Tag: truck

How to Lead Your Truck Company in a Volatile Market

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"Turmoil" runs across a stock ticker. All stocks are down.

The first quarter of 2020 has been filled with ups and downs. January started with the DJIA reaching all time highs, followed by a crash. The Coronavirus has hurt carriers that focus on transporting goods shipped in from China, but it has helped carriers that supply grocery stores. Russia and Saudi Arabia embarked on an oil war which will lower fuel prices for carriers but potentially harm the industry in the long run. Throw in an upcoming presidential election and the future will be filled with ups and downs. Here is how to successfully lead your truck company in a volatile market.

Plan for Contingencies by Playing ‘Kill the Company”

Volatile markets crush companies by following record highs with crippling lows. Companies that are not prepared for the lows crumble.

Start making a contingency plan by analyzing your company’s weak points. ‘Kill the Company’ is a great exercise that highlights your company’s weak points. Gather the leaders of your company and tell them to pretend to be the company’s number one competition for the next three minutes. Their goal is to come up with a plan to put your company out of business.

Knowing your weaknesses will shine a light on the factors that could be catastrophic. Build a plan that will get your company through the worst of times.

Build up Your Capital Reserves During the High Points

Capital reserves are like a savings account for your company. Use the upswings in a volatile market as an opportunity to build up your company’s capital reserves. Building up capital reserves will enable you to fund contingency plans or pay for essential costs, like salaries, when the company stumbles in a market crash.

Be Aggressive With Payment Collections

Volatile markets are not the time to be relaxed with payment collections. Money will be tight for everyone. Companies that owe you money will try to hold on to their cash during the downswings and wait for the upswings to pay you.

The best way to improve cash collections is to communicate with your clients frequently and to make it as easy as possible for them to pay. Starting five days before the bill is due you need to be on the phone with clients reminding them to pay you. Call them on the due date and then every day after that until they pay. An online system is the easiest way to accept payment. Enable clients to pay you from their computer by using tools such as Quickbooks

Setup Alternative Sources of Income

It is good business practice to set up as many revenue streams as possible. Doing so will mitigate risks. Having multiple sources of income will help the company survive while its main revenue source is struggling.

One common way for a trucking company to earn extra revenue is to sublease a portion of its warehouse. Subleasing to another company will generate a monthly income that helps cover your fixed costs.

Do Not Layoff Drivers to Save Money

Companies will turn to layoffs in order to save money in a struggling market. However, this leads to the quality of service you offer to suffer.

Building up your capital reserves and establishing multiple revenue streams will provide your company the money it needs to keep its staff. Ideally, it would also provide the funds to hire the top drivers that other companies laid off.

Keeping your staff intact will ensure you continue to provide great service through tough times. This will earn the loyalty of your current clients and help you gain even more business from companies that are disgruntled by their current carrier.

Take Advantage of Competition Slowdown and Continue to Market

According to the Small Business Administration,

“Savvy marketers can boost sales and market share, even if the industry in which they compete is in a slump.”

The competition that is not prepared for a volatile market will be forced to slash their marketing budget. Using your capital reserves, your company can fund marketing campaigns that capture more of the market.

Include Employees in Implementing Policy Changes 

Volatile markets will force your company to implement policy changes. You must involve your employees in these changes. Doing so will generate a sense of team and ownership in the changes.

Trying to force policy changes on employees will create a sense of rebellion. Turbulent times require your team to come together and overcome adversity. Employees turning on the company will magnify every issue the company faces.

Volatile markets separate the great companies from the not so great companies. If you do not know how to lead your truck company in a volatile market, your company will struggle mightily. However, choose your next steps wisely and you will come out of these difficult times on top.

Building Trust Into the Truck Driver Recruitment Process

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It is no secret that there is a growing disconnect between drivers and recruiters. The feeling that recruiters will say anything to get drivers into seats is growing amidst drivers. You need to work on building trust into the truck driver recruitment process. When asked about their skepticism of recruiters a driver said,

“Because recruiters are in sales… they’re selling their employer’s driving positions to you…”

So the question stands, how do recruiters establish trust with applicants?

 

Self Reflect, Where is the Miscommunication Coming From?

Cartoon between cat and dog depicts business miscommunication

Recruiters that we have spoken to about mistrust claim that they do not intentionally lie to drivers. They say that miscommunications occur when the carriers pass information intended for the applicants through the recruiters. Similar to the game telephone.

A recruiter I spoke with on the topic said,

“Most of the ‘lying’ is actually miscommunication. Trucking has a lot of moving parts in real time and things change constantly and instantly.”

