Best Practices to Recruit Truck Drivers

Recruiting truck drivers can be difficult and frustrating. Luckily there are a lot of different ways you can help attract and retain quality driver talent.

How to recruit drivers online

TransForce offers an innovative driver recruitment platform that instantly matches qualified drivers with your jobs. With over 20,000 active drivers, you’re sure to find the perfect fit for your open positions.

Below are some other ways to drive online applications to your open job postings. There are a variety of free and paid options, and many carriers use a combination of tactics to drive traffic to their job postings.

Job Boards and Aggregator Sites

Aggregator sites, like Indeed or ZipRecruiter, pull jobs from various job boards and organize them into easy-to-access lists so that potential new hires don’t have to roam around the internet checking every obscure job board to find a good opportunity. Job boards and aggregator sites are extremely popular with truckers looking for new jobs.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This is a free way to drive organic traffic to your own website and job listings by adding job-related keywords to your web pages and website backend. This will allow job seekers to use Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo to search for jobs. The better your keywords and content are, the better your search result ranking will be. And the better your ranking, the more likely people will be to click on your website.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Campaigns

PPC campaigns are advertising campaigns that move your site to the top of internet search results based on your bid. The great thing is that you only pay when someone actually clicks your ad. And you can always adjust your bids or your keywords based on performance.

Social Media

Your company’s social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) can be used to highlight reasons drivers should choose your company over others. These are a great way to talk directly to potential drivers and answer any questions they may have. You can also post links that allow them to apply to open jobs instantly via mobile devices. Recruiting via social media is a powerful tool because of the sharing features. You’ll reach people who don’t even follow your page if your followers interact with your posts. Social media sites offer free and paid ways to drive traffic. You can simply post without paying anything, or you can pay to promote your content or jobs so that your posts reach more people.

Landing Pages

Landing pages are a great way to get applicants to apply for your jobs. You can craft your landing page to answer questions and provide details about the job and your company to job seekers. It presents a great opportunity for you to really sell them on your company. Make sure to include an easy-to-find button to the actual application.

How do you recruit new truck drivers?

One of the biggest issues facing the trucking industry right now is the shortage of new drivers. Fortunately the FMCSA has implemented a new program to encourage younger drivers to get started driving OTR. Check out the Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot Program and see if it’s something your company can do.

How do you attract and retain truck drivers?

Unfortunately there’s no single solution for attracting and retaining drivers. Every driver is different, and everyone wants different things from their job. Below are some offerings we know are beneficial to most drivers, but make sure to talk to your employees so you can personalize the solutions to your fleet. And remember that drivers that are happy at work are far more likely to do some recruiting for you. They’ll tell their friends or truckers they meet at truck stops about all the great benefits of working for the company that treats them well.

Better Pay and Benefits

The most common reason people leave jobs is money, so it’s obvious one of the best ways to attract and retain employees is by offering competitive pay. Bonuses, incentives, and extras are all great ways to boost morale and keep your drivers from moving on. And remember that health insurance, matching 401k, increased vacation time, and other benefits are just as important as base pay.

Driver Incentive Program

Offering a driver incentive program can help keep your drivers engaged and focused on safety while also feeling valued. When you focus your incentive program on safe driving practices, you’ll also positively impact your company’s bottom line. Safer and happier drivers means fewer accidents and less money wasted on repairs and insurance claims.

Regular Schedules and Home Time

One of the hardest things about being an OTR trucker is the schedule. It’s hard not just on drivers, but on their families, too. In fact, many drivers say that home time is their most valued benefit they consider when choosing a job. Providing drivers with regular schedules, and keeping promises of time off, so they can make plans with their loved ones is a great way to improve job satisfaction and driver retention. Talk to your drivers and find out what kinds of schedules they would like. It may not be possible to give everyone their preferred schedule every month, but talking to them and making an effort to improve their schedules can be worth a lot.

Open Communication

Above all, communicate with your drivers. Make sure they all know that you want to hear from them about anything good or bad regarding the company. When employees are unhappy, sometimes the simplest solution is just listening to them and finding solutions to the things that are negatively impacting their job satisfaction.