We routinely call out the trucking industry for poor driver marketing. Everyone says the same things and makes the same general pitch. Our long time partners at JRayl have grown in the last three years faster than I did in the summer before eighth grade (six inches in three months) due to a unique pitch that only they can offer: Guaranteed $1,200/week and Guaranteed Home on Weekends.
They knew their target driver persona values consistency and created a job centered around that need. In order to pull this off, they knew their operations staff had to be on point. Their CEO, the late great Jeremy Rayl, had the vision, went for it, and it paid off. Because of this vision, Jeremy is second only to LeBron James as Akron, Ohio royalty.
Drivers are on the road and want to know what’s going on back at the office. Brian Fielkow, CEO of Jetco Express states during his presentations that you already have a driver’s committee, you might as well formalize it. He has his drivers hold an election for a cabinet of 10. The leader of this committee has a literal seat at the decision making table for major company decisions.
A driver committee not only gives drivers a voice and formal avenue for addressing problems at the company, but also shows prospective drivers that the company cares what they have to say and will listen to their needs. Word gets out when Jetco’s drivers refer other drivers. Jetco also promotes these meetings on their social channels so the outside world has visibility to their communication channels.
Melton Truck Lines uses social media as a window into their world for prospective drivers. They use their YouTube channel to communicate messages from the home office to drivers on the road. One of the most popular is the weekly message from the President, Bob Peterson.
Melton balances private and public messages depending on the content. It’s so effective because the old, primitive part of the brain can’t read, but does react to images and pictures. So videos impact the brain the most because sight is the only sense that hooks up directly to the older part of the brain.
Social media is a direct channel to the old brain and is set up for you to serve ads directly to your targeted driver personas. Even better, it’s cheaper than mass media like newspapers and radio.
Driver engagement is tough when they’re on the road all the time. Again, you have great free tools with social media to engage current drivers and allow prospective drivers to get a window into how you treat drivers at your company.
Transmark used Facebook to engage drivers and their families in a health campaign. They bought Fitbits for all drivers and set monthly goals for completing step goals with monthly contests. They publicly congratulated drivers and family members who met their steps goals and announced the monthly champion on Facebook.
This is both easy and very visible for both your current and prospective drivers to see how you engage drivers.
Learn how to recruit more drivers by watching the "Building a Driver Brand Statement" video presentation