In order to buck this trend you must analyze your current flow of information and identify points where miscommunication can occur. Identifying these points will enable you to attack them head on.

Deploy Radical Transparency Through the Entire Recruitment Process

Ray Dalio popularized the term ‘radical transparency’ in his book Principles. In layman’s terms, ‘radical transparency’ is being transparent in every step of the process. This will improve overall efficiency and effectiveness.

Throughout the recruitment process, you need to be radically transparent at each step. Inform the applicant about the possible areas of miscommunication. This may seem counterproductive; however, doing so will lay the foundation for trust that a mutually beneficial relationship can be built on.

By laying this foundation of trust, we can then begin to build the type of relationship that will make the driver want to stay with the company. While reflecting on all the times they had been recruited a driver said,

“The only recruiter that was truthful with me was the one for the company I’m with now.”

In the case of this driver, all it took for the recruiter to earn the driver’s loyalty was for the recruiter to deploy radical transparency.

Go out of Your way to Initiate Communication

As the recruiter, it is up to you to communicate with the applicant where you are at each step of the hiring process. Never assume that the applicant has no questions or concerns simply because they have not directly asked you. By repeatedly reaching out to the applicant and providing them with updates and asking if they have any questions you are establishing yourself (and vicariously your company) as a trustworthy source. Frequently initiating communication with the applicant will build a stronger relationship and ensure that all parties are on the same page.

Make the Every Element of the Process Personalized for the Driver

Even in an industry where turnover rate hovers around 100%, switching employers is a big decision for drivers. In the initial interview with the driver, it is up to the recruiter to find out what is motivating them to switch carriers. Is it money? Is it home time? Does the driver’s current company not value its drivers?

By figuring out the driving force behind the driver’s desire to switch companies you are able to accurately assess if the position you are filling is a good fit for the driver. If the position is a good fit then you are able to solve the applicant’s biggest employment pains by hiring them.

Use this to your advantage. Inform the applicant that your position will alleviate the problems they are experiencing. Solving the driver’s biggest employment pains will earn their trust for as long as you were honest with them throughout the recruitment process.

Trust is an essential element to truck driver recruiting. Unfortunately the level of trust drivers have in recruiters is deteriorating, so you must actively work to earn that trust. Building trust into the truck driver recruitment process will help you earn the loyalty of drivers hired. Analyze your hiring process to minimize miscommunications, deploy radical transparency, initiate communication, and personalize the process in order to build trust into the truck driver recruitment process.

Seasonality of Truck Driver Recruitment

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There are four distinct seasons to the trucking season. The seasons in order are: slow season, produce season, peak season, and finally the holiday season. Knowing the seasonality of trucking provides key insights to understanding the seasonality of truck driver recruitment.

Season 1 Peak Recruitment Season

It is of the utmost importance that recruiters are allocating the majority of their efforts to bring in as many new hires as possible between January 1st – March 31st.

As of 2017 the average time to hire (in work days) for the transportation industry was 24.9 days. Knowing that the produce and peak seasons are around the corner, recruiters need to put their company in the best position possible to capitalize on these busy seasons.

If a recruiter slows down their efforts because it is the “slow season” for drivers then they are positioning their company to scramble through produce and peak season.

During the busy seasons every trucking company in the country will scramble to fill all of their trucks. The companies that utilized their time during the slow season will be the ones to successfully fill their trucks.

Season 2 Season of Shifting Gears

By the time April hits you should have the majority of your fleet filled. Due to things like the high turnover rate and challenges associated with finding qualified drivers, it is more than likely that you still have some trucks to fill. That is okay.

If you treated season one as the peak recruitment season then your company will be well equipped to tackle produce season.

Filling the fleet needs to remain your top priority. However, during this time it is important for you to begin allocating some time to driver retention. Competing trucking companies will start to realize that they are short drivers for the upcoming seasons and ferociously recruit.

As the pool of qualified shrinks your competition will look to poach your drivers.

Studies have shown that 70% of the global workforce are passive candidates. You need to begin retention efforts during season 2. If you don’t a large portion of your drivers will leave your for another one.

I recommend starting off this season focusing on recruitment, but then as each week passes by focus more on retention. Do this until you reach the point where your top priority is retaining your drivers.

Gear shifter of a semi-truck symbolizes season of shifting gears

Season 3 Retain, Retain, Retain Season

August through October is the most stressful time of year for drivers. At times it is going to feel like there is more units that need to be delivered than you have the capacity for.

