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:
- Building a Strong Facebook Presence
- Driver Testimonials and Creating Content for Drivers
- Job Board Management
- Champion Cunning Edge Technologies
- Search Engine Optimization
- Geotargeting for Driver Recruitment
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.
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.
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.
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!