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5 Strategies to Recruit Top Truck Drivers

Transportation
5 Strategies to Recruit Top Truck Drivers

The trucking industry plays a central role in the transportation of goods throughout the United States. In fact, nearly 70% of all goods that are moved between states are carried by trucks. As a result of the steady industry growth and strong outlook for future demand, there is a clear need for qualified drivers. As a result, recruiting efforts for truck drivers are extremely competitive.

It’s estimated that over one million new truck drivers will need to be hired over the next decade to keep up with industry demand. Given that these positions are highly regulated with strict age, training, and safety requirements, there is a somewhat limited candidate pool to choose from. With many companies seeking to hire drivers at the same time, it’s essential for each company to differentiate itself from competitors.

In this post, we’ll explore five key strategies that you can use to recruit from among the top truck drivers. These strategies cover some of the best practices for finding, contacting, and ultimately hiring the types of employees that you desire for your fleet.

Seek Employee Referrals

5 Strategies to Recruit Top Truck Drivers

Actively engaging with your current drivers and your professional network is one of the best ways to recruit quality job candidates. To make the referral process more appealing, it is best to create a formal program with an incentive that can be claimed for a successful hire. Having a referral program also makes it easier to promote your new job postings and referral requests to your company’s network. Of course, a positive work culture means your current employees will be more likely to refer qualified truckers in their network to your company for job opportunities. Another important tip is to remember to follow up with old leads. Job turnover is frequent in the trucking industry, and you never know when someone may be available and interested in a new opportunity.

Utilize Online Job Boards

Posting your job descriptions on the many aggregators and job boards is a great way to reach a wide audience of potential applicants. Many job seekers turn to these boards as it allows them to see many opportunities in a single place. For trucking companies, these listings are a great place to highlight your company’s best qualities, note the most significant perks your company offers for employees, and provide links to your website and social media. Always list as many details about each position as possible, including expectations for distance, work hours, benefits, and job responsibilities.

Share Postings on Social Media

5 Strategies to Recruit Top Truck Drivers

Facebook and other social media platforms are popular among truckers who use them to keep in touch with friends and loved ones while on the road. They can also be an excellent place to share content related to your job postings. Especially among millennials, social media is a valuable and widely used resource for learning about new work opportunities. These digital resources are also very cost-effective when compared to other print alternatives and can be easily shared and reposted to reach new potential candidates.

Optimize Your Corporate Website

Even with access to social media and email, your corporate website will remain the central place for your content related to current job openings and the reasons your employees enjoy working for your company. If you’re entering a major hiring phase, you could consider creating a driver-centric landing page. This page can help new candidates quickly review the major benefits of working with your company and lead them directly to your job listings and application form. With many website visitors and potential job candidates accessing online content on the road, it’s also crucial to have a mobile-friendly theme and to invest in SEO tools to ensure greater visibility in the search results when candidates are searching for job openings. Creating a blog on your website can also help you reach new candidates (and clients) by sharing knowledge and useful tips and insights about your industry.

Actively Promote Your Benefits

Many of the specific job responsibilities for truck driver positions can be similar between companies and even between industries. To help differentiate your listings, take time to describe the uniqueness of your company vision and corporate culture. Drivers also appreciate hearing about specific perks, such as employee appreciation events and training sessions, bonuses, and appealing work hours or routes. Including some detail about your benefits package is always a good idea, and you may also want to include some statements about your approach to work-life balance. The long hours on the road can be tough for even the most experienced drivers, particularly with increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, and many will specifically seek out companies that will take care of them.

Recruiting top truck drivers remains a challenging goal for many trucking companies today. The demand for new drivers combined with the high turnover among existing drivers means that finding the right candidates is just as important as filling your positions. By sharing your job listings across multiple platforms and engaging with your potential candidates, you’ll identify motivated individuals who can make significant contributions to your logistics network.

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