Tag: drivers

How to Get Your Drivers to Submit Video Testimonials

Posted on by Jake Peters

 

Video testimonials from your truck drivers can be one of the most valuable assets your company has. These testimonials are excellent sources for recruitment content and company promotions. However, they are hard to obtain. Here is how to get your drivers to submit video testimonials.

What are Video Testimonials?

Video testimonials are simply the act of sitting down with your drivers and interviewing them what it is like to work for your company. These are not scripted actors, but instead the real people who drive your trucks.

Why do you Need Video Testimonials From Your Drivers? 

Video testimonials are beneficial because they provide the most realistic view of what it is like to work for your fleet.

Sharing these testimonials will show a level of authenticity to your company that is not possible with other forms of driver recruitment advertising.

Authenticity creates a layer of trust between your company and potential drivers. This trust will help your recruiters immensely when they reach out to drivers for the first time, helping your hiring efforts.

People creating and reacting to a driver video testimonial

6 Steps to Get Your Drivers to Submit Video Testimonials 

  1. Personal Your Request

  2. Emphasize the “W.I.I.F.M” for the Driver 

  3. Provide Easy to Answer Prompts 

  4. Make the Submission as Easy as Possible 

  5. Encourage Drivers to Show off Their Personality 

  6. Utilize a Creative Agency

Personalize Your Request

Do not send an impersonal survey request… nobody likes nor responds to those. Here is an example of a bad request:

A bad example of a request for drivers to submit a video testimonial.

You’ve hand-picked the drivers you’re requesting feedback from, so treat them that way and make them feel special! 

One of the easiest ways you can personalize your request is by using the driver’s first name in the subject line. Doing this will grab their attention while looking at their email inbox and let them know this email is specifically for them.

Another thing you should do is send out the emails individually to the drivers, no email blasts. Nobody likes long email chains.

Keep in mind that if it looks like an automated message – it will get treated like on. Your drivers will either ignore it or immediately delete it.

Biggest Personalization mistake to Avoid:

Using requests or subject lines that make an employee feel like a number, not a person like,
“Driver Feedback needed”, or, “We value your feedback”

Emphasize the “W.I.I.F.M” for the Driver

Human beings are naturally selfish – and it’s no different when it comes to feedback requests. When you’re asking for a testimonial, you’re essentially saying, we want more drivers like you.

It’s a huge compliment to the drivers’ character and shows that you’re trying to better the company by hiring more drivers like them – so say that!!

In addition to flattering the driver, your company may consider including a small incentive for the feedback like a $10 gift card. If you are including an incentive you need to make that abundantly clear to the drivers.

Biggest “W.I.I.F.M” Mistake to Avoid:

Requesting a testimonial without expressing how much you value the service the driver is providing

Provide Easy to Answer Prompts 

Drivers do not want to spend hours answering long-winded questions. The longer the driver thinks it will take for them to complete the testimonial, the less likely they are to complete it.

However, do not make the prompts too simple.

The biggest mistake first-time interviewers make is asking yes or no questions, it’s important to make the questions open-ended. By asking open-ended questions you are leaving room for the drivers to be themselves and provide honest feedback. 

It’s also important to ask drivers to rephrase the questions into their answers. If you ask “what’s it like to drive for XYZ Co…” ask them to include the phase “driving for XYZ Co is dot dot dot” not just – “they give good pay and benefits”

Biggest Prompts Mistake to Avoid:

Asking close-ended, yes/no questions – they don’t make for good videos

Make the Submission as Easy as Possible

Again, thinking about W.I.I.F.M. – just like with a job application, if it’s difficult to do or takes more than 15 minutes, you can kiss your opportunity goodbye. 

Make use of video survey services, like Trade Response – this lets you send personalized questions at scale to your drivers.

Biggest Submission Mistake to Avoid:

Trying to coordinate schedules with a driver endlessly

Encourage Drivers to Show off Their Personality

At the end of the day you always have to remember that drivers are human beings, if they don’t say the answer in the most articulate way, it’s okay. It may even make your video more persuasive. 

In today’s recruiting landscape, drivers are looking for authenticity and there is nothing authentic about a perfectly scripted testimonial. So let your drivers be themselves and do not stress about perfection!

Plus, if drivers are encouraged to show off their personality, they will have more fun with the project and be more likely to submit their video.

Biggest Encouragement Mistake to Avoid

Discouraging personalized stories – or just not asking the right questions to evoke those answers

Utilize a Creative Agency

Creative agencies can turn your drivers into company spokespeople, even if they record the video from their phone. Agencies are pros – they know what questions to ask, how to ask them and how to deliver the best results.

Biggest Mistake to Avoid:

Trying to DIY the project – it wastes everyone’s time, yielding results that either aren’t good or all sound the same

In today’s age, major advertisers are running commercials using “user generated content”, meaning there was no crew, no large budget, and no hassle. The same can be done with drivers. Video testimonials can add fuel to your driver recruiting fire, igniting the hiring spree your company needs. 

How to Attract Truck Drivers on Social Media

Posted on by Jake Peters

It is no secret that truck drivers love social media. However, just because they are on social media does not mean they are easy to reach. Here is how to attract truck drivers on social media.

  1. Create Different Content for Different Platforms
  2. Utilize Groups to Reach Your Target Audience
  3. Spotlight Your Top Performing Drivers
  4. Respond Quickly to Inquiries
  5. Invite Followers to Visit Your Website

Attract Customers And Leads With Magnet. Lead Capture Concept

Create Different Content for Different Platforms

Truck driver’s behavior varies depending on the platform they are using. For example, on Facebook drivers are switching between reading, looking at photos, and watching videos. Because of this, the videos they watch are usually silent with subtitles.

TikTok on the other hand is dedicated solely to videos so drivers always have their sound on when using the platform.

Knowing how user behavior varies across platforms, you need to make content that satisfies those behaviors.

You need to be creating the following pieces of content:

  • Extensive written content
  • Short-form written content
  • Professional quality photographs
  • Infographics
  • Professional videos
  • Videos edited to be 45 seconds or less

If you want to learn more about creating content check out the Guide to Content Creation for Driver Recruitment.

Utilize Groups to Reach Your Target Audience

If you are getting started on social media it can feel quite daunting to build a following.

It can feel like a chicken and the egg situation. To get followers you need people to see your content, but for people to see your content you need followers. Seems impossible right?

Fortunately, on platforms like Facebook and Linkedin, there are thousands of groups that are built for you. All you need to do is search for the groups that have drivers in them.

Once you find the groups best suited for your company, you need to get active in the groups. Do not simply post your content and leave. Engage the drivers in conversation.

You can engage in conversations by commenting on other people’s posts, posting questions, and sharing other useful content.

Participating in the groups will get truck drivers to notice your company, and if they like you they will follow you. Eventually, they may apply to work for you.

woman hand pressing social media icon, futuristic technology

Spotlight Your Top Performing Drivers

Taking the time to spotlight your top-performing drivers accomplishes a few goals for your social media presence.

The first thing it does for you is help attract truck drivers to your account. When you spotlight your top drivers, the driver who is being celebrated will share that post with their network. Truck drivers are friends with other drivers, so drivers not following you will be exposed to your account via the spotlight post.

As more drivers start following you and seeing these spotlight posts, more drivers will want to work for you. Your company will be perceived as one that truly values its drivers. Quality truck drivers want to work for a carrier that appreciates their hard work.

In addition to attracting new CDL drivers to your company, spotlight posts keep your current employees attracted to working for you. Your drivers will want to keep working for an employer that celebrates them.

Respond Quickly to Inquiries

As you attract people to follow your social media accounts, new followers will begin reaching out to learn more about your company.

Respond to these inquiries as quickly as possible. Doing so will capitalize on the excitement from a potential driver.

Research shows that 71% of people that experience positive social care are likely to recommend the company to others. A fast and helpful response not only boosts your relationship with the driver inquiring but can help you build relationships with other drivers.

Rapid Response Clock Quick Fast Reaction 3d Illustration

Invite Followers to Your Website

Yes, it is great to build up the number of truck drivers that follow you. But you don’t want them to only follow your account, you want to hire them!

One way to begin converting followers into drivers is to invite them to visit your trucking website. At your website, drivers will begin interacting with your extended recruiting content.

Your recruiting content should share with the driver what it is like to be an employee for the company. This includes things like company culture, driver benefits/pay, type of routes offered to drivers, etc.

Getting the driver to visit your site does not guarantee an application. However, it keeps your company in the mind of drivers. When those drivers are ready for a new position they will first think to apply to your company.

Learning how to attract truck drivers on social media will significantly improve your company’s hiring efforts. Stick to these tips and you will start building up your company’s following on social media.

