Truck drivers are in high demand with a truck driver shortage. It’s not the career many people think of going into right off the bat but finding ways to entice more people to become truck drivers is necessary.
If you’re searching for new truck drivers, finding the best way to recruit them can help you fill those roles faster. Here’s how you can recruit truck drivers for your company.
Determine Your Audience
So, how do you hire truck drivers? Recruiting is how! When it comes to recruiting, determining your audience will help you better strategize your recruiting tactics. What works for Millennials might not work for Gen Z or Gen X.
The same goes for if you’re trying to recruit men, women, or both. Determining your target audience is the first step to recruiting new truck drivers for your company.
Highlight the Benefits of Becoming a Truck Driver
Whenever you’re recruiting for any position, you’ll want to highlight the best parts of the career. Truck driving has some excellent benefits that you should talk about when attempting to recruit individuals for the role, whether in person, over the phone, or online.
Flexible Schedule and Work-Life Balance
One of the best ways to recruit truck drivers is to discuss the flexible schedule and potential for a better work-life balance than other careers. When recruiting truck drivers, touching on flexible scheduling can be beneficial.
Some truck drivers only do short drives, only on certain days of the week, at night, or whatever will work for their lifestyle. Offering people a way to have a flexible work schedule without compromising on pay and job security is one of the most appealing things about becoming a truck driver.
The best part is that you can alter your schedule as you need. If some weeks you can do nights but then you have to switch to days, it’s relatively easy to do so with most employers.
Financial Reward
Truck drivers make a decent living. On average, they make just under $50,000, but this can vary depending on where you live. For a position that doesn’t require higher education, earning potential is a major selling factor when recruiting truck drivers.
As someone progresses in their career, they can earn more than that and create a great living while out on the road.
Depending on the trucking company one works for, another financial perk of this career is regular raises. For employees who are doing well, many truck drivers will see consistent raises, which keeps them happy in their position.
Job Stability
Job stability is one of the major perks of being a truck driver. When recruiting people to become truck drivers, touching on how stable the job is can make a huge difference in their decision.
According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, truck driving is expected to grow by 4% in the next ten years, which is average. There will almost always be a shift or trip a truck driver can pick up when they need it, which is more than we can say for some careers.
You Get Paid To Travel
For those who love traveling, this is a great selling point when recruiting. As truck drivers, people have the opportunity to travel around the United States, all while getting paid. When you’re not working, you can go off and explore the different areas on your routes.
This is a great selling point for younger individuals who want to travel but need to make money to pay their bills and for their families.
Recruitment Techniques
When speaking with people about becoming a truck driver, the main strategy you’ll want to use is all the benefits, but recruitment techniques will help you find interested individuals. Below you’ll find a few recruitment techniques for you to potentially find new truck drivers.
Social Media
Social media runs most people’s lives nowadays, so taking advantage of this can help you hire more truck drivers. Different ways you can do this are to use your company profile to post about the benefits of being a truck driver, interest forms, and more.
Using social media will work well for people who are often online and on different social media accounts.
If you’re looking for older truck drivers, then social media might not be the most successful recruitment technique, but it will be great for millennials, younger individuals, and those who are avid social media users.
Career Fairs
Colleges and other community centers host career fairs often, so signing up to participate can help you recruit more truck drivers. Setting up a table with abundant information about being a truck driver, your company, and driving specifically with your company can help you find interested candidates.
The best thing about career fairs is that you’ll likely get some interested pirates off the bat, but you can potentially recruit people who never thought about becoming truck drivers before.
Advertisements and Job Boards
Using job boards is a classic way to recruit truck drivers. Using job boards like Indeed, Zip Recruiter, and others, along with advertisements, can help bring more truck drivers to your company.
When it comes to advertising, you can use billboards, commercials, and other paper advertisements to reach different audiences.
For example, you can create mailers with your truck driving company’s information and send them out to those within the age group you’re looking for in your community.
Communicate Frequently With Interested Candidates
One of the easiest ways to lose a potential candidate for truck driving is not communicating with them enough. The longer you make candidates wait to hear back from you, the more likely it is that they’ll lose interest in truck driving or at least driving for your company.
Regularly communicating and sending updates on the hiring process or answering all their questions will make you more likely to bring an eager and excited new truck driver on board.
Offer CDL Training
To be a truck driver, someone has to obtain a commercial driver’s license (CDL). A great way to recruit truck drivers is to offer CDL training or to pay for their certification. This necessary training will teach drivers the ins and outs of rules and safety regulations.
Not all companies do this because it can get expensive, but if you’re eager to hire more truck drivers, offering to train and even pay for it can convince people to work for your truck driving company.
Many people don’t want to pay for the training or don’t have it, so being a company that can offer that for new hires will make your company stand out and bring more people on board than companies that don’t offer this.
Final Thoughts
Truck drivers are in high demand across the United States and will continue to be for at least the next ten years. Finding truck drivers tends to be challenging. Bringing new drivers in shouldn’t be too complicated by focusing on the main perks of becoming a truck driver, like job stability, flexibility, and financial rewards.
Using a route manager is ideal for helping your new truck drivers and even the seasoned ones stay more organized. However you choose to recruit new truck drivers, using social media, advertisements, and attending career fairs will help get you started.
