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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.

Guide to Best Places to Recruit Truck Drivers in 2020

Posted on by Jake Peters

In March of 2020, the way that carriers recruited CDL drivers was completely upended. No longer can you rely on in-person recruiting strategies. If you are unfamiliar with digital truck driver recruiting it can be daunting to begin; however, it is now necessary. Here is the guide to the best places to recruit truck drivers in 2020.

  1. Search Engine Optimization
  2. Social Media
  3. Paid Media
  4. Geofencing
  5. Job Boards/Aggregator Sites

The internet is the best place to recruit truck drivers in 2020

Search Engine Optimization To Rank High

The absolute best place to recruit truck drivers is in the exact moment they search for a job. If your company’s website is properly optimized, your recruitment landing page will rank for high volume keyphrases.

An example of a high volume keyphrase is, “best trucking companies to work for.” That keyphrase is searched on Google 1,900 times each month according to Ubersuggest.

Optimizing your site to rank for high volume keyphrases will drive visitors to your company’s website that have the intention of applying to work for you.

SEO strategy to recruit truck drivers

Social Media Marketing for Trucking Companies

Truck drivers love social media. They are particularly fond of Facebook, and specifically Facebook’s group feature.

As the recruiter, you need to be super active within these trucking Facebook groups. Post your job openings, but also take the time to interact with the drivers. Answer their questions, comment on their posts, post trucking memes, etc. Doing this will establish yourself as someone that is more than a truck driver recruiter in the group.

In addition to being active within the group, you must be advertising on social media. Paying to promote your company on social media will keep you on the mind of drivers in your target demographic.

As the drivers in your target demographic begin to think about switching companies, they will think about switching to YOUR company.

Paid Media Keeps You on Drivers’ Minds

Digital driver recruitment is a complicated process that requires multiple moving parts. It is common for CDL driver recruiters to grow frustrated with paid advertising.

The reason recruiters get frustrated with paid media is because paid media does not generate large numbers of applications… directly.

Pay-per-click advertising is crucial to truck driver recruiting in 2020. While it is not directly generating applications, paid media keeps your company on the mind of truck drivers.

Paid media tools like remarketing keep your company in front of the eyes of drivers in your target demographic. When these drivers begin to research new companies to work for, they will immediately research your company.

Paid media that keeps your company on the mind of drivers

Geofencing For Effective Recruitment

Utilizing geofencing for truck driver recruitment is one of the most cost efficient recruitment strategies out there. There are very few driver recruitment strategies that guarantee your ad-spend is not wasted on uninterested eyes.

The most important thing that geofencing does is allow you to avoid wasting ad dollars on people outside the trucking industry or drivers outside your hiring radius.

Place geofences around events and locations you know for truckers will be at and your company will be exposed to all the drivers there.

For example, companies often place geofences around CDL training schools, driver recruitment events, rival company lots, and truck stops.

Job Boards/Aggregator Sites 

Job boards and aggregator sites are still one of the best places to recruit truck drivers. Drivers are going to these websites specifically to search for a new job.

You have to get your job position in front of drivers actively seeking a new position.

However, job boards and aggregator websites are more complicated than they appear. First time digital recruiters often make the mistake of blindly purchasing ad space on these sites and not thinking twice about it.

When you use these websites you have to be constantly monitoring which sites are performing the best. After analyzing the data, allocate your recruiting spend to the sites performing the best and take away money from the poor performing site. How sites perform varies from month to month so it is important to constantly monitor them.

Job board dart board

The internet is clearly the best place to recruit truck drivers in 2020. In person recruiting tactics are now severely limited and truck drivers are online now more than ever. For recruiters that are just starting digital driver recruitment, it is important to remember that each recruitment channel coincides with the others. No channel is going to be effective without the help from other channels.

7 Tricks to Social Media Marketing for Trucking Companies

Posted on by Jake Peters

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

7 Tricks to Social Media Marketing for Trucking Companies

  1. Develop a Strong Company Mission

  2. Spotlight Drivers and Customers

  3. Testimonials That Earn Trust

  4. Cross Platform Promotion

  5. Leverage Communities

  6. Specific Platforms Require Specific Posts

  7. Geofencing, Paid Media, and Other Tech

Word collage to social media marketing for trucking companies

Develop a Strong Company Mission

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spotlight Drivers and Customers

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

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

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

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

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

Testimonials That Earn Trust

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

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

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

icon of testimonial that earns trust

Cross Platform Promotion

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

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

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

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

Leverage Communities on Social Media

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

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

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

Specific Platforms Require Specific Posts

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

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

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

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

Geofencing, Paid Media, and Other Tech

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

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

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

Pushpin on map that symbolizes geofencing for truck driver recruitment

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

How to be a Successful Driver Recruiter

Posted on by Jake Peters

At Driveteks, we have been working hand and hand with recruiters nationwide for 5 years now. This has given us an insight into what separates the bad from the good, and the good from the great. Follow this guide to learn how to be a successful driver recruiter.

5 Tips to be a Successful Driver Recruiter 

Successful driver recruiter hires a new driver

1) Get on the Phone ASAP

The most important step in successful recruitment relies on technology that has existed since 1876, phoning. There is a direct correlation between the rate at which recruiters are able to contact driver applicants via phone and recruitment success.

A study on phoning found two major conclusions: 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.

Drivers are applying to multiple companies at a time. This means that as soon as that driver hits “submit” on your application, you are in a race with everyone else.

Recruiters that develop a routine of calling driver applicants as soon as they apply will experience more success than the recruiter that is slow to call.

2) Stay in Contact

Once a successful recruiter makes contact with a driver applicant, they maintain that contact with the driver.

Recruiters that struggle with getting drivers through orientation often have a contact issue. Drivers are less likely to back out on a job offer, even if presented with a better option, if they have a relationship with the recruiter.

Whether you are contacting the driver applicant to inform them of a position update or checking in to see how the hiring process is going, there is always a reason to be in touch with applicants.

3) Interview for Culture, not Qualifications

Interviewing truck drivers needs to be less about the driver’s qualifications and more about the driver as a person. Successful recruiters learn everything they need to know about the driver’s qualifications from their application/resume.

In the interview, the successful recruiter focuses on if the applicant is a strong team fit. Focusing on the driver as a person, and hiring strong culture fits, will lead to a stronger retention rate.

Ask questions like these to get to know the applicant as a person:

  • What type of culture do you thrive in? (Does the response reflect your organizational culture?)
  • What’s your ideal workplace?
  • Why do you want to work here?
  • Tell me about a time when you worked with/for an organization where you felt you were not a strong culture fit. Why was it a bad fit?

A team with strong culture fits

4) Build and Maintain Strong Relationships 

Recruiters that are successful are aware that their job is more than simply hiring truck drivers. Recruiters are key contributors to their company’s retention rate.

By building and maintaining a strong relationship with drivers you hire, you are encouraging the drivers you hire to continue working for your company. Drivers are more likely to stay with a company where they feel like they are a part of a community.

In addition to improving retention, maintaining relationships will help you hire more drivers. Drivers that left your company for “greener pastures” often realize the grass is not always greener. When this happens, the driver will often return to work for your company if they have a strong relationship with the recruiter.

Also, drivers that like you, the recruiter, will refer their friends to you. The truck driving community is tight-knit, drivers often tell their friends about how great it is to work for their company.

5) Influence your company to build its Employer Brand

Quality drivers are well aware of the best and worst employers. Your company’s employer brand is the way that drivers perceive what it is like to work for you.

Even skilled truck driver recruiters will struggle to recruit drivers for a company that has a weak employer brand. Drivers will not want to work for you if they hear from their friends that your company does not value their drivers.

As the recruiter, you may not be able to build an employer brand by yourself. However, you do have a strong say within the company. You need to be advocating for your company to boost their employer brand.

The quickest way to improve employer brand is by offering higher driver pay and by responding to feedback from current/former drivers.

Where Successful Recruiters Find Truck Drivers

None of the tips above are helpful if you do not know where to find drivers. Finding drivers to recruit is the core of what you do as a recruiter.

In the past, one of the best places to find potential drivers was in-person recruitment events. However, those are no longer a possibility.

The best places to find drivers to hire are through digital marketing channels, social media, and employee referral programs.

Successful driver recruiter searching for drivers

A career as a truck driver recruiter is not an easy career. However, becoming a successful recruiter is fulfilling and rewarding. Follow these tips and you can learn how to become a successful driver recruiter.

How to Throw Covidsafe Driver Celebrations

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Over the past four months COVID-19 has shined a light on how crucial truck drivers are to the well-being of America. Drivers have been working their hearts out to keep the country afloat, and this is not an anomaly. Truck drivers need to be celebrated. Here is how to throw Covidsafe driver celebrations.

Celebrating Remotely is the Safest Option

Clearly, the easiest way to celebrate safely is to celebrate remotely. This is possible with platforms such as Zoom, Google Hangouts, etc. However, it is not enough just to hop on a video call and say you appreciate the drivers. You need to do more.

One thing that your company can do in addition to the video-chat celebration is sending each driver a personal, hand written note from the CEO. These notes cannot be the same message sent to all drivers, it has to be unique for each individual.

Personal development stipends are another way to celebrate remotely. At companies like 15five employees are giving a $500 stipend to spend on a learning opportunity unrelated to their job. Giving drivers money to pursue their passions will show your care and improve the lives of your drivers and makes them want to stay with your company.

Outdoor Celebrations are Necessary for In-Person Parties

If you are wanting to have an in-person celebration, the best place to do that is at an outdoor location. Hosting the celebration outside drastically reduces the risk of the spreading of COVID.

There are multiple factors that lower the risk of spread when outside. The first is that in the open air, Coronavirus particles disperse faster than they do when inside. Also, UV light from the sun does an excellent job of reducing the spread of the virus.

A study put on by Harvard, MIT, and other institutions found that average temperatures above 77 degrees reduce transmission. Each 1.8 degree temperature increase above 77 degrees is associated with a 3.1% decrease in the number of new infections generated.

People enjoying a Covidsafe celebration eating barbecue food.

Responsible Guest Lists Give You More Control

Your company driver celebration cannot be a massive party, it needs to be an intimate event. Keep the event closed to people only within the company.

Limiting the guest list to employees only lets you have more control over the situation. You can easily vet each guest and make sure no one is exhibiting COVID symptoms and may jeopardize the event.

Serving Food Fresh From the Grill

Considering that heat does a good job of killing the virus, plan on serving items fresh from the grill. Try to avoid letting food items sit for a long time before party goers start eating. Burgers and hotdogs are an excellent decision to be the main course.

Avoid serving any type of community finger food. That means no chips and dip, sliders, bowls filled with candy, etc. Every hand that reaches for a serving of finger food is an opportunity for viral transfer.

In order to be extra safe, give each party goer a stipend to purchase their own food and drink to consume that does not come off the grill. This includes any sides, appetizers, and desserts.

Socially Distanced Party Games

What is a party without party games? Party games that encourage a lot of physical interaction between people are not recommended however.

Instead play games that require people to stand far apart. Cornhole is an excellent example of a social distance friendly party game.

If possible, you could have the celebration at a pool. Swimming in a properly maintained pool will inactivate COVID.

Cornhole is a socially distanced party game.

Truck drivers are the backbone of America and without them our economy would crumble. They stepped up to the challenge presented by Corona virus in a major way and must be celebrated. Follow these tips and your company can throw Covidsafe celebrations for your drivers.

Start Encouraging Your Truck Drivers to Drive With Pets

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For decades truck drivers have been sneaking their pets on board with them. They had to do this because their employer would not allow them to drive with a pet in the truck. However, in recent years carriers have loosened on the anti-pet policy. If your company has not done so yet, you should consider it. Here is why you need to start encouraging your truck drivers to drive with pets.

Dog sits in the passenger seat of semi truck

Healthier and Happier Drivers

The purpose of purchasing a pet is because you are looking for companionship. It is no wonder that drivers who have their fur-pal with them are healthier and happier.

Becoming a truck driver means long days filled with lonely hours. Without a partner to keep them company, drivers can become depressed. Dealing with loneliness and depression can cause drivers to become burnt out.

Research shows that spending 15 minutes with a dog improves people’s mood. In addition to improving moods, dogs require exercise. Because the dogs need exercise your truck drivers will become healthier people.

Increased Driver Retention Rate

Having a high turnover rate is one of the most expensive liabilities a carrier can have. According to Stay Metrics, a truck company with 100 drivers, 100% turnover rate, and average cost to hire of $8,000, spends $800,000 a year on hiring.

Encouraging drivers to bring a pet with them on the road can save your company thousands of dollars every year.

Drivers that have pets with them will be happier meaning they will be less likely to leave.

Also, drivers truly value working for a company that cares for them. Your company can send the message you care about your drivers health by encouraging them to have a pet. Drivers that feel cared for will stay with your company.

Finger increases retention rate from good to great.

Improved Driver Performance 

By simply encouraging drivers to bring pets with them on the road, their performance will improve.

Drivers will be healthier and happier, leading them to make smarter driving decisions. Plus, having another living creature in the truck that the driver cares about will make the driver more cautious.

Cautious drivers have far fewer accidents and are more reliable.

Better for Your Bottom Line

Your company will become more profitable once you encourage drivers to bring pets with them. Revenue will increase because your drivers perform better which allows you to deliver more shipments. Costs will be down as well.

The costs associated with turnover will decrease as drivers choose to stay with you.

Insurance for drivers will also become less expensive. Because the drivers will have to be more active with their pets, they will be in better health.

Employing healthier drivers will lead to less claims being made. The less claims your company makes, the more affordable company health insurance becomes.

There is a difference between tolerating drivers bringing pets with them and encouraging the drivers. Tolerating is good, but start encouraging your truck drivers to drive with pets in order to see maximum results. The drivers will live better lives and your company will see better profits.