The Ultimate Guide to Attract Quality Truck Drivers Online

Posted on by Jake Peters

Quality truck drivers are at the highest demand they have ever been. There are simply not enough of them around. The good news is that 100% of all quality drivers can be reached online, the bad news is that more carriers than ever are competing to attract quality truck drivers.

Here is the ultimate guide to attracting QUALITY truck drivers online:

  1. Building a Strong Facebook Presence 
  2. Driver Testimonials and Creating Content for Drivers
  3. Job Board Management
  4. Champion Cunning Edge Technologies 
  5. Search Engine Optimization
  6. Geotargeting for Driver Recruitment

Quality truck driver wearing a protective mask while driving his truck.

Build a Strong Facebook Presence

96% of all adults are Facebook users. Using this statistic, it is fair to say that 96% of all quality truck drivers are Facebook users as well.

If you have not started building a presence on the social media platform you need to. Last year during 2020, the platform saw increased engagement because everyone was locked down and had nothing to do.

The first step to building a strong Facebook presence is to create your company page. As you are building your company page make sure to include all of the information required to contact you and plenty of quality images.

Once your page is built, use that page to join as many relevant groups as possible.

Take time each day to interact with all of the groups that you have joined. Do not treat the groups as a place where you only post your job ads.

You should be posting the driver content (more on that in a moment) that your company is creating, answer any questions posed by drivers, and any interesting articles.

Think of the groups as a place for you to show off your company’s personality.

In addition to building a professional company page and interacting within groups, you need to be running a continuous Facebook advertising campaign.

It may leave a sour taste in your mouth having to pay for these ads every month, however, it is necessary. Facebook makes its money from ad-revenue, so they have built their algorithms in a way that caps your audience reach on free posts.

Your Facebook ads should promote everything from available job listings, newly created content, and any company milestones.

Advertising on Facebook is a complicated task, but if it is done correctly, you can reach any quality truck driver you want at a cost-effective rate.

magnifying glass looking at Facebook for business page.

Driver Testimonials and Creating Content for Drivers

If you speak with any quality truck driver and ask them about their experiences with recruiters, they are bound to have at least one horror story. Because the industry moves so fast and information changes rapidly, drivers feel like they are always being lied to by recruiters.

Truck drivers trust other truck drivers more than anyone else in the industry.

You need to create content that tells the story of what it is like to work for your company from the perspective of your truck drivers.

Video testimonials from your longest-tenured truck drivers are the most effective content at convincing quality drivers to apply for your company. Quality truck drivers that are researching your company want to hear from your current truck drivers.

In addition to testimonials, you should be creating “day-in-the-life-of” videos. These videos tell the story of an average day for your truck drivers.

Finally, create content that covers any driver celebrations your company throws. Quality truck drivers want to see that they will be properly appreciated if they decide to work for your company.

Job Board Management

Many carriers are hesitant to advertise their jobs on job boards because they have been burned in the past. It makes sense to be hesitant. Advertising on job boards has become more and more expensive and there is no guarantee which job board will perform the best.

However,

Job boards remain one of the best places to attract quality truck drivers.

The entirety of people you reach on job boards is active job seekers. This is opposed to reaching a mix of passive and active seekers advertising on other platforms.

The time it takes to hire an active job seeker is much shorter than the time it takes to hire a passive job seeker. This shorter time to hire means your trucks are on the road longer, earning you more money.

The most common mistake that carriers make when using job boards is spending all of their ad-spend on one board. They will place all of their eggs in one basket.

You need to have your job opening on as many job boards as possible at the start of the month. Then as the month goes on closely monitor to see which board is getting your ad the most views. Finally, allocate the majority of your ad-spend to the top-performing board for the end of the month.

Reset your ad spend at the start of the next month. The top-performing job board will change from month-to-month.

Words We Are Looking For You On Yellow Background. Job Board.

Champion Your Cunning Edge Technology

Does your company use cunning edge technology to make your company as efficient as possible? If so you need to show it off!

Quality truck drivers want to work for a company that uses new technology to make the drivers’ lives easier. They also want to work for a company that frequently gets new trucks.

An example of innovative technology making drivers’ lives easier is logistics software shortening driver routes and increasing their home time.

Driveteks has a client in Salt Lake City that runs loads to Denver every day. Instead of having their drivers make the 8-hour trip there and 8 hours back, they used their logistics software to team up with a company from Denver that runs loads to Salt Lake.

