Driver Pay | Talking Truckers

Towne Air Takes Driver Recruiting Into The Here And Now

June 11, 2013

How An “Old School” Owner Operator Company Bet On A Millennial. And Won.

Amber Egierski’s first job after earning a 2008 degree in Business Management was as Marketing Director at an Orlando car dealership. When she joined Towne Air Freight in 2011, she had no previous driver recruiting experience. And yet, in less than two years, she convinced the 50-year-old company to abandon long-held biases about how to successfully recruit truck drivers today.

Amber Egierski

Which leads to a pretty obvious question: What happened?

Tech-Savvy Drivers: The New Reality
“The simple answer would be,” says Towne Air’s VP of HR Jerry Scott, “that Amber convinced us Owner Operators were more technically-savvy than we thought they were. Most of us who’ve been with the company for a long time would freely admit to having an Old School mentality. At the same time, we realized something important: We recognized that we didn’t know what we didn’t know; particularly when it came to interactive recruiting media.

“Amber helped us catch-up quickly to what a leading-edge company in this industry does today. Having grown-up with technology all her life, she was a lot more comfortable in that arena than we were. Just as importantly, she was, and continues to be, very passionate about it.”

Exploring Alternatives To Traditional Advertising
Even more importantly, it might be argued, Amber did her homework. “When I joined Towne Air, I saw real growth potential for my place in the recruiting department. I was certainly aware of the explosion of Mobile among my own age group—where it’s almost like, if you don’t have a Smart Phone, you don’t exist. So I started researching alternatives to traditional print advertising.”

“Since Owner Operators are independent contractors, I figured there would be a high penetration of Smart Phones among that group—which also meant they would be more likely to conduct job searches either online or through mobile apps.”

Turning A Budget Upside Down. And Succeeding.
Scott continues, “Once we bought-in to Amber’s argument about Owner Operators’ technological savvy, we basically turned our media-buying budget upside down. Two years ago, we spent 95% of our budget in print publications. Today, we’re down to 10%—and the rest is in online advertising and mobile.”

Result? “In 2012, we had the best recruiting year in our company’s history.”

Because Success Takes More Than Empty Promises
So does that mean that interactive and mobile alone led to Towne Air’s phenomenal success? “Far from it,” says Scott. “We also modernized our package of pay, benefits and retention incentives. In short, we put meat behind our advertising message. We didn’t just tell drivers what they wanted to hear. We found ways to give them what they wanted and needed.”

Proof, once again, that there are no easy answers in successful recruiting.

FOR FURTHER READING

How NOT To Recruit Owner Operator Drivers (Part 1)

Driver Recruiting Ads Should Focus On What Matters To Truckers

CR England Automates Truck Driver Recruiting. Should You?

Leave a Comment » | Advertising, Benefits, Digital Marketing, Driver Pay, Driver Recruitment, Driver Retention, Media Advertising, Owner Operators, Recruiters | Permalink
Posted by francishare

How TMC Successfully Recruits and Retains Student Drivers

May 30, 2013

Four Steps For Building Your Own Program

TMC Transportation has been recruiting student drivers since 1993. Which makes the Des Moines-based carrier fairly unique among flatbed companies—who tend to demand more experienced drivers. “What we want,” says TMC’s VP/Recruiting Duane Boswell, “is drivers who do the job right. And in our experience, it’s usually better to hire less experienced drivers and train them to do things the way we want them done, than it is to try and get people to change old habits.”

So how does TMC maintain a fleet with hundreds of drivers, 70% of whom are coming from driving schools?

1. They Center Their Culture Around Student Recruiting.

Lately, a lot of companies have added students to their overall recruiting mix. TMC is committed to hiring students—and has been for over 20 years. “Our entire company culture is built around recruiting quality student drivers, and developing them into quality experienced drivers. We have high standards for the students we hire. We offer new drivers better pay opportunities by rewarding performance over seniority. And we give student graduates real opportunities to develop rewarding careers with us”

That strategy has clearly paid-off, where TMC’s reputation at CDL schools is concerned. “For starters, they know we’re going to treat their graduates right. In practical terms, that means the people they send us will stay longer and be in a better position to pay-off their student loans.”

