Hire Truckers Podcast

00:00 - 00:19
Aaron Craddock: Welcome to the Hire Truckers podcast, where we interview experts in driver recruiting. We provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to help you level up your recruiting game. Welcome to the Hire Truckers podcast. I'm your host, Aaron Craddock. And today, we have the top nine recruiting tips from 2024.

00:20 - 00:43
Aaron Craddock: And, it was really hard to narrow it down to just 9 clips from the year because we had so many incredible guests. But I really hope you guys enjoy these 9 clips from 2024 from our amazing guests. So our first highlight, retaining drivers through personal relationships. Luke shares how loyalty and respect will go much further than an extra penny per mile.

00:43 - 00:56
Luke Wimberly: If a driver moves from us to a company that's lateral to us, there's a reason behind that. It's not pay. The driver may ultimately believe it's pay. People believe it's pay. People chalk it up to pay.

00:56 - 01:17
Luke Wimberly: But people need people, they only jobs. Right? So if I'm gonna be I'm gonna be a flatbed driver, and I'm gonna drive for McElroy, or PNS, or TMC, or Montgomery, whoever, doesn't matter. All gonna pay about the same. And maybe a few pennies, couple bucks more, but they offer different things.

01:17 - 01:55
Luke Wimberly: One company may offer to stay out more, one company may offer to be home more. Right? But at the end of the day, what can you truly offer a driver that nobody else offers you? And to offer them a personal relationship is hard to find. And if you can offer a driver a personal relationship with the dispatcher, personal relationship with operations manager, personal relationship with load planner, with the safety guy, everywhere he goes or she goes, they have a personal relationship that is gold.

01:56 - 02:09
Luke Wimberly: Because how many of us wake up every day, doesn't matter what industry you're in, they don't like their job. Why don't you like your job? You don't like the people you work with. You don't like just one person in the office. You don't like just one person on the field.

02:09 - 02:45
Luke Wimberly: Right? So operationally, when I speak operationally, the whole operation, recruiting safety, everything. If I can get people to believe to build relationships, if I build relationships with my people, with the people that are that report to me, the dispatchers, the recruiters, everybody, If they realize they have a relationship to me and I make it enjoyable place to work, that goes out into the fleet. They then treat their drivers better. You treat your drivers better.

02:45 - 03:04
Luke Wimberly: It's like, you know what? My buddy over there at x y z trucking company, man, he's making a little bit more than me. But, you know, I'm kinda loyal to Luke there, you know. So when we go to build loyalty, people don't wanna leave. I don't wanna leave I don't wanna leave someone I have a personal relationship with.

03:04 - 03:15
Luke Wimberly: It'd be like me saying I wanna leave my marriage. You know, I have a perfectly happy marriage, 14 years. No issues. We have 2 beautiful kids. I'm just gonna leave my marriage for what?

03:15 - 03:17
Luke Wimberly: I gotta have a reason to leave.

03:17 - 03:33
Aaron Craddock: Number 2, embrace your role to support drivers. So in the second clip, we have Tracy Rushing sharing how there's only 2 roles in the trucking company. One of those roles is to drive a truck, and the other role is to support the driver.

03:33 - 04:08
Tracy Rushing: So I we do think that there are 2 types of employees in trucking, and and I think that as we see this be adopted through the industry, it's making a difference for our drivers. And I believe that there's when you you kind of put every put the refocus back on, am I gonna drive the tractor? Am I gonna support the person who drives the tractor? There's a million ways to do that. But when you categorize the the two types of employees within a trucking company or contractors, however your company is structured, if you are driving the truck, then you need support.

04:08 - 04:19
Tracy Rushing: You need support in the shop. You need support. You need somebody to meet you at the door when you get here and say, how can we service your tractor? You know, sometimes it's just a preventative maintenance. Sometimes it's because there's been a breakdown.

04:19 - 04:56
Tracy Rushing: But the person who meets you at the door, meets you in the bay, meets you in the oil lane, the safety lane, whatever it may be, the goal when it aligns should be the support of that driver. If I do my very best at correcting whatever this mechanical issue is, that driver is safer. The driver is on time. The driver is able to generate more revenue. If I'm the driver manager and I sit down at my desk and I've got a ton of loads that need to be assigned to a tractor and I've gotta figure out feasibility and I do that from a place of supporting the driver.