The drivers for the Salt Lake company and the Denver company meet at the halfway point, switch loads, and return home for the night. Each load gets where it needs to go, the drivers drive the same amount of miles, and everyone sleeps in their own bed.

If your company is using technology like in the example above, leasing new trucks, and/or any other new technology you need to make sure driver applicants are aware.

Quality truck drivers want to work for companies that will make their lives easier.

Search Engine Optimization

You can not expect to attract quality truck drivers to apply to work for your company if the drivers can not find you online.

Search engine optimization is the process of making your company findable on the internet. When done properly, you will rank for the search terms that drivers are looking up.

There are three corners to the SEO Triangle: content, technical, and links.

Your company website must be technically sound, have engaging content, and link to relevant sources and have backlinks to your site.

SEM Rush, Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, and Ubersuggest are all excellent tools for you to use to monitor your site’s SEO presence.

Check out the beginner’s guide to SEO if you are unfamiliar with search engine optimization.

Geotargeting for Truck Driver Recruitment

Today’s technology enables recruiters to specifically target niche demographics of potential drivers.

Geotargeting is a location-based advertising strategy. You choose a specific target location and pay to send your ads to the people within that geographical location.

Carefully placing your targets where quality drivers frequent guarantees your ads will be seen.

You should be placing your geotargets at truck stops along your routes, local CDL schools, hiring events, and even competitor truck lots.

Pushpin on map that symbolizes geofencing for truck driver recruitment

Truck driver recruiting is taking place online more than ever before. Companies are realizing that they can directly advertise to the drivers they want at a cost-effective rate. Follow this guide and your company will know how to attract quality truck drivers online.

What are your strategies for attracting quality drivers online? Comment below!

How to Retain Truck Drivers through the Holidays

Posted on by Jake Peters

The holiday season can be a frustrating time for truck driver recruiters. Many of the drivers you hired throughout the year will leave your company to spend this time with their family. If you take the right steps you can retain your truck drivers. Follow this guide and retain your truck drivers this holiday season.

Santa Claus driving a truck. Truck driver wearing Santa Claus and smiling happy on Christmas Day. Workers in transportation and delivery business are working in celebration holidays. Merry Christmas

Offer a Significant Holiday Bonus 

Money talks, it is the oldest trick in the retention book.

It is common for truck drivers to quit their jobs right before the holiday season starts and find new work in January. The promise of a hefty holiday bonus towards the end of the holiday season would help keep drivers from leaving your company.

The holiday bonus is a motivation for drivers to stay with your company and it makes them feel valued by your company.

You must make sure the bonus you are offering is worthwhile. Drivers are more than likely not going to stick around for a $50 Amazon card. Make the bonus big enough that your truck drivers think it is worth it to keep working instead of taking time off.

Throw a Big Company Holiday Party 

A company holiday party is a fun strategy that you can use to retain truck drivers through the holiday season. Who doesn’t love to party?!

Celebrating the end of another year with a large celebration is an incentive for drivers to stay around. However, you need to make the party a great time, it cannot be a mediocre party.

You can throw an excellent party by allowing employees to bring their families, having the event catered, and specifically having a special moment for the children. If the kids of your drivers are looking towards your holiday party every year then the kids will convince your drivers to stay with your company.

Every year at your company party, make sure to designate some time to specifically celebrate the truck drivers in front of the entire company. You have no company without your drivers and the whole company should celebrate them.

Company throws holiday party to retain truck drivers

Provide Paid Time Off for Longest Tenured Drivers

Clearly, you do not need to worry about your longest-tenured truck drivers job-hopping. If they have stuck with your company for multiple years, it is safe to assume they have no plans for job-hopping.

Not only do these truck drivers deserve to be rewarded for their loyalty, but they are also an example for recently hired drivers. This policy will establish a company culture that says it rewards loyalty.

Giving tenured drivers paid time off is a walking example of what can happen for the new drivers if they stick with the company. The new truck drivers will be determined to stay with your company so they earn paid time off.

Extend an Abundance of Gratitude and Appreciation

At the end of the day, truck driver retention boils down to gratitude and appreciation. Truck drivers are like everyone else and want to work for a company that values them.

If you work for a carrier that is unable to afford bonuses, holiday parties, and paid time off you can still retain your drivers. Gratitude and appreciation are free to give away.

