Recruiting Gen Y Truck Drivers

My Comments: This article is meant for driver recruiters but if drivers have an opinion please post it!


By Marge Bailey


Online Resources that do not offer click traffic reporting in real time are hard to analyze. The burden of tracking click throughs is put upon the recruiting end. While DriverFinder Network's job posting package includes click traffic reporting, unless a company has in place a dedicated call line for each online resource they use it's impossible to track calls that are generated by a web source (other than Adwords and other PPC services that offer a dedicated phone # with tracking). Resource sites that generate the click traffic get dropped in many cases due to many prospects call rather than click through to the company web site. The decision to drop an online resource if a phone # is posted but no tracking is used on phone calls might do a great injustice to those resources and lose a good candidate generator for the company.


To blame unqualified candidates who apply on the advertising resource that's generating great page view traffic is in my experience these last 20 years ridiculous.  That's like blaming a red light for people who don't stop! As long the red light is doing it's job it's up to the people behind the wheel of the vehicles to stop. Needless to say the burden of attracting and hiring qualified candidates is squarely on the shoulders of the recruiters, the job incentives, equipment, home time, the companies' reputation, etc. A good resource should not be held responsible for hires. Only for generating the traffic views of trucking industry candidates and not for how many apply and/or are hired.


As a recruiter I had an entire year to battle with the odds against me for getting qualified drivers that I could sign on to a mega company with a not so great reputation with drivers; i.e. low driver pay and 60 mph trucks to mention the top two (that was 2 decades ago). I had to go through 15 to 20 candidates to get one hire and I was considered an above average recruiter. Nothing has changed much in today's environment.


The challenges are still pretty much the same but with so many old hands retiring and unfortunately dying off, Gen Y has to fill their seats. This is a daunting challenge but it helps to always be truthful with the candidates! People who don't know any better will buy into whatever a recruiter is selling but with the Internet very few show up for an interview who haven't researched trucking to the bone.


It's been determined that most people today come into truck driving as a last resort. It may be as high as 70% that don't make the cut for various reasons. Bottom line is the last 2 generations find that sitting behind a computer makes them a good income and is a much more respected line of work. The medical field is wide open and pays better than driving. I could go on and on but it's not necessary as we all know that Gen Y (41 million of'em) would rather not drive a big rig unless forced to due to the economy.


There are still company website navigation issues that create annoyances for job seekers but that can be discussed in a different thread if anyone wants my opinion ;>)