2. They Reward Performance. Not Just Seniority.

The most ambitious CDL graduates genuinely thrive with TMC, because they get the opportunity to make great money even during their first year. “We’ve had some real go-getters who’ve earned as much as $60,000 in their first year with us, by focusing on the performance incentives we offer.”

3. They Make “Home Weekends” More Than A Promise.

It’s no secret home time is one of the toughest issues in recruiting drivers. Which is why TMC has also made that a cornerstone of its culture. “Sure, there will always be the unforeseen circumstance that keeps a driver from getting home. But drivers who live in our core hiring area are home at least 46 out of 52 weekends a year.”

4. They Pay Attention To The Little Things.

Quality Pay and Home Weekends is still no guarantee you’re going to keep that recent graduate. After all, Boswell notes, “There are plenty of companies out there poaching those new drivers once they have a few months of experience under their belt.”

Which is one reason why, for instance, I’ve personally heard first-hand reports of CDL-grad turnover rates as high as 180% at some companies. “Our turnover is about 1/3 of that. And a big reason is because we train our staff to do the little things that keep drivers happy. Things as simple as showing real interest in them as people, and genuine appreciation for the job they do.”

Bottom line: There’s no magic formula for successfully hiring and retaining quality drivers. Like anything good in this world, it takes hard work and dedication.

For Further Reading:

How Con-way Recruits Young Truck Drivers With Apprenticeships

Truck Driver Recruiting: Look To The Military For Superior Candidates

4 Ways Oakley Maximizes Driver Recruiting AND Retention

Leave a Comment » | Company Drivers, Driver Pay, Driver Recruitment, Driver Retention | Permalink
Posted by francishare

How NOT To Recruit Owner Operator Drivers (Part 1)

March 19, 2013

Six Tips From Three Experts

It’s no secret that recruiting Owner Operators is harder than ever. By some industry estimates, the total number of Owner Operators in the market is 1/3 what it was just before the recession began in 2008.

Not only that, says CareersInGear.com’s Carol Gibson, Owner Operators are less likely to switch companies now than they were just last year. “Freight’s good for Owner Operators now, so why would they leave—particularly if they’re with companies who took care of them when freight was down?”

Which made me think that now might be a good time to ask a few experts (including yours truly) for specific lessons they’ve learned—either from others, or from experience—in recruiting Owner Operators over the years.

FRANCIS HARE - TalkingTruckers.com

1) Don’t underestimate the challenge. You have to invest more to attract Owner Operators than you do to recruit Company Drivers. Particularly if you’re just now entering the Owner Operator market. That starts with developing a powerful brand message that sets you apart from the competition. A message that’s communicated consistently, from your print and online ads to the “talking points” your recruiters use during telephone interviews.

If your brand isn’t well-established, the only way to overcome that disadvantage in the short term is with a truly superior offer, IE: Significantly higher pay or sign-on bonuses; or maybe an especially competitive Lease Purchase program. And don’t even think about recruiting Owner Operators without a solid referral program.

2) Don’t change your message in mid-stream. One of the most important reasons to think through your messaging strategy is because it takes time to establish that message in the market.

Common ad-world wisdom holds that someone has to see your message three times before it sinks in—so if you change your message, it’s like starting over from scratch. Particularly with online job boards—where every content change drops you down the queue in maximizing your job posts’ prominence on the web, and frequent changes will pretty much keep you stuck at the back of the line.

Bottom line: Develop a strong selling message and offer. Then give it enough time to start working. And don’t panic if it doesn’t generate immediate results. You’ll only make the situation worse.

JEFF GRAY - Randall Reilly

3) Don’t limit your advertising to one medium. Different generations access information differently. While there’s been a decided movement in spending toward online job boards, Gray notes that the truck driving population is aging. “The youngest Boomers will be 50 by the end of 2004, and studies clearly indicate that older drivers (who are typically not computer savvy) are much more apt to seek job info from print sources.”

4) Don’t under-spend on your ad budget. Gray notes that when Randall launched the Owner Operator Network in 2011, the company committed a huge investment in search advertising to reach Owner Operators. “And remember,” Gray says, “that was two years ago, when the pool of Owner Operators was larger than it is now.”

JEREMY KELLETT - Oakley Trucking

5) Don’t “sell”. More importantly, don’t over-sell. No company is right for every driver, says Kellett—so it’s important to determine first if there’s a good match between a prospect and your company. “If you try to make an opportunity sound better than it really is, or if you try to place a driver in a position he won’t like, you’ll end-up losing that driver. And you’ll probably hurt your reputation in the process.”

6) Don’t expect to hire drivers on the first call. Hiring Owner Operators is like any business sales cycle, Kellet notes: It takes multiple contacts. “It’s a process of building a relationship, and mutual trust—and that takes time.” Conversely, Kellett cautions against hiring drivers who are ready to start work with you immediately. “Whenever we hear from a caller like that, a red flag goes up. And we almost always find-out there’s a good reason we were suspicious in the first place.”

COMING SOON: PART TWO

FOR FURTHER READING:
Five Steps For Recruiting Owner Operator Truck Drivers

Better Branding Maximizes Truck Driver Recruiting Effectiveness

4 Ways Oakley Maximizes Driver Recruiting And Retention

2 Comments | Advertising, Benefits, Branding, Communications, Driver Incentives, Driver Pay, Driver Recruitment, Driver Referrals, Driver Retention, Media Advertising, Owner Operators, Recruiters, SEO | Permalink
Posted by francishare

A Former Military Driver-Recruiter’s Advice For Hiring Former Military.

December 19, 2012

If you really want to hire military veterans:
Don’t just say it. Show it!

By far, the most-read article I’ve written since launching this blog in late 2010 is Truck Driver Recruiting: Look To The Military For Superior Candidates. So it was a genuine, and unexpected, pleasure when I opened a recent email from my friend Jim Reed.

A military veteran himself, Reed is one of the recruiting industry’s truly original thinkers—as evidenced by the business model he’s created for CDL-Link. And by the novel advice Jim offered me in his email (completely unsolicited) for recruiting military veterans:

Create military structure and camaraderie
“Here’s the main reason I had a difficult time initially adjusting to civilian life: I missed the military’s structure and rules. I missed the camaraderie. I missed the sense of duty. So if I owned a trucking company and truly wanted to hire former military, I would create units, platoons, squadrons, etc.”

Pay drivers based on rank and achievement
“In the military, the path to advancement (much like drivers earning increased pay and better runs) is clearly defined. For my former-military drivers, I would have squadron newsletters, quarterly meetings with rank presentations, and medals for achievement. I would have a purpose for the unit that’s clear and genuine.”

Define the mission for your military unit(s) by rank
“For starters, emphasize that every delivered load contributes to the global mission. Have higher ranking individuals train and mentor lower ranking members (NCO to E-4 or less). Then create team-wear (t-shirts or jackets) with rank, name, and unit logo.”

Display name and rank on trucks
“Look at nearly any former-military car: You’ll find a sticker or license plate-cover denoting the service and/or unit they belonged to. So why not place a former-military driver’s company rank and name right on the door of his or her truck. What a great recruiting tool at truck stops:

‘Hey, what’s with “Staff Sergeant” beside your name on the truck?’

‘Well, I’m with X platoon at XXX Trucking. And when I get 5,000 more accident-free miles, I’ll make Tech Sergeant and earn a bonus.’”

It’s got to be real
“Everyone can spot a phony. Military people are trained to believe in sense of duty, responsibility, and pride of work. The unit and mission hold troops accountable. They eat, breathe and live their missions. Provide that to former-military people, and you have a winner!”

Jim Reed: I salute you.

Photo credit: United States Marine Corps Official Page / Foter / CC BY-NC

6 Comments | Benefits, Communications, Driver Incentives, Driver Pay, Driver Recruitment, Driver Referrals, Driver Retention, hiring from the military, Recruiters, Schedules | Permalink
Posted by francishare

Build On Your Strengths to Improve Truck Driver Recruitment

August 30, 2012

The most successful recruiters know there’s more to attracting good drivers than just offering the best pay.

Here are a few things smart drivers consider before changing companies:

The Equipment
Drivers can tell a lot about a trucking company by the kind of equipment they put on the road. Under the CSA2010 regulations, equipment condition means more to drivers than ever.

Poorly maintained trucks and trailers can be a real red flag. And driving for a company that’s known for safety violations means operating equipment that’s literally been marked for more frequent inspections.

