Could you use an extra 8-19 qualified drivers?
Even if you didn’t have the trucks to seat these drivers, I’d imagine the answer would still be yes.
Would you benefit if you didn’t have to pay for these drivers? Well, I’m going to direct you to where those extra 8-19 drivers are hidden INSIDE your business.
It’s in the follow-up (that isn’t happening)
Say a fleet owner has watched my FREE WEBINAR, & has launched a successful driver recruitment campaign.
(If you haven’t watched the Webinar – you can go watch it now by CLICKING HERE)
They spend $1,000 to get 50 qualified driver applicants and only hire five drivers.
That would equal $200 for each driver hired, and they’d be happy with the results.
But each driver applicant costs $20. With the 45 drivers that they did not hire — that’s a waste of $900. It gets worse.
If the trucking business had a dynamic follow-up process, another 5 drivers could be had.
If each driver can be made to refer just one driver — that would generate an additional 10 driver applicants & say they only hired 30% of those drivers referred… that would be a total of 13 drivers hired.
Let that happen once a month; that’s an extra 8 drivers lost that you could have hired.
In a year, that’s 96 drivers lost.
In my experience, in almost any trucking company, over 12 months, at least 80 drivers are lost — that could have been hired.
The Holes In Your Driver Recruitment (well… at least some of them)
1. Lack of effective follow-up.
That lack of follow-up done by trucking companies blows my mind.
We conducted some research in the first quarter of 2021 — where we had a driver apply to 500 fleets in the U.S. to gauge their driver recruitment process.
So what kind of follow-up are trucking companies doing to hire qualified drivers?
The results were the following:
Only 2% of trucking companies followed up with the driver more than 2x via email.
That means out of the 500 fleets, only ten followed up with the driver more than twice!
*There was a lot more that this study revealed – but that’s for a later date.
As mentioned earlier, the driver who applies & gets no follow-up… besides maybe a call & 1-2 emails… will be lost.
Remember, you paid for that driver to apply. So you’re wasting money if you don’t effectively follow up.
2. No follow-up on referrals
When a driver of yours tells you:
“I told a driver buddy about you. I hope he gives you a call.”
DO NOT reply with “Thanks. I hope so too.”
Hope doesn’t grow fleets. An effective driver referral program does.
Instead, you ask for that driver’s information (name, email, cell #, current employer, etc.),
So you can call him, send him a text, & follow up with an email with a note mentioning his buddy’s referral & and an offer enticing him to make the switch to drive for you.
If the driver fails to respond, you send him a second email & text. And a third, fourth, fifth. With offers.
You put them on your newsletter list and send them your monthly newsletter – with offers.
That’s follow-up.
3. No instant follow-up to new hires
Recent hires need to become your ambassadors on the road… “raving fans,” letting other drivers know how great it is to drive for you.
This means they must be quickly thanked, welcomed, moved up, or otherwise committed.
When a driver is onboarded – what opinion do you want them to walk away with?
“This was amazing. I’ve never had such an experience before as a recent hire.”
or…
“Meh, no different from the other few fleets I’ve driven for.”
Are you reaffirming that they’ve made a great decision to join your fleet? If not, you need to find ways to make them FEEL appreciated, welcomed, and wise for joining you – especially within the first days, weeks, & months.
Remember, first impressions are lasting impressions.
Think back at the last ten businesses you visited for the first time (store, restaurant, gym, etc.) What formal thank-you did you get?
Most likely nothing.
What “welcome to the family” gift did you receive?
4. No prevention or rescue for driver churn
Research reveals time & time again that a primary reason employees quit is the disregard received from their employers — this includes the indifference shown to drivers once they’ve been around for a while.
How often have you heard drivers online express:
It’s not some heinous act from their boss or insult; it’s negligence & a sense of indifference from their employers. Which leads them to believe the grass is greener on the other side & to drive for another fleet ultimately.
Every trucking company should have a set time by which a current driver should be followed up to see how they’re doing – and let them know they’re appreciated.
Don’t limit this appreciation to kind words; invest back into your drivers.
Whatever that set time is for you to follow up, alarm bells should go off for every driver not checked up on before their “date.”
These are just four of the holes in your driver recruitment process. Find every hole in your process and fix it.
– Amrit Dhanraaj
ps. If you’re interested in learning more about the research we did last year regarding following up on driver applicants – reply to this email with “interested.”
If I have enough people interested, we’ll make the study public.
Amrit is the founder of GetTruckDrivers.com and a Trucking Consultant who has helped North America’s largest trucking businesses to grow exponentially. His area of expertise lies in driver recruitment and customer acquisition for ethical fleet owners.