& here we go again... You have 5 trucks sitting in the yard, this market is c**p, expenses are piling up, and you are scrambling to fill those 5 trucks ASAP so you are making $$$ and not losing it. I mean, 5 trucks sitting in this market, lets just say if you are on the Dry Van low side equals out to around $30,000 of lost gross in a week plus those truck payments that DO NOT STOP even though that truck is moving. This can cause a trucking company owner to look something like this... 👇
Now our goal... Is to get you like this 😎
With all jokes aside... Lets get you from upset, frustrated, and angry trucking company owner to a happy one! In this blog, I will go into 5 tips of how to fill those trucks up with the highest quality OTR truck drivers possible to help you turn that frown upside down!
Step #1: Give the truck driver options! The more options you give to an OTR truck driver, the more compelling your driver offer will be.
Option #1: Do you have a 1099 option only or a W-2 option as well? If you only have a 1099 option, I guarantee you that you are losing ALOT of drivers. There are alot of drivers who want W2 and the last thing you want is for them to go to your competitors, when you could have just picked up that driver if you had that W-2 option. We have found the rates that make sense for trucking companies to get a W-2 option are somewhere between .10 CPM. So if you are offering a driver .65/CPM on 1099, offer the driver .55/CPM on W2 (Obviously, consult with your CPA on this to make sure this is the right margin for YOUR trucking business)
Option #2: Variety of trucks. Are you only a carrier who offers one type of truck (For example -Freightliners in your fleet) or are you a carrier who offers a variety of trucks (For example - Freightliners, Volvo's, Peterbilts, Kenworths, Western Stars, Etc) ? Lets take this even a step further - Do you have both manual and automatic trucks? You will run into a good amount of drivers, who are old school and will want a manual so if their is an opportunity to capitalize on acquiring that driver by having some manual trucks in your fleet, that is one more driver for you and your fleet!
Option #3: Do you only run one type of trailer, or do you have a variety of trailers you work with and get good freight on? The more trailers you can utilize, the more weapons you will have in your driver recruiting arsenal to meet drivers' needs. The ideal scenario would be to have trailers and freight for dry van, reefer, flatbed, stepdeck, conestoga, RGN... I know, I know, that would be very hard to execute and bring to life - getting a fleet with every single type of trailer, but you get what I am saying (We work with alot of companies who lets say for example, have dry van/reefer option or have a flatbed/stepdeck/conestoga/RGN option).
Option #4: Give the driver the option to work off of CPM or % pay. From our experience of talking with hundreds of drivers everyday, there are drivers that want to go under your wing on a 1099 and drive %. Now, here is the other trick to this - If you go the % route, make sure to send the drivers the rate confirmations. This will put the driver much more at ease as opposed to not sending the rate confirmations to drivers & in the end, you will increase your chances of hiring that driver because you offer % pay as opposed to losing the driver.
I hope that you enjoyed this blog post and I hope you will apply many of these tips to your driver recruiting efforts at your trucking company to acquire more OTR CDL-A truck drivers for your fleet. In the meantime, if you are looking for a fully staffed team to help you get highly qualified OTR drivers FAST with minimal effort from your trucking companies side then click on the link below that says "😎 I WANT OTR DRIVERS NOW 😎" below 👇