Why do truck drivers choose to work for someone else instead of me?
Every so often, you meet a great truck driver that is looking for a job, with plenty of experience, perfect MVR and PSP, wants to drive the routes and equipment you have and is personable on top of that. Sounds perfect, right? Why doesn’t this truck driver want to work for you? Let’s lay out some reasons and what you can do to remedy them.
- They didn’t know you were the perfect fit. What that usually means is the truck driver didn’t know the routes were a match or that you run a great trucking company. Why didn’t they know that? Your ad may not have been specific enough, telling them all these things about your trucking company. Some people are scared to say too much in their job postings because they don’t want to scare anyone off. That’s self-defeating as you are missing out on attracting the best matched truck drivers. Even if the details seem not awesome to most, that’s ok.
2. The truck driver took another position while waiting for you to offer a job. This one is easily fixable. The first time you talk to a great driver, offer them a job that is conditional on you verifying what they told you and things like the mandated drug test etc.. The last thing you want a great candidate to do is keep looking for a job after you meet them. With applicant tracking systems like Tenstreet, they can apply to fifty trucking companies in a click. Don’t lose this driver because you made them wait.
3. The driver worked for you but quit soon after being hired. This one stings. While it is not what you want to hear, you need to exit interview with the driver and find out why. It could be the routes, equipment, dispatcher or something out of your control. Data like that is key in making future decisions. If it was something in your control, doing pulse surveys with your truck drivers will help keep them engaged and hopefully make you aware of a problem the driver has before they would leave.
There are many awesome truck drivers that can be found with the right tools and approach, if you start with the above ideas you can make truck driver recruiting a problem for someone else.
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