Truck Driver Recruiting in Social Media Groups

Effective and efficient recruiting is at the core of any successful trucking company. Carriers rely heavily on constant inflows of new drivers to keep the business running smooth. Truck driver recruiting in social media groups will help keep the inflows constant.

Driver churn rate peaked at 98% in 2018. Considering that the average cost of driver turnover is $8,200 per driver, it is easy to see how companies are spending more on new drivers than any other expense. No wonder fleets ranging in size from C.R. England to smaller family owned fleets are looking to deploy recruitment strategies that bring in qualified drivers for as cheap as possible.

Truck driver recruiting in social media groups will generate a plethora of driver candidates and keep carriers up-to-date on current recruiting strategies.

Person speaking within a social media group.

The Basics of Social Media Groups

Facebook and LinkedIn offer users the ability to create and / or join groups. Groups are communities of people that all have something in common.

For example everyone in a group may have all graduated from the same high school, work in the same industry, share similar interests, etc. The possibilities are limitless.

Every group has a specific set of rules that members must follow. Some groups require admin approval for new members, other groups ban self promotion, there are groups built specifically for people to promote.

Getting Started with Social Media Groups

Navigating social media groups is pretty simple. The first step is going to be finding the right groups to join. In Facebook and LinkedIn type in a keyword, “trucking” is a basic example of a keyword, and make sure to select the “Groups” tab. Selecting the “Groups” tab will ensure that all the results are groups with the keyword in the name.

There are groups on both Facebook and LinkedIn designed specifically to connect drivers and recruiters. Request to join the groups that are active, have no spam posts, and match your geographical requirements.

The second step is to learn the rules of the group. Obviously, groups designed to connect drivers with recruiters are going to be okay with people promoting job postings. However, there are rules like “no piggybacking off of other job posts”.

Breaking a group’s rules will lead to the poster being kicked out of the group.

The third step is to post, and the final step is to reach out to everyone who shows interest.

Having Success With Social Media Groups

It is important to remember that in each of these groups there are other recruiters and all the recruiters are competing to attract the same qualified drivers.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

The recruiter that posts, interacts, and contacts drivers the most will likely have the most success. Similar to other avenues of recruitment, recruiting in social media groups is a numbers game.

I have spoken with recruiters who are succeeding with groups about their strategies. One recruiter told me that at the beginning of each week they post ads to about ten different groups. These posts generate “hundreds and hundreds” of responses every week.

This recruiter makes note of every person who responded in his lead book. Every Monday the recruiter generates hundreds of names to pursue for his available positions.

Another recruiter told me that she is shifting from using paid services to focusing mainly on social media groups. According to her, there is no other strategy that is as effective at letting her reach large number of drivers AND show the drivers that she is a real person just like them.

Social media groups are one of the most effective tools that recruiters have access to. Recruiters using social media groups have an outlet that connects them to thousands of drivers. All truck driver recruiters should be in these groups and treating the groups as one of the most important outlets in their recruitment campaigns.

Social Media Groups to Join

Here is a list of Facebook and LinkedIn groups to get you started:

Facebook:

Linkedin:

Stepping up Your Driver Recruiting Game

Semi truck drives along road in the mountains. Driver recruiting filled the seat of the truck.

Truck Driver recruiting is one of the most critical pieces to a successful trucking operation. If not done effectively, it can cripple your business.  It is also one of the most difficult to master.

Figuring out how to meet the recruiting needs of your trucking operation can be tricky when you do not have the spending power that the mega trucking companies do. Here are strategies that will help you make educated decisions.

– COST OF DRIVER RECRUITING –

Knowing how to spend your money for recruiting may make or break factor for your company.

There are 2 ways to look at it: Spend the money on people or on process. According to Glassdoor.com, based on over 30,000 salary entries, the average pay for a driver recruiter is about $43k per year or about $3500/mo. If you dig a little deeper, you can see that the range goes from as low as $28k up to $72k.

At those salary ranges you could be hiring an inexperienced to moderately experienced employee that could manage your recruiting efforts. You could also look to an agency that will manage the process for you. There are pros and cons to both.

    1. The pro of hiring in house that you can keep your finger on the pulse of what is happening more. That person can have a first hand understanding of the operation and culture of your organization. The con is that you are limited to the skill set and ability of the person you hire. When hiring this person you are absorbing the cost of the employee in addition to the costs of advertising and marketing the positions you need to fill.
    2. The pro to hiring an agency is that with the right agency, you tap into recruiting abilities that you wont get with a single employee. Cons to hiring an agency – its scary. It is difficult to know whom you can trust and whether or not they can deliver what you need.

– TECHNOLOGY FOR DRIVER RECRUITING –

The process for looking for a job is so much different now then it was 10 years ago.

So what has changed?

People still have to find new employment, fill out an application, get a background check, and a million other things. So why is it that traditional forms of recruiting aren’t effective anymore? Technology is the answer.

With the Internet, potential drivers and employees are able to research you as a company, find out what you have to offer in compensation, hear what your employees say about you and generally assess whether they feel they would be a good fit for the job.

The best thing you can do as a carrier is to get ahead of the technological curve. Make sure your online presence is up to par. Also ensure your website portrays you in the best light possible and gives an honest impression of what it is like to work for your company. Focus on the competitive advantages you have to offer.

Another way to get ahead of the curve is to make sure that your company can be found. There are a lot of ways to do this: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), properly developed profiles on job boards and social media.

Make sure that your process for applying for the job is geared toward mobile users. Recent statistics show that more then half of all internet traffic is through mobile devices world wide, and that as much as 70-80% of truck driver applications are being submitted via a mobile device.

Knowing the direction that internet traffic is heading allows you to cater your application process to the mobile user.

Maximizing on these 2 things doesn’t solve the puzzle. However, it definitely positions you above most of the competition. As companies focus efforts on catering the recruiting experience to the driver and not to the company, the effectiveness of the recruiting effort increases.

Hand writing out its goals for 2017.

Driver Recruiting Plan… Do You Have One?

Demands of a consumer driven economy are causing the trucking industry to grow. The battle for drivers is intense. Because of this you need a driver recruiting plan.

Embrace the Power of the Web

Is your application process available on-line? If the process to apply for a job with your company involves downloading an PDF, faxing, or any type of paper application, it will be a never ending struggle to get enough drivers to keep your fleet fully staffed and on the road.

Is your application optimized for the mobile user? Today, as many as 70% of on-line driver applications are completed from a cell phone or tablet. Drivers are less likely to complete the application if it is a tedious process.

Are Drivers Able to Find You?

Can a potential applicant find you? I would like you to try a short exercise. Open an incognito window on your internet browser, and type into the search engine “Truck Driving jobs __________” And fill in the blank with your most relevant location. (Atlanta, North Carolina, Cincinnati, Utah, etc.)

Then, see how hard you have to look to find an opportunity to apply for a position with your company. This is the experience that a driver has trying to find your company. If it takes too long, or if you can’t find your own company, then there is some work to do.

Driveteks is a marketing company that understands the transportation industry. We are experts in online marketing, and use our expertise to gain wide exposure for our clients. This drives the maximum number of qualified applicants to them. Driveteks’ proprietary technology filters, screen, and qualify applicants. Because of this our clients are seeing the best of the best.

If you do not have a strategic on-line driver recruiting plan in place, or would like to improve your existing efforts, Driveteks is the best place to start.