04:56 - 05:24
Tracy Rushing: Well, this driver's got little league on Tuesday, so I don't wanna give them this load. And this driver's got a doctor's appointment on Thursday or, you know, this driver's got 3 weeks to run. Let's put him on a longer load or, you know, a longer run. If those tasks are done from the position of how am I best supporting the driver, then that driver in turn supporting us is a no brainer. Like, their actions are they're gonna have an easier time of it, less less areas of complication.

05:24 - 06:03
Tracy Rushing: And I think it really keeps us on focus of every single thing I have to do is significant because it is driver focused. There are no insignificant things that have to be done. If I'm a custodian over in our driver's lounge and I know that some drivers are gonna get here at 3 AM and need clean towels, if I'm putting the towels out for the purpose of supporting the driver so that they can get a full 10 hour rest break, It's not just folding towels anymore. It's about the person that that's gonna impact. And I've seen that over the last several years make a big difference in in our culture shift at Garrison.

06:03 - 06:58
Tracy Rushing: Garrison was well on its way to establishing the culture that you see here today. And I I couldn't be more proud that when we have our industry friends come in, that's what you leave talking about. So Garrison decided who it was, put it down on paper, did the did the work, wrote a mission, put their vision out, established their core values, and that's not easy to get a bod a group of people to align on who are we. And so when we really started focusing on how do we breathe life into that, it was if I am, you know, if community is the core value that I'm that I'm working on today or the thing that I'm gonna be involved in today, am I the driver or am I the person who needs support today? It you know, we say at Garrison that we build our legacy one drive at a time.

06:59 - 08:05
Tracy Rushing: And I think something that has translated well outside of the cab is I have to determine what my drive is every day. Today, my drive is meeting with you to do a podcast and hope that, you know, we we leave little tidbits of goodness around by doing a great podcast today. But tomorrow, I'll be, with some drivers who need some remedial training, and so my drive will be different tomorrow. And I think that Garrison and our leadership team does a really good job of keeping us focused on are you if you're not driving the truck, then your function is to support the person who drives the truck, whether that is a clean financial statement at the end of the month or an on time, you know, fuel tax payment or, you know, the things that keep our drivers moving. And, I think having that adopted so well has made even a larger impact than I could have wished for or hoped for because it is vitally important that your support staff, the people who are outside of the cab understand there's no insignificant thing that you're gonna do today.

08:05 - 08:16
Tracy Rushing: There's not an insignificant phone call you're gonna make. There's not an insignificant cup of coffee you're gonna share with the driver today. And I think that it really it keeps us energized.

08:16 - 08:36
Aaron Craddock: Number 3, communicate open and honestly. I'm super excited to have Chris Harvin on the show a while back, and he just communicates the importance of asking amazing questions. And then also just to make that a two way conversation as you listen to drivers and really truly hear what they need in the new role.

08:36 - 09:15
Chris Harbin: When you think about it, when when you try to get a driver to come to work with you, the one thing that he or she is gonna do is ask questions. They wanna know the information, they wanna know about pay, of course, they wanna know about routes, they wanna know about the management team, they wanna know the locations and all this good stuff. Well, it all starts with picking up the phone, asking the call, communicating to that driver. When you're, conferencing a man with the terminal manager that he or she would be working for, It's all about communicating that information back and forth. Communication is the key to success with just about anything.

09:15 - 09:41
Chris Harbin: If you don't communicate with people, you know, the information that you're trying to get over to him or her is gone from the get go. My team, I'm big on communicating the drivers what they need, where they at with that driver will come on board. If the phone rings, pick it up and answer. It's just huge with recruiting. If you can't ask the phone, you can't relay the information around, you lost from the get go.

09:42 - 10:01
Chris Harbin: These days, you have all the other companies. Some companies have a big a large amount of people whom are out calling these drivers, trying to get them on and all that. We we're not that confident to do that. We have a smaller group, but we stick with the facts. We live by, again, what we just said, communication.

10:03 - 10:18
Chris Harbin: Answer the phone, related right information. Let's get that driver in as quickly as possible. But don't beat around the bush and tell them misleading information. So and I have been not only I, but my team and I have been very successful with doing it.

10:18 - 10:43
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10:43 - 11:17
Aaron Craddock: Visit truckingclicks.com or call 512-982-0816 today. Number 4, continue the conversation beyond orientation. Continue the conversation beyond orientation. So I had the privilege of interviewing Stacy and Sandy with Hobby Lobby, and they're just incredible relationship builders. And so, one of the things that they highlighted is that you always need to continue that conversation well after bringing the driver on, like, through orientation and and often years beyond.

11:17 - 11:22
Aaron Craddock: And just make sure that the drivers are getting out of it, what they need, and you can really boost your attention.

11:22 - 11:37
Sandie Hutto: We make an effort to walk the halls and we see so and so that just started, you know, 2 weeks ago. We're stopping them. How's your route? Is the truck good? What you know, we just keep interacting with them.

11:37 - 11:54
Sandie Hutto: We'll go to the break room and get a drink, and we'll see one of the new teams in there. We might sit down and ask them how what's been going on? Do are they getting home on time? Is it what they thought it was gonna be? So They're getting enough miles.

11:55 - 12:08
Sandie Hutto: Yes. Enough miles. Really good about staying up with them for the 1st week or 2, actually, because she plans out what they're gonna do during that week. She came from dispatch, so she knows how to do that portion of it. And she stays with them.

12:08 - 12:31
Sandie Hutto: We booked their hotel for the week, you know, the whole bit. They they do a pattern we set up for them, and they only have one day in the office. And from then on, it's out on on the road. And so she keeps a real good track of them for the 1st week or 2. And then I call them somewhere between 60 90 days really to find out if everything's going the way they thought it was going to.

12:31 - 12:46
Sandie Hutto: They have any problems, if somebody's not helping them. Maybe they have a wrap they don't like or don't care for. Maybe it's not the days that they wanted at home. We can't always adjust that, but there is a wish list they can get on at some point. You know?

12:46 - 12:57
Sandie Hutto: But, we wanna make sure they're getting enough miles. You know? Everything that we talked to them about before we brought them on, we wanna make sure they've seen each one of these things, you know, that there's not any problems.

12:58 - 13:20
Aaron Craddock: Number 5, be available. Rodney and his team are excellent examples of just being available and communicating that to all the drivers they have come in. Just the phrase, call me, call anyone, anytime, just I think communicates that that value from upper management for the drivers and how that they're available, like, when the drivers might hit a hard spot.

13:20 - 13:25
Rodney Eaves: Yeah. It's pretty you know, unfortunately, there's not much that we're different than the other carriers competitors are.

13:25 - 13:39
Rodney Eaves: do feel like it's it's a smaller company. Therefore, I can't sell, the family feel, the team concept. If you have a problem, call me. Call anyone. And I think as far as recruiting goes, that's key.

13:39 - 13:56
Rodney Eaves: Always be available. You mentioned that that short app that you get. Once you start building that relationship, then at that point, you follow-up. Things change 3 months down the road. Think things change 6, 9 months down the road, so you never just drop someone off.

13:56 - 14:08
Rodney Eaves: Unless I clearly say, hey. I'm not a flatbed flatbed driver anymore. Right? Then we move on. Other than that, we leave the door open, because you never know what's going to, change, for that individual down the road.

14:08 - 14:26
Aaron Craddock: Number 6, hire for culture. Lance Christensen dives into how it's not just about paying the drivers more, the fleet that pays the most. You really need to focus on that culture. And so this highlight is really focusing on building a culture within your fleet that keeps these drivers around for a long time.

14:26 - 14:44
Lance Christensen: Yeah. Pay has always been important. Part of the different roles I've had as a recruiting leader and one that I just ran last night was a just a a market comparison for pay modeling. When you've got drivers, obviously, pay matters. Dollars always matter.

14:44 - 15:11
Lance Christensen: When somebody has a job and somebody offers them a little bit more per year or a little bit more per hour, they their eyes and ears open and they're ready to listen. So obviously, pay is a factor. Now should it be the determining factor is the problem. When you make it the determining factor, you get people to come work for your company for money. And, yes, they will come to work for you.

15:11 - 15:42
Lance Christensen: Problem is being the top payer in an industry and trying to maintain that, it's it's a game. You constantly have to know who's paying more and you do this whole leapfrog process where you always have to stay on top or you're gonna lose your money. You're gonna lose your employees because you you do not have the the top compensation anymore. When you're attracting people for money, you're attracting the same people. They're gonna leave you later because you fall below market.

15:43 - 16:14
Lance Christensen: So it's kind of that that little rat race. If you attract employees for other reasons, more tangible reasons, more lasting reasons that don't need to be constantly maintained. Culture is a huge one. When people wanna come work for you because you're at the awesome place to work, not just because it's money, because you've got cool people and you got cool culture, you've got great benefits, you you treat people right, they come and they stay. And it's not about money, and that's easier to maintain.

16:14 - 16:17
Lance Christensen: Number 7, solve retention issues. Was super excited

16:17 - 16:26
Aaron Craddock: to have Sadie on the show, and she shared how taking time to fix the retention issues goes hand in hand with a successful recruiting strategy.

16:26 - 16:47
Sadie Church: On the recruiting side, like, I always tell people you recruiting is, you know, you're filling a bucket, and you don't want the bucket to be full of holes. So do you're just recruiting drivers. They're coming in one door. They're going out the other door. We want to set the right expectation, retain as much of our fleet as possible because at the end of the day, that's gonna lower your cost per hire.

16:47 - 17:15
Sadie Church: It's gonna lower your turnover. And then if you are setting the right expectations with your drivers and you are recruiting and hiring ethically, your driver's gonna be happier, and they're gonna refer more drivers. And we've always found that, obviously, referrals are gonna drive down your cost per hire even further. You can reduce your ad budget even more if your if your drivers are referring other drivers for you. And we've also found that we have higher retention with our referred drivers.

17:15 - 17:22
Sadie Church: They have a lifeline at the company. They know to go to for help. So we have we also see better retention rate rates with referrals as well.

17:22 - 17:30
Aaron Craddock: Number 8, nurture growth in your recruiting team. Bobbi Leach talks about coaching and inspiring growth in recruiters through self evaluation.

17:31 - 18:01
Bobbi Leach: So I started out in recruiting. It is my first love and recruiters have an extremely difficult job, especially when you're getting told no all day. And it can seem like, you know, things are just kind of, you just want to get to the next yes. So, it can always be a difficult position and I, sympathize and empathize with every recruiter out there. One of my favorite things as far as coaching a recruiter is to let them evaluate themselves first.

18:01 - 18:26
Bobbi Leach: I think that as long as you're most people are self aware enough to hear when they didn't have a stellar call or when they had an amazing call. And so I think if you, you know, pick out a call, send it to the recruiter, and ask them, you know, what did you like about this call? What do you think you could do better? And let them evaluate themselves. And then you also evaluate alongside of them when you guys discuss it.

18:26 - 18:41
Bobbi Leach: That has been, I would say, one of the more powerful, things that I learned was to let people, listen to themselves first. And and they'll recognize and, recognize when they're doing things good and not so good in the future.

18:41 - 18:59
Aaron Craddock: Number 9, clean data feeds your funnels. And so Brad Hackett talks a lot about just how you need really clean data in all of your systems and specifically just really thinking through how do you set up your applicant tracking system? All of those things are really gonna help you boost those recruiting numbers.

18:59 - 19:34
Brad Hackett: Great question, Aaron. One thing I spent a decade in operations before being thrown in this wild world of driver marketing, recruiting, onboarding, retention kind of sector here. First thing there is, make sure your ATS and the vendors that you use, the data starts with what is feeding your funnel. So understanding your funnel, those key metrics, your cost per lead that's entering into your ATS, how are you converting those leads to applications? What does your approval process time look like internally as the drivers go through those steps?

19:34 - 20:01
Brad Hackett: Those are key areas for not only your recruiters to help fine tune and maximize their skills, but also to make those financial decisions that you're spending a lot of money on all of those efforts, making sure you're not dropping candidates through each of those steps, and then also fine tuning those adjustments so that you can maximize your spend and ultimately get the best performance out of your marketing and your your recruiting efforts.

20:02 - 20:14
Aaron Craddock: Thank you for joining us today. Our goal with the Hire Truckers podcast is to provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to level up your recruiting game. If we added value, take a few seconds to share this with your network. Have a great week.