Recruiting and keeping good truck drivers is difficult for most fleet owners. There is currently a shortage of qualified truck drivers. According to the American Trucking Organization, the trucking industry needs to hire at least one million truck drivers over the next decade to meet the current demand
So, how can you recruit and keep talented and safe truck drivers? Here are some of the best tips and tricks for finding new truckers and reducing turnover.
Recruiting truck drivers
Finding good drivers starts with recruiting. If you want to find the right drivers, you need to rethink your recruiting strategies.
Connect On Social Media
To find good drivers, you need to think outside of the box when it comes to recruitment. Technology has changed everything, including job seeking. Old ways of recruiting won’t work. You need to go to where people are to find workers, which is on social media. Facebook now has more than 2.2 billion monthly users. It is easy and free to create a Facebook Business Page. You can use your Facebook Page to advertise your job openings and connect with potential employees.
Use Job Boards
There are a variety of truck driver job boards, such as CDL.jobs.com. Use them to your advantage. Truck driver job boards connect you with potentially thousands of job seekers. These boards can provide you with a steady stream of quality applicants. You can add your required skills, education and experience to eliminate unqualified applicants.
Perform Background Checks
Background checks help ensure that you hire safe, qualified drivers. A driver who has a solid work history is more likely to have better performance on the job. Your background checks should go well beyond the minimum requirements of regulating authorities. Make sure you also check applicants’ driving records carefully, as drivers who have bad driving records will raise the cost of your commercial truck insurance.
Keeping truck drivers and reducing turnover
Once you have found good drivers, you want to keep them. It is expensive to train and hire new employees. Fortunately, you won’t have to if you implement the right strategies to keep drivers.
Respect and Value Drivers
If you want drivers to stay, then you must show them that you respect and value their hard work. Lack of respect is one of the main reasons that drivers quit. You can do this by establishing clear guidelines and safety protocols. Ask for driver’s opinions on company policies. Ask what you can do to improve things for workers.
Make Sure Pay Is Competitive
You have to give drivers good raises and benefits if you want to keep them. Compensation is one of the major reasons that truckers quit, especially female truckers, according to a survey by American Trucker. So, make sure you check industry standards frequently and keep pace with the competition.
Get them Home
One reason that both male and female drivers quit is dissatisfaction with the amount of home time they get. Long hours on the road is one of the major reasons why the trucking industry has trouble recruiting and keeping drivers. Drivers need and want to be home more often. Drivers don’t need to be home every night, but they should know what their schedule will be so that they can have more stability and plan things with their family.
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