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It is Time to be Intentional With Your Driver Recruiting

Posted on by Jake Peters

Are you intentional with your truck driver recruiting? Or are you reactive?

Intentional driver recruiting campaigns seek out drivers and interact with them at every channel possible. Reactive recruiting waits for drivers to find the job posting and respond. If you are reactive recruiting it is time that you become intentional.

Intentional recruiting is going to get drivers interacting with you more often and increase the amount of applicants you receive. Here is why you need to be intentional:

  • Reach 100% of Professional Truck Drivers
  • Market Your Company to Passive Job Seekers
  • Build Your Employer Brand
  • Focus on a Specific Demographic or Advertise to Everyone

be intentional phrase combined on vintage varnished wooden surface

Reach 100% of Professional Truck Drivers

What is the biggest problem with job posting websites? It’s that only a small percentage of drivers are on each of the websites.

In order for you to be seen on job boards, you have to pay to be at the top. But you are paying to only be seen by a very small portion of the truck drivers.

Imagine if there was a platform where you could pay to be seen by 96% of truck drivers.

That platform exists. It is called Facebook.

Not only are 96% of truck drivers on Facebook, but on average truck drivers spend 2 hours a day on the platform.

Taking an intentional approach to Facebook alone will enable you to speak directly to 96% of drivers for 2 hours every day.

Advertising on Facebook is just one platform. If you are intentional at advertising across the entire internet you will be able to reach 100% of truck drivers.

Being intentional includes social media marketing, geofencing, retargeting, content creation, and much more.

Market Your Company to Passive Job Seekers

Passive job seekers are truckers who are currently employed and not pursuing a new position, however they are open to changing companies if a good opportunity comes along.

These job seekers are far more valuable than active job seekers. Active job seekers are going to be applying to multiple companies and speaking with many recruiters at one time. They know that they want to work for a new company and are playing the field.

Passive job seekers will only apply to work for your company.

Because passive seekers were not looking for a new job, the psychology behind the application completely changes. The driver goes from thinking “I need to find the best offer I can” to “I like, what this company has to say, it would be great to work for them.”

If you are focusing all of your efforts on job boards, then you are focusing entirely on active job seekers. This means that you are missing out entirely on the passive market.

Be intentional and get passive drivers to want to work for you.

Passive and Active. Text from letters of the wooden alphabet

Build Your Employer Brand

Another great thing about intentional driver recruiting is that your employer brand will grow when you are intentional.

Simply put, an employer brand is your reputation as a place to work.

How do drivers outside your company view what it is like to work for you?

If you are taking a reactive recruiting approach then your employer brand is reliant on word-of-mouth. However, taking an intentional approach means you are taking an active role in shaping how drivers view you.

The content you create and send out to truck drivers is going to mold how they view your company. This lets you control the narrative around your company instead of hoping your current drivers say positive things about their experience.

Recruit a Specific Niche or Advertise to the Masses

Is your company looking to hire from a very small niche? Or are all of your trucks full and you just want to run ads to keep your company on the mind of drivers for the future?

Intentional driver recruiting allows you to easily switch between the two. You can even target specific niches and advertise to the masses at the same time when you are intentional.

During a reactive recruitment campaign you can put the position requirements in the job description and only call qualified candidates. But, this strategy is not nearly as effective as using digital tools to advertise directly to drivers who meet your needs.

There is no way to generate widespread interest in your company with a reactive campaign. Sure, many drivers may see your job posting on a board somewhere, but that post is surrounded by other job openings.

Even if you do not have any current vacancies, generating widespread interest in your company is a good idea. Doing this will help you fill your trucks faster, earning higher profits for your company.

Driver recruiting needs to focus on both niche and mass audiences. Mass or niche market symbol. Businessman flips wooden cubes and changes words 'mass market' to 'niche market'. Beautiful white background, copy space. Business and mass or niche market concept.

Intentional driver recruiting tactics like social media marketing, geofencing, retargeting, and content creation all take time and money. It may seem like a reactive approach is the smart move. However, intentional campaigns far outperform reactive campaigns and help your company earn higher profits.

Interested in learning how your company can become intentional? Call us at (801)419-0164 or you can fill out the form on our homepage.

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.

Start Encouraging Your Truck Drivers to Drive With Pets

Posted on by admin

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.

Improving Driver Recruitment With a Faster Response Time

Posted on by admin

Digital marketing tools like geofencing, social media, SEO, etc. have enabled trucking companies to generate more applicants than ever before. However, the most important step in executing a successful campaign relies on technology that has existed since 1876, phoning. The rate at which recruiters are able to contact driver applicants has a direct correlation with improving your driver recruitment.

Slow Response Times Kill Your Recruitment Efforts

Forbes conducted a study of 10,000 businesses across multiple professions to see how effective they were at contacting internet leads and measure the results of contacting the leads.

On average it took businesses 46 hours and 53 minutes to pick up the phone to call a lead. Sales reps only attempted to get a hold of the lead 1.3 times before moving on. The study found that 71% of the leads generated were being wasted due to the slow response time.

One study conducted by Dr. James Oldroyd found some eye opening results:

  • 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.

The moment a driver submits an application to drive for your company, a recruiter needs to be calling them. Every second that ticks by where a recruiter has not called the applicant the odds of hiring that driver diminish.

How A Quick Response Time Will Improve Campaigns

Think back to two days ago and I bet that you will struggle to remember everything that you did that day, let alone all the websites you visited. Drivers are the exact same way.

If your recruiters are taking the average amount of time (46 hours and 53 minutes) to call driver applicants, then chances are the applicant has forgotten about your company.

The applicant may remember applying for the position. However, they will have forgotten the information that made them want to apply.

By calling immediately after application the driver will still have all of your information fresh on their mind.

Also, a quick response time generates a “Wow Effect” with applicants. Place yourself in the driver’s shoes for a moment. You have applied to five trucking companies that are all claiming to value their drivers and take care of them more than the competition.

Four of the five companies take two days to call you about your application. One company called you within five minutes of submitting the application. Which company would you feel like wants you the most?

Applicants that receive a call immediately after submitting their application exhibit an emotional response. That emotional response creates a feeling like, “this is a company that truly wants me to be a part of their team.”

Tips for Decreasing Your Response Time

Hand starts stop watch to measure response time

Now that it has been proven how critical a fast response time is, you are now probably wanting to place a response system within your company to improve your response time. Here are some tips to help you:

  • Track your team’s response time: If you are not already tracking your response time then you must begin. This will give you a baseline to work from and enable you to prove you have made improvements to your response time.
  • Set goals: The ultimate goal for your team should be to respond in under five minutes of an application being submitted. However, if your response time is two days then it is unrealistic to expect your team to begin responding within five minutes. Start by trying to get the average response time down to one day, then twelve hours. Slowly work your way down to five minutes and then let your team know that five minutes is the expectation going forward.
  • Automation: Using a tool like Callingly to automate the response process is a sure way to improve response time. Callingly integrates with your website and will call your team as soon as a new lead comes in, routing the lead based on territory and schedule.

A fast response time is an essential element to any recruitment campaign. Slow response times are causing your recruitment campaigns to not be as successful as possible. By improving your response time you are bound to see more success with all of your recruitment campaigns.