Tag: truck

How Much is your Truck Driver Hiring Bonus?

Posted on by Jake Peters

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

Is your company apart of this arms-race?

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

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

$10,000 sign-on bonus is now normal

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

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

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

Hiring Costs are Skyrocketing  

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Much can you Afford in 2021? 

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

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

Show off Your Hiring Bonus.

Truck driver recruiting advertisement showing off its sign on bonus

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

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

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

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

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

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

How much is your truck driver hiring bonus?

How to 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.

Truck Driver Recruiting in a Post COVID World

Posted on by Jake Peters

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

Here is how driver recruiting will look like moving forward:

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

An Increased Driver Shortage

Thought the driver shortage was bad during the previous years?

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

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

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

CDL school attendance dropped 50% in 2020.

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

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

You need to be gearing up your efforts.

Less in Person Recruiting

Online job hunting Hands with computer reading employment ads

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

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

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

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

Remote Driver Learning 

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

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

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

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

Recruiting From Home

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tech Savviness Will Continue to Win

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

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

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

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

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

How to be a Great Truck Driver Recruiter

Posted on by Jake Peters

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

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

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

Master Your Process

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

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

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

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

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

Understand Social Media Marketing for Trucking Companies

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

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

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

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

Learn the Art of Persuasion

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

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

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

Drivers need to be persuaded to drive for your company.

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

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

5 TIPS FOR DRIVER RECRUITERS TO BE MORE PERSUASIVE

Stay Organized and be Prepared 

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

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

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

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

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

Stay in Touch With Potential Drivers 

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

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

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

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

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

Remain Transparent Through the Hiring Process

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Where Truck Driver Referral Programs Fall Short

Posted on by Jake Peters

Referral program speech bubble

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

Here is where driver referral programs fall short:

No Referrals When Expanding to a New Location

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your Drivers Have A Limited Network

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

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

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

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

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

Beware of Referral Spamming

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.