Driver Training
Training is also more important than ever. Drivers know that. Vehicle inspections may be a hassle, but what drivers don’t know about CSA2010 can take them off the road altogether. At the very least, good training gives drivers the information they need to pass those inspections.

The Contract
A lot of companies have a reputation for nickel-and-diming its drivers. When companies don’t have written policies for compensation, that’s a guaranteed red flag for experienced drivers.

Driver Turnover
There’s no better indicator of driver satisfaction with a company than its turnover rate. If your company has a high turnover rate, you need to know exactly why. At the very least, it means you need to change the way you treat your drivers, or you need to raise your driver recruiting standards.

Marketing Materials
Marketing materials often speak volumes about a company. If your materials are poorly designed and outdated, what does that say about your company?

When your marketing materials offer a compelling, attractive message beyond the basic Earnings Capacity promise, it shows that you’ve invested the time and effort needed to define what makes you different and special. Which tells drivers you’re probably also in the habit of investing the time and effort needed to make sure you really are different and special.

And at the end of the day, isn’t that the kind of company every driver wants to work for?

Leave a Comment » | Communications, Driver Pay, Driver Recruitment | Tagged: Francis Hare, Truck Driver Recruitment | Permalink
Posted by francishare

Integrated Recruiting: If You Knew It, You’d Do It

May 11, 2012

In an excellent piece for BusinessWeek magazine, Steve McKee explains why it’s so important for all your recruiting efforts to work together.

While McKee’s original column addresses the broader issue of marketing, his points are directly applicable to driver recruiting. Here are the key points I pulled from his piece—adapted to your specific needs as a recruiter:

New marketing channels pop up every day, from apps to publicity stunts and beyond. Audiences (and attention spans) are becoming increasingly fragmented. That reduces the chance any message has of getting through.

How do you overcome fragmentation? Integration. That means communicating a consistent identity from message to message, and medium to medium. More importantly, it means consistently delivering on that identity.

Everything you do to attract, convert and retain drivers should be integrated—including your human resource practices, your training programs, even your compensation and employee evaluation metrics.

So why don’t more companies implement integration strategies? They don’t start with a strategic messaging foundation, and they don’t have the patience to see it through.

Companies that maintain healthy growth over time tend to have more durable messaging strategies and longer-lasting campaigns, while those that struggle tend to change direction more frequently.

That’s exactly what’s happening in the cola wars. Coke has remained focused and consistent for years, and is winning market share, while Pepsi recently fell to an embarrassing No. 3 in the market behind Coke and Diet Coke. That’s why Pepsi is now reexamining everything about its brand.

What’s the first step?
Take a close look at all of your company’s messages to prospective and existing drivers. Compare those messages with what your drivers experience once they sign-on with you. If it doesn’t all connect for you in some meaningful fashion, it won’t for your prospective and existing drivers, either.

If your messaging strategy is weak (or off the mark), you may need to do what Pepsi is doing, and reexamine everything.

It may be that your problem is more a matter of execution: You’re simply not doing what you’re promising.

Or it could be that you haven’t pulled the trigger because you haven’t seen a flawless plan for integrating all your recruiting and retention efforts.

Here’s the good news: There’s no such thing as a perfect integration plan. Over the long haul, the companies who have the real recruiting advantage simply do it better than their competitors.

Steve McKee is the author of When Growth Stalls: How It Happens, Why You’re Stuck, and What to Do About It.

Click Here to read his original article in its entirety.

Leave a Comment » | Advertising, Benefits, Branding, Communications, Company Drivers, Digital Marketing, Dispatchers, Driver Incentives, Driver Pay, Driver Recruitment, Driver Retention, Media Advertising, Recruiters, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by francishare

Recruiting Truck Drivers’ Daughters

January 9, 2012

Times are changing, so don’t limit your “next-generation” recruiting to just the sons!

Sandy Long, an OTR trucker with over 30 years experience—and a prolific writer / columnist / blogger—wrote an interesting piece for Layover.com, in which she explains why she chose a trucking career in the first place. Here are the highlights:

Money is the most common reason for a woman to begin a trucking career. There are few other jobs where a woman can make the money found in trucking unless they have college degrees, and many older women do not.

