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Show Your Drivers You Care! Put a Healthy Trucking Kiosk in Your Terminal

“It’s the price of leadership to do the thing you believe has to be done at the time it must be done.”

– Lyndon B. Johnson
36th president of the United States

MATS provides a powerful, cost-effective means to recruit drivers

By Tim Young

With the 2009 Mid-America Trucking Show scheduled to open in about two months, I would like to take this opportunity to point out the importance of our Recruitment Center and your participation as potential employers for our attendees. I believe you will realize the need to include MATS in your 2009 recruiting plans in preparation for the upcoming positive shift in our economic environment.

First, may I bring to your attention the No. 1 reason tradeshows are even in existence: return on investment. Herein lies the value tradeshows bring to the table. No other form of marketing allows one to “seal the deal” as inexpensively as does a tradeshow. The Trade Show Bureau of North America states that the average total cost of closing a sale in the field is $1,080, while the cost of closing a sale to a qualified trade show prospect is $419.

Statistically speaking, tradeshows are very cost effective. You’ll spend less on your effort in meeting your company’s marketing goals, no matter what they may be. Any other sales methodology utilized in your place of business is over 2.5 times more expensive than the cost associated with exhibiting at trade shows. Additionally, whether moving product or hiring a company driver, exhibiting also provides a golden opportunity to simply enhance your image and visibility.

Tradeshows help level the playing field for smaller firms, since booth space is generally inexpensive ($13 per square foot on average, with the typical small booth covering 100 square feet), and even small companies can usually afford attractive displays. With creative marketing and booth design, small businesses can actually appear as substantially equivalent to the larger corporations within any given industry.

The Mid-America Trucking Show is a very powerful marketing medium within our industry and was initially designed to let exhibiting companies meet many potential customers inexpensively and face-to-face in a brief period of time. Our Recruitment Center, sponsored and managed by the knowledgeable team at Ramp Publishing, overwhelmingly succeeds in this design. More than 100 of the nation’s top trucking companies typically exhibit in this specialized area. Thousands of owner-operators and drivers, both for-lease and for-hire, traverse the aisles in this common area seeking just the right fit for their business.

More than 75,000 industry representatives, including nearly 30,000 professional drivers, traditionally attend the show. According to a recent on-site survey, job enhancement is the single most important reason drivers attend MATS. These drivers are serious about connecting with the best companies to match their needs, and they realize this is an excellent opportunity to obtain the most current information they need to make educated decisions. I know retention is also a problematic obstacle, and I would think that a driver who chooses to make the trip to Louisville in an effort to elevate his business would certainly be someone I would like to have on my team for the long run.

As fleets have been shrinking for the last year or two, there’s been no “desperate” effort to find quality drivers. Capacity has been removed from the overall system. Once the economy picks up, fleets will want to expand rapidly and will look to the owner-operator segment to fill their driving needs. