Tips for Trucking Industry Hiring
One of the most critical issues facing the trucking industry in recent years has been, surprisingly, not diesel costs.
The biggest difficulty is lack of drivers.
Even for business not directly part of the trucking industry, driver hiring shortages mean, you need to step up recruitment efforts to fill trucking jobs. Web sites designed specifically for companies hiring truckers, especially sites with an “employer” option.
These sites are where you can post listings and reduce your total time and energy commitment, and getting the most suitable candidates for your openings.
Three things you need to know about hiring for trucking jobs:
- You must hire drivers by particular driver or trailer type.
- It is essential that drivers have appropriate licenses and are otherwise qualified: Especially with a commercial driver’s license or “CDL”, for any type of CDL jobs.
- Recruit drivers through local, regional, or national sources.
There are some best practices for hiring truckers and heavy equipment operators:
Testing and background checks for truck driving jobs
Truck drivers do a lot more than drive large vehicles with merchandise. They need to be experts that maneuver huge, possibly dangerous machines over hundreds or thousands of miles of road. A recruiting firm should provide applicants through extensive background checks and testing.
Get a wide variety of job applicants
Filling the best truck driving jobs starts with qualified applicants. The right recruiting sites offer plenty of applicant choices for all your truck driving job openings.
Advertise CDL jobs in industry publications
Hiring for CDL jobs, openings must list in leading print and online trucking magazines. Online job sites should also attract quality drivers for truck driving jobs.
Lists of trucking publications can be a good start to post job openings for national, regional, or local trucking jobs.
Trucking school recruitment
Trucking schools are an excellent way of finding motivated and skilled people. They are there with a sincere effort toward beginning a trucking career. Most schools will provide job placement in CDL jobs for national or local trucking companies, as well as other truck driving positions.
There are directories of truck driving schools and trucker training programs. This is a good place to start for employers to find qualified truck drivers and other heavy equipment operators.
Hire at trucking events
A great place to develop CDL jobs is at events for the trucking industry. This poses a lot of recruiting opportunities for businesses to extend their truck driving job openings.
Check with online truck driving event listings or trucking conferences. There is an annual Mid-America Trucking Show with a Recruitment Center, which is an event-specific support to help find candidates interested in trucking careers.
When attending events, place company brochures. Make sure they clearly list the benefits of pursuing truck-driving careers with your organization. You can also put them in the truck stop kiosks to draw attention.
Successful hiring for truck driving jobs requires finding the right applicant with a mix of licensing, experience, safe driving record and driving the type of vehicle you are hiring him/her to operate.
The most common complaints from truck drivers are lack of revenue and spending too much time away from home. If you cannot be competitive on the money, you can certainly look for creative ways to make sure drivers are home on most weekends.
The laws limiting hours truckers can operate in one day are there for a reason –many drivers get tired and less attentive after consecutive hours of driving. This can put both themselves and others in danger.
Do you have other tips for hiring drivers in the trucking industry? Let us know in the comments.
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