Some older women come from white collar positions into trucking. One lady driver I know decided that she was done with skirts and suits and office politics. She put herself through school and found a company to hire her. She is quite happy now, living in jeans and shirts, and she proudly drives her truck safely and productively.

One woman worked it the other way. She started driving trucks when she got out of the military. Once she did that, she worked her schedule, took college courses, and eventually became a safety director after working her way up the corporate ladder.

Many women enter trucking because a family member was a trucker. Some were encouraged to become truckers, but most fathers, even the trucker ones, often tell their daughters to stay at home.

————————-

That last paragraph in particular really got me to thinking. I may be off base here, but I’m guessing that truckers who’d strongly encourage their daughters to stay home tend to be on the high end of the age demographic (60+). Conversely, I’ll bet you’d find a more open-minded attitude among younger drivers about their daughters taking-up a career behind the wheel.

Granted, as my good friend and client at Baggett Transportation, Claiborne Crommelin, pointed-out, the CDL minimum age of 21 put an end to children following their parents into the business directly after high school. But Sandy’s point about trucking being a lucrative career choice for young adults without college degrees remains valid.

So here’s my point: If you’re a recruiter, and you believe in trucking as a career choice—and you believe in your company as a great place to pursue that career—you should be perfectly comfortable encouraging your drivers’ sons and daughters to follow in their footsteps. After all, plenty of drivers serve as apprentice-mentors for other folks’ kids.

Sure, trucking’s a tough job, but plenty of drivers are still happy with their own career choice. You probably know which drivers are most satisfied with your company. Try starting with them—and if you experience some success, you can extend the program across the company to all drivers 45 and up.

For Further Reading:

Recruiting & Retaining Women Truck Drivers Starts With Honesty

Recruiting & Retaining Women Truckers Means Understanding Their Needs

Truck Driver Recruiting: Speaking To The Wives.

Leave a Comment » | Driver Pay, Driver Recruitment | Permalink
Posted by francishare

Truck Driver Recruiting: It’s Not Just About Money

March 8, 2011

Investing in a compelling, well-rounded employment brand pays long-term dividends for driver recruiting and retention.

Conversely, if your messaging focuses entirely on money, where does that leave you when a competitor offers even marginally better pay?

Granted, it often seems like some truck drivers will jump ship for a penny-a-mile raise. Which, for a driver logging 100,000 miles in a year, equates to a difference of barely two dollars a day. And if the comments I’ve heard over the years from drivers who’ve done just that (only to return to their original employer a short time later), two dollars a day is hardly worth the aggravation and heartache that comes from working for the wrong company.

The simple fact is, all companies have unique personalities—or, more broadly, brands. And a genuinely valuable, well-defined brand can be the most important competitive advantage your company can command. For starters, it enables you to more effectively recruit the kind of drivers who’ll feel at home working with you. Even more importantly, it can create the kind of company-to-driver bond (and with it, long-term driver loyalty) that money alone will never accomplish.

Consider this quote from an employee of SAS, ranked by Fortune Magazine as 2011’s Best Company to Work For: “People stay at SAS in large part because they are happy, but to dig a little deeper, I would argue that people don’t leave SAS because they feel regarded, seen, attended to and cared for. I have stayed for that reason, and love what I do for that reason.”

Sure, you might say, but SAS pays its employees top dollar and offers some amazing job perks a trucking company could never afford to give. I’d point you straight to Number Three on Fortune’s Top 100 List: Wegmans Food Markets. How many of its 11,000 employees do you think make anywhere near what a veteran trucker earns? Precious few, indeed.

Naturally, earning potential is always going to be an important draw for drivers—which is why an integrated recruitment campaign should never ignore the issue entirely. But if your core employment-brand message genuinely reflects what makes your company great, prospective drivers are a lot likelier to give you a second look than the company that’s talking only money. And if you’re living-up to the promise your brand-messaging makes, they’ll be a lot less likely to listen to that company when they’re trying to steal those drivers away from you.

Leave a Comment » | Driver Pay, Driver Recruitment, Driver Retention | Tagged: driver pay, Francis Hare, truck driver recruiting, Wegmans Food Markets | Permalink
Posted by francishare

Talking Truckers

Towne Air Takes Driver Recruiting Into The Here And Now

How An “Old School” Owner Operator Company Bet On A Millennial. And Won.