Recruiting truck drivers has always been an ever-changing process. Every truck driver is different, and each location brings its own set of challenges. After this past year, it has become even more difficult to recruit truck drivers. With these changes, your approach to recruiting could be way off.

A new year means it’s time to reevaluate your strategy. How have you changed in the past year? How could that be improved? Most importantly, how can your recruitment team sustain their current success and grow in the process? There are many avenues to complete this goal, but there are a few crucial details that you cannot miss. If you do, you might lose a great truck driver.

Communication is key. Anyone working in driver recruitment will tell you that communicating is most of their job. However, your communication strategy could impact your conversion rate. As an industry, we’ve never had more ways to easily communicate with drivers. Email, text, chat bot, and phone calls are some of the most popular options. Even video meeting software, such as Zoom or Skype, are joining the mix. If your carrier is only using phone calls and email to contact and communicate with drivers, it’s time to take another look at your recruitment strategy. It is important to make multiple types of contact with a driver, especially the type that they used to contact the company. If a driver contacts a company through social media, social media should be the first way the company contacts the driver. Email and phone calls shouldn’t be ignored, but ensuring the initial contact is made quickly and efficiently will change the game for your recruiting department.

It’s also important to consider your competition when setting communication strategies this year. According to a driver survey by PDA and Conversion Interactive Agency, 69% of drivers receive calls/texts/emails from a recruiter each day. Every day, you are competing with at least one other company for your drivers. Improving communication internally is a great first step to lowering your turnover rate.

Some strategies to consider adding or rethinking in 2021:

• Social Media Advertising
• Lead Assist (chat bot and lead nurturing tool with a built-in recruiter dashboard for social media)
• Video Advertising & Content
• Search Engine Marketing (for passive and active potential drivers)
• Text/Call/Email Lead Nurturing Campaigns

With the ever-changing landscape, there are so many ways to improve your driver recruiting strategy. These are just a few options that can be considered when discussing strategy. As 2021 approaches, make sure that you have a sound strategy. Also, make sure it is something that can be tailored and adjusted. In the end, driver recruitment strategy needs to be adaptable to each driver and situation that comes up.

If you need help getting your strategy in place for 2021, ConversionIA is here to help. Let’s chat about how you can win at communication.