In 2006, we lived in a world without smartphones. In 2017, it was found that American’s check their phones an average of 80 times a day. The average American didn’t know they needed a smartphone thirteen and now we’re addicted. For better or worse, we’re living in the digital age. You need to meet drivers where they are.
Your driver applicant tracking and compliance management system should make texting the primary way of communication for drivers. This allows your managers to stay efficient by texting from a desktop and gives them templates to send more messages out in less time. For personal safety, they’re also using a business number so they don’t have to give a personal numbers to prospective drivers. This simple tool will immensely help driver recruiting and compliance.
Recruiting requires a lot of back and forth communication, but the messages don’t always require a phone call. Texting allows your recruiters to touch more candidates each day. Most drivers are use to texting now because it’s so convenient. It’s much easier to fire a quick text off at a truck stop or while waiting to unload than to try and connect on a phone call. It’s a great way to get quick questions answered without the hassle of phone tag. Email inboxes are flooded and it’s a good place for your messages to sit in eternal purgatory. Many drivers are using their wives or girlfriend’s emails to apply so it’s a lost means of communication. Even our flip phone holdouts know how to text.
Getting a driver and manager together to update that Med Card or CDL can be near impossible with the operations schedules. And we know dispatch never remembers to tell your driver that we need that updated copy of the CDL until the 11th hour. There should never be a situation where a driver cannot be dispatched because we don’t have a copy of a CDL. It would be much faster and simpler for the driver to just take a picture of the CDL and text it to the manager. That’s exactly what many of our clients do with Med Cards and CDLs today.
It’s easier to start texting your drivers than it is to avoid it. Texting is simple, fast and cheap. Your drivers and employees already send hundreds of texts each day for personal matters. Come meet everyone where they are and use texting to Hire More Drivers and Achieve DOT Compliance.