

Back view of business woman talking to her colleagues about plan in video conference. Multiethnic business team using laptop for a online meeting in video call. Group of truck driver recruiters working from home

Tech Savviness Will Continue to Win

Before 2020 trucking companies could be successful despite not utilizing technology to its full capability.

Once COVID became a reality that was no longer the case. The trucking companies that best utilized their technology last year thrived. Trucking companies that were not able to adapt struggled.

This trend is going to continue in the post COVID world.

Prioritizing technology will allow your company to be more efficient, keep your trucks on the road, make everyone’s lives easier, and boost all-around performance.

It is rare that an event comes along and completely changes everything. COVID-19 is one of those events. Truck driver recruiting pre-pandemic will look entirely different than driver recruiting post-pandemic. Follow this guide and get prepared for success at truck driver recruiting in a post COVID world.

How to be a Great Truck Driver Recruiter

Truck driver recruiters are some of the most important people within their organizations. If they are ineffective at their job, the company will have trucks sitting “on the fence” and not on the road earning revenue. Follow these steps and you will know how to be a great truck driver recruiter.

  1. Master Your Process 
  2. Understand Social Media Marketing for Trucking Companies 
  3. Learn the Art of Persuasion 
  4. Stay Organized and Be Prepared 
  5. Stay in Touch With Potential Drivers
  6. Remain Transparent Through the Hiring Process

Truck driver recruiter grabs red wooden figure to symbolize making a new hire.

Master Your Process

You will not be able to efficiently hire truck drivers if you do not have your process mastered.

How are you going to reach out to recent applicants if you do not know where their information is kept? How can you hire a new driver if you do not know how to send them the necessary paperwork and make sure it is all properly filled out?

If you are reading this and have been working at the same company for a long period of time, this tip may feel like a waste of time. However, each company has a different process. It can be easy to overlook this step when you start a new position.

Mastering the entire process is equivalent to mastering the fundamentals of any sport.

Just like you can’t expect to lace them up on Sundays without first mastering the basics, you can not be a great driver recruiter without first mastering your hiring process.

Understand Social Media Marketing for Trucking Companies

Nearly 100% of all truck drivers in the country are members of social media. Effective social media marketing allows for your company to reach all of these drivers, build your company brand, and connect with other people in the industry.

Because social media is so effective at generating driver applicants and promoting your company, it is likely an integral part of your carrier’s strategy.

A great truck driver recruiter understands the fundamentals of social media marketing. They do this because they want to understand where the drivers are coming from, how the driver came to apply, and what is reasonably expectable from a campaign.

Even if you are not responsible for running social media campaigns, you should learn how campaigns work.

Learn the Art of Persuasion

The red figure of a person influences a crowd of people. Expressing your own opinion, turning to your side. Mastery of persuasion, propaganda, influence on the masses. Warming up the mood of the crowd

Truck driver recruiting is a sales position. The key to being successful at sales is learning how to persuade people to act.

You rarely come across a driver applicant that has fully committed to working for your company after applying.

Drivers need to be persuaded to drive for your company.

The driver shortage has created a world where truck drivers are fielding multiple offers at once. Where the driver decides to work comes down to which company is the most persuasive.

If you want to learn how to become more persuasive as a driver recruiter check out this article:

5 TIPS FOR DRIVER RECRUITERS TO BE MORE PERSUASIVE

Stay Organized and be Prepared 

Truck driver recruiting is a constant juggling act. If you are disorganized and/or unprepared you will miss out on opportunities to hire drivers for your company.

If you are organized you will be able to manage applications coming in from multiple lead sources, keep track of all the meetings you set up, and submit the necessary paperwork for each driver.

You need to be over-prepared for each interview with individual drivers. At the start of an interview, you may think a driver applied because they are interested in a pay raise, and then find out that they had a poor experience with previous management.

If you enter the interview only prepared to discuss how drivers are paid at your company, then you won’t be fully prepared to talk about company culture. Sure you could discuss it off the top of your head, but you won’t have all the content necessary to show off your company culture.

Staying organized and being prepared will make sure that you interact with as many drivers as you can and can answer all of their questions.

Stay in Touch With Potential Drivers 

The hiring process can be lengthy, especially if a driver is applying to multiple companies. You must stay in touch with drivers that are in your hiring process.

Every day, Monday through Friday, you need to contact all of your potential drivers.

When you contact drivers you should be checking in to see if you can help them in any way. The key is to stay on the driver’s mind.

Remembering to contact drivers every day can be challenging. Using a quality ATS will help you stay organized and make it easy to contact each driver.

Wooden man shows with hand text Stay In Touch concept on wooden block

Remain Transparent Through the Hiring Process

You need to be transparent with the truck driver through the entire hiring process. Do not over-promise the good aspects of your company and hide the bad aspects.

Be upfront with the drivers about possible areas of miscommunication and elements of the job the driver may not enjoy.

It may feel counterintuitive to share negative information with the driver, however, it actually builds trust between you and the driver. The transparency establishes that you are an honest person.

This does not mean that you should focus on the negatives. Share the things about the job that the driver may not like, but then show that the positives outweigh the negatives.

Truck drivers will be more likely to believe you on how great the position is if you are honest about some of the downsides.

Truck driver recruiters are essential to every trucking company in the country. Also, the better you are at driver recruiting the more money you will make. Follow this guide and you will know how to be a great truck driver recruiter.

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

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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!

Where Truck Driver Referral Programs Fall Short

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Truck driver referral programs are often praised as the most effective recruiting strategy for small to mid-sized carriers. Referral programs are impactful for carriers, however, they are not perfect.

Here is where driver referral programs fall short:

No Referrals When Expanding to a New Location

Has your company grown to a point that you want to start a new location in a new part of the country? That is excellent news.

A driver referral program will not help you find drivers in your new area.

Let’s say, for example, your original location is located in West Jordan, UT and you are expanding into Springfield, MO.

None of your drivers are going to know people who live in Springfield Missouri. So how can they possibly refer you to new drivers?

If you expand to a new location and plan on using referrals as your main source of applications you will struggle.

A young man with outstretched arms, shrugging his shoulders, says: I don't know. Isolated on a gray background.

Your Drivers Have A Limited Network

Smaller carriers that employ 10 – 50 truck drivers have a limited network of potential drivers they can reach with a referral program.

Let’s say a company has 50 truck drivers and each driver knows 5 people looking for a new position. That is only 250 possible applications your program could generate. 250 applications is the best-case scenario.

I know you are probably thinking that once you start hiring some of those 250 applications the pool of potential drivers grows. However, the new drivers hired are going to have the same network as the person who referred them.

This is a simplified example and the network your company has access to will always be changing.

Yet, even though it is changing, your network is limited.

Beware of Referral Spamming

Truck drivers are smart people. If you are offering a significant bonus for every referral, some of your drivers are going to figure out how to game the system.

Your truck drivers will find a way to earn as many bonuses as possible.

Now, this is not a problem if your company is making quality hires from these referrals. However, the problem comes in when drivers begin referral spamming.

Referral spamming is when truck drivers are submitting as many referrals they can find, without caring about the quality of the referral.

Drivers will connect on social media, or at a truck stop, and refer a person that they barely just met, even if they know that person is a notorious job hopper.

Do not let these shortcomings scare you away from utilizing truck driver referral programs. There are far more positives than negatives with referral programs. The purpose of this article is to shine a light on things you need to be aware of when using this strategy.

The best way to avoid these shortcomings is by not relying entirely on referrals to make all of your hires. Generating leads from Facebook advertising and other digital media sources will allow your company to keep calling quality leads when the referrals dry up.