That is okay, at this point you have worked your hardest to fill your fleet with qualified drivers and now your main focus needs to be retaining your talent.

Trucking companies that failed to properly recruit earlier in the year will now be desperate for drivers and will be allocating large amounts of resources to recruitment. You need to be prepared for the fact that your drivers are going to be tempted to join other companies.

If you do nothing to entice them to stay with you then the drivers will leave for another company. Here are some tips for driver retention:

  • Instead of paying per mile offer an hourly wage so drivers are paid for everything they do, like loading and unloading.
  • Offer significant performance bonuses during the peak months.
  • Make the drivers feel valued by having a company wide “Driver Celebration” day
  • Show you care about the drivers’ families by offering additional time off during the holiday season based on performance during the peak season.

It is important to note that despite your best retention efforts there will be drivers that leave the company. Make sure that you are still allocating about 20% of your time for recruiting new drivers during the retention season.

Season 4 Sourcing Season

Once Thanksgiving passes the industry slows down as people begin to take time off to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones.

Drivers are going to be more focused on their time off than finding a new job. You will be spending less time calling, meeting and interviewing candidates.

This downtime is an excellent opportunity for you to source prospects and build up your hiring pipeline. Find new groups to join on social media, iron out the details for a new referral program, and build out your contact list as much as possible.

The better job you do sourcing during Season 4, the more success you will have during the following year’s Peak Recruitment season. As mentioned above, a successful Season 1 is critical to a successful year.

Geofencing For Truck Driver Recruitment

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Today’s technology enables recruiters to specifically target niche demographics of potential drivers. This heightened level of focus improves the effectiveness of recruitment campaigns. Geofencing for truck driver recruitment increases the focus of recruitment campaigns.

Restricting your ads to specific regions ensures that the people seeing your ads are involved in the industry, within your niche demographic, and in the vicinity that works for your company.

What is Geofencing

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.

Perimeters can be set up as a radius around a point or a predefined set of boundaries. Geofences can be placed around certain events, zip codes, specific buildings, etc.

By carefully placing geofences around areas where potential clients frequent your campaign ads are guaranteed to land in front of the eyes of the people who care. Hopefully the wheels are starting to turn and you can see how this strategy is highly effective when used properly.

Why Geofencing Works

If you do the due diligence to place geofences in the right place, then you will know exactly what kind of people are within the fence. With this knowledge you are able to build ads that cater specifically for the people in the geofence. Sending these curated ads out increases the level of engagement compared to other less focused paid media.

Considering 75 percent of job applications come via mobile phones, the more candidates that interact with the mobile ads you send them the more applicants you will get. Wayne Cederholm III, vice president of driver recruitment for C.R. England, is a big proponent of geofencing. Here’s what he said on the topic,

“There’s not a lot that differentiates these carriers, so the smallest thing can make a big difference.”

Another example of a company succeeding with geofencing is Parker Staffing Services. They saw a 40 percent increase in web traffic after they began using geofencing.

Arguably the most important thing that geofencing does is dramatically improve your ability to avoid wasting ad dollars on people outside the trucking industry. Attracting only those interested in trucking to your site decreases marketing expenditure and increases ROI.

Impactful geofencing strategies will attract droves of driver candidates to your site without having to increase marketing spend.

How to be Successful With Geofencing

Icon that depicts geofencing for truck driver recruitment.

The first thing that you must do for a successful geofence campaign is select where you want the campaign to take place. The location of the campaign must be based off of the type of candidate you are looking for.

Placing a geofence around truck stops is an excellent way to target drivers who work for another company and are considering switching companies. Another way to target drivers looking to switch companies is by placing geofences around other trucking companies’ property.

Target CDL schools if you want to attract brand new drivers.

Trucking conventions will be filled with new and experienced drivers so you should place a fence there.

Once you have chosen your location(s) the next step is to create content specifically curated for your niche. Experienced drivers are not going to respond to ads designed to recruit brand new drivers and visa versa. If you are targeting a womens trucking convention then your ads better depict women fulfilling the driver role.

It is easy to diminish your budget quickly if you are targeting ineffective areas. The best way to ensure success with geofencing is to know your audience and where you are targeting.

Truck Driver Recruiting in Social Media Groups

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

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

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

Person speaking within a social media group.

The Basics of Social Media Groups

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

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

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

Getting Started with Social Media Groups

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

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

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

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

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

Having Success With Social Media Groups

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

The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

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

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

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

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

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

Social Media Groups to Join

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

Facebook:

Linkedin: