Three strategies to improve driver recruitment

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The No. 1 most posted job in the United States is truck driver, and company driver job postings are on the rise.

According to a driver survey from Conversion Interactive Agency, in partnership with People. Data. Analytics (PDA), company driver job postings increased by 51% from April to September. With competition for drivers on the rise, Conversion Interactive Agency offered some guidance to give carriers an edge in talent acquisition.

“Not only are you competing with all the job postings that the drivers see, but after the driver applies, you're also competing with the other carriers they have applied to,” said Conversion Interactive Agency Chief Marketing Officer Priscilla Peters during Truckload Carriers Association’s recent webinar The Evolution of Professional Driver Recruitment: Key Trends, Technologies and Best Practices for Success. “It's a race to see who gets to the potential driver first.”

Based on the company’s most recent survey results, which haven’t officially been released yet, over 40% of drivers said they are currently looking for a different job, and the over 20% that said they aren’t looking said they’re only waiting for the economy to improve to do so.

Peters said that begs the question is turnover at your fleet increasing.

“One of the biggest strategies that I see where carriers drop the ball when it comes to recruiting is they spend a lot of budget and effort and time and energy on the recruiting side of things, but once they're hired, they don't continue to recruit them,” she said. “So always be recruiting your current fleet. It's super important.”

But for those who have dropped the ball, she offered three key strategies to help carriers improve their recruitment plans.

Amplify your brand

When Brad Vaughn first started at Maverick Transportation, almost 40% of the carrier’s hires came from driver referrals where they were out over the road, shaking hands at truck stops.

“That time has passed,” said Vaughn, who serves as vice president of recruiting. “That was our brand; that was our culture; (drivers) were our ambassadors, so to speak. So how do you continue that now in the digital era?”

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He said Maverick still gets referrals, but most of them now come from online, so it’s important for the carrier to focus on branding. It does so by featuring company drivers and technicians on its social media platforms and highlighting driver testimonials.

Peters said, according to the data, 74% of drivers said the first thing they do is look at online driver reviews when seeking a new job. Conversion Interactive Agency monitors thousands of driver reviews every quarter for driver sentiment toward their company. Data shows carriers save about 48% on cost per application and 14% on cost per hire when they have a rating of three or better, she said.

“It’s always a good practice to know and understand what the driver sentiment is at your carrier,” she said.

She advised carriers to do an audit on how they’re doing in particular areas that drivers are most concerned about like pay and benefits, home time and consistent miles, for example.

And drivers need to see your brand, she said, adding that 57% of said they prefer some familiarity with the employer brand they're applying for.

“They have to kind of get to know you,” Peters said. “I always say it’s like you're courting drivers just like you did when you were dating back in the day.”

Diversify your marketing strategy

Maverick is a big believer in top-of-the-funnel strategy. The driver recruitment funnel starts from the top down with marketing your company, which funnels in leads that then, if nurtured correctly, convert into hires.

Vaughn said it’s not always about lead generation. That’s why Maverick invests in the top of the funnel, getting its brand out to the public, creating a community, before placing a job ad.

“For instance, we do a decent amount of dedicated business, and so oftentimes I know a dedicated is coming before we've actually finalized the contract and started recruiting for it,” Vaughn said. “So I'll put SEM (search engine marketing) in that market – just about our culture, about who we are. I'm not advertising pay. I don't have a call to action to apply now. It's just putting our culture in there, particularly in areas where maybe we don't recruit often.”

An example is when Maverick moves into a rural market, Vaughn said he may go into that market and sponsor the local football team to get the company’s name out in the community.

“It's just one more touch. They say you need six to seven touches before that driver will pick up the phone, and that's what this is – a lot of it is building your brand in the market where you want the drivers and building your community,” he said. “We weren't always great at top-of-the-funnel marketing and advertising, but it was a change we made a while back, and it's been a beneficial one.”

Peters said many carriers focus heavily or only on the bottom two tiers, which can suffer if they don’t invest in the top of the funnel. The important thing, she said, is to diversify strategy.

Couple these strategies with technology

Conversion Interactive Agency, using its Lead Assist technology, helped one carrier lower its original cost per hire from $2,900 to just over $1,000 and also helped improved its quality of applicants.

It did this by decreasing the amount of applications the carrier received.

“The volume of apps was less, but the quality was higher, so they hired over 200 more drivers year over year,” Peters said. “That's a testament to what ends up happening with the strategy and the technology coupled together.”

Lead Assist uses AI to convert short forms to full applications faster and in higher quantity.

The AI uses machine learning to optimize the radius of job postings. For example, Peters said, if a carrier is trying to hire a driver in Nashville, the platform understands based on data that Nashville proper may not be the best place to advertise. Instead, the better place may be in surrounding areas like Murfreesboro, Gallatin or Lebanon, Tennessee, where potential drivers are more likely to reside.

The AI can also improve campaign performance by promoting job ads during specific times of day that the data shows get more conversions as well as by building out job descriptions that perform better based on historical data. In addition, the AI can provide a recommended budget allocation for recruitment based on a particular area and type of driver.

Peters said this can lower a carrier’s cost per hire and cost per lead while decreasing lead-to-hire time, improving applicant quality and increasing time savings, allowing recruiters to spend time creating more authentic connections with potential drivers, who are more likely to be hired and stay on rather than no-shows.

“Your recruiters can really focus on things like improving your no-show rate when you let the technology nurture the leads at the top part of the funnel,” she said.

And the technology helps carriers respond to applicants faster.

Peters said data shows that whoever gets to the driver first is typically the one who will ultimately end up converting and hiring that driver.

Maverick has eliminated the step where the recruiter calls or emails the applicant following their initial application, speeding up the process.

Vaughn said he refused for years to shift from a traditional application to short forms to gather initial information on a driver. He said short forms always add steps to the process for the recruiter. But the AI has used that to expedite the process instead, creating savings in both time and money, he said.

Maverick uses Lead Assist to send text blasts to the applicant immediately upon receiving their application while they still have their phone in their hand. The text thanks them for applying and then offers them some options to expedite the process. The company uses it, too, for social media ads.

And that gets the carrier more conversions from lead to hire, Vaughn said.

“I think it was just short of 10,000 people so far this year that clicked that link and went ahead and converted that to a full application,” he said. 

Angel Coker Jones is a senior editor of Commercial Carrier Journal, covering the technology, safety and business segments. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and kayaking, horseback riding, foraging for medicinal plants and napping. She also enjoys traveling to new places to try local food, beer and wine. Reach her at [email protected].