Over the last couple of months of 2017, you have probably noticed your application volume decrease from what it was the month prior. As we’ve assured you in previous communications, this is expected, and nothing to cause concern. Given the unique set of data points we have collected over the past eleven years on the driver market, we’re able to observe this predictable trend each year.
And right around New Year’s Eve, balance is restored to the market as the pendulum swings back to provide a fresh burst of driver applications (a 30-40% increase from Q4). There are several theories around this trend in behavior, one being that many drivers find the first of the year to be the best time to look for that fresh start – just like the rest of us. And with the busy holiday season behind them, they’re hopeful to find a company that speaks to their needs.
You Can Be That Company
In Trucks.com’s Clarissa Hawes interview with the American Trucking Association (ATA), Bob Costello, chief economist, suggests the following to attract more drivers:
- lowering barriers to entry,
- making it easier for veterans to turn their practical military experience into a CDL,
- reaching out to underrepresented communities, and
- continuing to increase pay and benefits.
But as driver turnover rose to 95% in Q3 2017, it’s not only the attractiveness of your company that will make a difference. It’s the tools you’re using to get noticed in the first place.
Let’s look at these tools as they pertain to the three R’s: Response Time, Re-engagement, and Reveal. For each, we’ll recommend time-proven solutions that can help get your company where you need to be in time for Q1 2018.
- Response Time
According to Hightower’s blog, 6 Tips to Become a Successful Driver Recruiter, they divulge one of the top complaints candidates have – “responsiveness – or lack thereof.” The author points out the obvious – “If you’re too slow to respond to calls and emails, you may lose the chance of hiring a qualified driver.”
Everybody knows that response time is important. But how important? We wanted a way to tell how big of a role recruiter reaction time plays in driver engagement. The primary question we wanted to answer was, “how long does it take before drivers start to disengage?” Using one of our largest clients as a case-study, we charted the following data:
Most remarkably, the data show that in the time between five minutes to just one hour, driver engagement (interest) dropped by a whopping 50%.
And because of this carrier’s size and position in the market, these numbers can reasonably be applied to most any other carrier – meaning – every minute matters (with some minutes mattering more than others).
Recommended Tools to Improve Response Time: IntelliApp Now, Continuation IntelliApp, Driver Pulse
- Re-engagement
That said, we understand that being able to respond to a driver within the first five minutes is not always going to happen. That’s why we make re-engaging with applicants really easy. One of the most popular tools clients use to accomplish this is Drip Marketing. Using a using a series of automated, nurturing communications (a campaign), drivers are emailed and/or texted on your behalf, familiarizing them with your brand, and encouraging them to submit a full application to your company.
And if you use job boards to reach drivers, Job Board Scrubber has been proven to double, triple, and even quadruple your lead to full application conversion rates.
As shown by HireRight’s Recruiting Tactics chart, which Trucks.com points to in their article, Trucking Companies Using New Recruitment Strategies to Attract Younger Truck Drivers – the third and fourth most popular methods used by around half of all trucking companies polled now target:
- online job boards (56%), and
- former applicants and past employees (44%)
to find their recruits.
Casey Bellman of Road Runner Transportation Systems has only positive things to say in his testimonial about Drip Marketing: “the results have been tremendous… a huge response from drivers!”
Recommended Tools to Foster Re-engagement: Drip Marketing, Job Board Scrubber, Reconnect Tool, Automation
- Reveal
This one comes down to one big question – are you putting yourself out there? How can drivers apply to you if they don’t know you exist, or know how to find you? In this aggressive market, your brand, your profile, and the positions that you need filled have to be front and center. If you’re a carrier already using Pulse, you have already benefited by receiving FREE driver applications via the “search” or “recommended carriers” pathways. If you’re not listed as a carrier on Pulse, you’re not getting the attention of the 85,000 active drivers who use it every month.
Moreover, our premium one-for-one matching service Pulse Match allows you to build on that momentum, and really works to maximize the return on your ad spend. We take your criteria, and identify compatible drivers in the market. Once a high match is found, we take your profile to the top of the list for the matched driver – front and center – where it should be.
So get out there! Join the 2,000+ carriers who are currently advertised for free on Pulse, today.
Recommended Tools to Increase Reveal: Pulse, Pulse Match, Active Jobs, Job Store, Landing Pages
A New Year, a New You
Let us help you create the perfect solution stack for your company this new year, and help you redesign your recruiting and marketing processes so that you get noticed, and attract the drivers you need. We can give you a solid advantage in this highly-competitive market – and you can be that company drivers are looking for this new year.
Talk with your advisor, call us today at 877-219-9283, or schedule a demo today.
Happy 2018!
