What's the Best Way to Recruit Truck Drivers?

This blog post was updated on February 10, 2021.

If you have trucks, the biggest question on your mind is what’s the best way to recruit truck drivers? We’re not psychic, we just hear it all the time. And let's face it - America is in the midst of a driver problem.

There are plenty of great jobs available, and that’s actually the problem. When there's a surplus of job opportunities, driver turnover and recruiting competition soar. So how do you overcome the driver problem and recruit more drivers?

"When there is a surplus of job opportunities, driver turnover and hiring competition soar, so how do you overcome the driver problem and recruit more drivers?"

There isn’t just one answer, and we’ve covered several strategies in past blogs. So let’s take a closer look at one of those strategies here: creating an excellent candidate experience.

Have You Created an Excellent Candidate Experience?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Is it easy to apply for a job at your company, or is it painful?
• Do the applications trickle or flow into your inbox?
• Are your applications digital, or still require printing out, scanning and sending back?

If you’re not achieving the recruiting results that you want, you might need to improve your candidate experience.

"Your candidate experience is the process a candidate goes through when applying to your open position. It's crucial to make this application experience accessible and efficient as possible, or you'll lose the applicant to a competitor."

The more candidates YOU have, the more choice you have in who you hire. The more choice you have, the better drivers you find. Let’s cover three ways to improve your candidate experience.

Download eBook: How to Create a Driver Career Path

1. Mobile-Friendly Applications

First and foremost, 90% of drivers who applied through our software did so on a mobile device. Phones, tablets and laptops are how a mobile workforce applies. Your ads, landing pages, career pages, release forms, and new hire/contractor paperwork all need to be mobile friendly.

Second, when you go mobile, you’ll attract more candidates because your process will be easier. 

Last but not least, if drivers can’t apply on their mobile devices, great candidates will slip past you and apply to someone else. When you go mobile-friendly, you’ll have more applicants. It’s as simple as that.

2. Optimize Your Application Process

You should be measuring your application process in days, not weeks. 

If it takes a week or more for someone to go from lead to employee, your process is too long. You can make the process faster without losing what you need to make smart hiring decisions. You need an Applicant Tracking System like A-Suite. 

The driver you want is already working for someone else. That means they can’t come into your office to apply between 9 and 5. When you use an Applicant Tracking System, you’ll integrate the software with your background check and MVR provider. Plus, a candidate’s application, landing page, and form will populate each other. You’ll save your candidates valuable time by cutting out unnecessary and duplicate paperwork.

3. Increase Your Response To Seconds, Not Minutes

There’s a chance that your next quality driver wanted to work for you, but found a job somewhere else. It can come down to whether or not you picked-up the phone when they called. 

If you want to expand your candidate pool, you need to improve your live answer rate. Your live answer rate is how often you or someone at your company picks up the phone when it rings.

Live answer rate is important because if a candidate calls and you don’t pick up, he or she is moving onto the next place. Imagine if you called in to order a pizza and nobody answered. Would you call back and try again, or call one of the other dozen shops that will deliver?

"Your goal should be to have a live answer rate of at least 90%. If you don’t know what your rate is today, your phone company should be able to tell you."

An easy way to improve your rate is to set-up a phone tree that rings multiple phones at the same time. That way, if one person doesn’t answer, there are several others waiting to take that all-star driver’s call.

Enhance Your Process, But Keep It Simple

You need more drivers and you needed them yesterday. But there’s a harsh reality you need to face: you need them more than they need you.

The fact is, the best drivers can find a new job within a day, so they’re going to be picky. Make it harder for them to not pick you. When you create an excellent candidate experience using the tips we shared here, it will be so easy they might not bother applying anywhere else.