Take time out of every day this holiday season to express how much you value your drivers. Also, encourage all of your non-driving employees to do the same.

The Holiday season is a tricky season to navigate for trucking companies. An increased number of drivers begin to job hop this time of year. This adds extra stress to the truck driver recruiter. Avoid this stress by following these tips and retaining your truck drivers through the holiday season.

How Aging Truck Drivers Impact the Industry

Posted on by Jake Peters

New technology is allowing drivers to go longer without retiring by making the job less physically demanding. This means the average retirement age is increasing. Despite drivers staying on the road longer, driver retirement is the largest contributor to the truck driver shortage.

Aging truck driver crossing the road to retirement.

The Average Retirement Age for Truck Drivers

The truck driver population in America is steadily increasing year after year. Currently, the average retirement age for truck drivers is 62 years old. However, according to the OOIDA, most independent drivers plan on retiring at 67 years of age.

While the average retirement age for drivers is a good estimate, it does not accurately reflect how individual drivers feel about retirement.

There are two trains of thought amongst drivers. Some have the mentality that they will drive until they can no longer physically pull themselves into the cab. Others want to retire as soon as possible.

How Old is the Average Truck Driver

According to surveys conducted by the American Trucking Associations, the average driver age in the for-hire over-the-road truckload industry is 46. Other trucking sectors have an even higher average age.

Roughly 54% of truck drivers on the road today are 45 years or older. The trucking demographic is one of the oldest in the country and only getting older.

Within this decade over one-half of all current truck drivers will be older than the average retirement age.

An average truck driver

How Many Truck Drivers Retire Each Year

It is estimated that between 2019 and 2028 there will be 600,000 truck drivers retiring. That means 66,667 truck drivers will retire every year.

The industry needs to find nearly 70,000 new truck drivers every year to fill the void left by drivers retiring.

Aging Population is Fueling the Driver Shortage

Truck drivers retiring will be responsible for 54% of the driver shortage over the next decade.

The trucking industry needs to find a way to replace truck drivers retiring from the career.

What You Can Do to Attract Younger Truck Drivers

Obviously, the only way to combat drivers retiring from your company is to hire younger drivers to replace them. The number one place you can find young drivers is on social media.

Hiring a professional to manage your social media marketing is the best way to get your company in front of the eyes of younger drivers.

The industry is experiencing a lack of young people signing up to be truck drivers. You are going to need to recruit people to get their CDL and then join your company.

Aging truck drivers can stay on the road for longer because of improved truck technology. However, that is only kicking the can down the road. Truck drivers are going to retire sooner or later and that is fueling the driver shortage.

6 Steps to Successfully Hiring Truck Drivers

Posted on by Jake Peters

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

  1. Generate awareness with paid advertising
  2. Inform the driver with your website content
  3. Get the driver to apply for your company
  4. Call the driver ASAP after they apply
  5. Ensure the driver attends orientation
  6. Officially hire the driver

Two truck driver recruiters successfully hire a driver

Paid Advertising Generating Awareness

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

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

For example:

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

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

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

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

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

Website Content Informs Drivers

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

Think about the example above.

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

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

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

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

Driver Submits an Application 

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

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

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

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

Recruiter Calls the Driver ASAP

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

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

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

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

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

Recruiter gets the Driver Through Orientation 

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

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

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

The Driver is Officially Hired

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

However,

The driver recruiter should never stop recruiting drivers hired.

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

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

5 Tips to Get Truck Drivers to Engage With Your Content

Posted on by Jake Peters

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

This is the question:

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

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

  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

Posted on by Jake Peters

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

 

Build Your Company Page 

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

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

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

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

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

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.

How To Advertise to Truck Drivers

Posted on by Jake Peters

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

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

Social Media Marketing

Person uses phone to respond to social media marketing

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

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

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

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

Job Boards 

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

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

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

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

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

Email/Text Campaigns

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

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

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

Geofencing For Driver Recruitment

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

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

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

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

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

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

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

Illustration that depicts where people see pay per click advertising.

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

The Average Cost to Recruit Truck Drivers

Posted on by Jake Peters

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

Industry Average to Recruit Drivers

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

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

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

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

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

Calculating YOUR Hiring Costs

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

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

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

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

How to Improve Your Driver Retention

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

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

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

How to Reduce Your Hiring Costs

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

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

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

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

High efficiency and minimum costs

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