In CCJ’s March 17th edition of the Daily Dispatch, NATSO President and CEO Lisa Mullings recognized travel and truck stops as “‘essential’ businesses that must remain open even if other ‘nonessential’ businesses are forced to close.” As we watch our local restaurants and gyms close, see social and business events cancelled, and continue to distance ourselves socially from our loved ones, our compassion and admiration continues to grow for one industry that works tirelessly to provide us with our vital needs.
So how are drivers staying safe from the threat of the coronavirus? Some carriers have helped by providing hand sanitizer and making wearing gloves mandatory. Others issue daily tips and reminders on things like proper hand-washing procedures and keeping your hands free from your face. By the nature of the position, drivers (especially those who drive long-haul) already are used to social distancing and practice frequent hand-washing, so many are reporting ‘business as usual’ conditions, for now.
But for newly-hired drivers, the story is a little different. Carriers traditionally bring new hires into their corporate office to provide small and large group orientation classes to cover company policy, review videos on good trucking practices, make final application updates, and complete orientation packets.
4 free tools to promote remote onboarding
At a time when the number of active cases continues to rise, we believe it’s critical to act together to help mitigate the impact of the virus in the United States. To support social distancing and limiting group size, we are now offering our onboarding tools free to clients and their drivers for 90 days. Making these services free to our clients will not only help drivers more quickly prepare for work and shorten any time spent in orientation class, but greatly reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19. According to a recent look at our driver data, application volume is on the rise – meaning we can expect trucks to fill at faster rates than usual. To help carriers hire employees safely and get much needed drivers on the road faster, carriers can now easily move to these solutions that allow remote onboarding for drivers:-
- DOT & Tax Forms and Proprietary Videos – our biggest time saver, this solution allows drivers to complete digital forms, training videos, and tests from their mobile devices. We offer countless standard DOT and tax forms (such as the I-9, W4, Annual Review, and 7-Day Log, etc.) and will upload your proprietary training videos for free as well. We’re also including a COVID-19 travel disclosure form to help in protecting all parties from the evolving COVID-19 (Coronavirus) public health threat. This now free service also picks up where the IntelliApp left off — by auto-populating orientation forms with information already entered on the application. This continues to relieve drivers from the burden of entering information more than once, expedites form-filling, and ensures consistency in response.
- Confirmation IntelliApp – this recruiting and onboarding tool removes the back-and-forth drivers and recruiters experience when updating a driver’s application with all the required details. Once all updates are made, this tool sends drivers a final recruiter-modified version of their application. Drivers review the information, confirm, and sign the updated application from their smart device, which is then returned to the driver’s file.
- Document Uploader – just like the name implies, Document Uploader allows drivers to take photos of their documents (CDL, SSN Card, Insurance, TWIC Card, etc.) with their smart phones and upload the images to your Xpress dashboard. Documents are safely stored in your drivers’ records to satisfy DQF regulations.
- NEW! Training Content Library – now our free onboarding offer includes our newly-developed training content library. We’ve had a lot of clients ask us over the years for training content with the ability to test drivers afterwards, and the timing couldn’t be better! With a sleek, interactive interface that will enable you to train and test your drivers remotely, our library holds over a dozen titles – such as Defensive Driving, Hours of Service, Backing, Rollovers, and more – with more to be added every week. For a complete list, contact your advisor or email [email protected].