Every day, truck drivers are on the road delivering goods and products to their destinations. Truck drivers have a significant impact on your company’s bottom line because they account for a large percentage of your revenue.
With so much riding on this relationship, it is important that you take care of drivers. Driver retention is important for your trucking business but so is on-boarding new drivers. One effective strategy to continuously add on new drivers is by getting them referred by the fleet members you currently have. This blog post will discuss five areas that motivate truck drivers to refer your company.
One of the best ways to motivate truck drivers to refer you is by being honest and upfront about the pros and cons of working for your company. Truck drivers want a fair deal, good hours, competitive pay, decent advance notice on schedules (with enough leeway in them), consistency with their route or division as well as autonomy over how they do it – but they don’t want any surprises that are going to cause an impact on their quality of life.
Being transparent with your CDL drivers is crucial for onboarding as well as your retention rate. Truck drivers, like most employees, want to know what they’re getting into before they start. If you want your truck drivers to refer others in their network, make sure they can feel like there is transparency within the company. Most likely the ones onboarded know other truckers who would be interested, so take advantage of this growth opportunity!
Providing flexible options to your drivers will encourage them to refer other drivers to your company. They want to feel in control of their work and will appreciate being able to choose the best schedule that fits their lifestyle. This will require some work up front, but the use of a system in place to manage, organize and schedule your drivers flexibly will lead to increased morale among the team while at the same time reducing cost.
The ability for drivers to customize their schedules in order to meet personal obligations is also crucial for retention rates; if they are happier, your turnover rate will decrease which lowers the cost per driver.
Keeping drivers safe and compliant with government regulations is a top priority for motor carriers. Providing training opportunities for your drivers assures them that you care not only for their safety and well-being but also that you’re invested in their professional growth and development.
Since truck drivers have limited time off the road, motor carriers need to offer various training opportunities to accommodate driver schedules and learning styles. Interactive online learning courses, instructor-led classroom training, and 100% remote courses are all suitable options to offer your fleet of drivers. Having a quality education and training program in place speaks volumes to truck drivers and gives them more reason to refer your company to their network of potential CDL candidates.
Your drivers want to feel appreciated for their hard work. Offering them competitive compensation and benefits will show your drivers that you care about them. When your fleet members are talking to their peers about their experience with your company, you want them to say nothing but positive things. Providing competitive benefits packages for drivers will increase the morale of all employees which can be passed on via word-of-mouth through family and friends.
Competitive wages for truckers are another key factor to consider when it comes to retaining or recruiting new members in the industry. By giving your drivers a fair wage, they are more likely to stay with you!
If you get your CDL drivers to refer other drivers to your company, the chances of onboarding more fleet members will exponentially increase. Drivers are more likely to be successful in their job when they feel like they are part of the pack. That is why we recommend creating an internal referral program that includes incentives for drivers who refer other truckers to your company.
You can create a referral system where your drivers will earn a certain amount for every successful driver who completes the onboarding process. This also means that your company can obtain access to a network of qualified drivers that you may not have attracted through your traditional recruiting efforts if you didn’t have an internal referral program in place.
Driver referrals are a way to bring in new talent and it is important that this program be easy for the driver to participate and promote. In order for your drivers to fully buy into the referral system, create a program that is easy for them to understand and be fully transparent with the compensation package(s) you have to offer. One of the best ways to do this would be by having one point of contact with each referring driver, who knows what kinds of people their referrer likes before any introductions take place.
Determining how much incentive should be given for each successful onboarding could be challenging at first. Many companies offer a variety of incentives that take the form of money or other offers to refer to your carrier company as a potential employer. Whatever you decide makes the most economic sense for your business - be sure to follow through!
When you take into account everything mentioned above – from retention rates, morale, growth opportunities as well as driver referrals- there’s no doubt that these five reasons make sense for any company looking to grow their business. Motor carriers who employ this strategy have higher profits due to less turnover and better customer service ratings which translate into success on all fronts: financial stability (more money), lower churn rates as well as higher customer satisfaction rates.
It’s important to keep up with what new incentives work best for your drivers since other carriers are adopting creative solutions to attract and retain drivers to their companies.
Transforce Group is committed to providing employment solutions that are well suited for our clients. We work closely with motor carriers like yours to help you get ahead in this competitive market.
To learn more about what TransForce Group can do for you today contact our team.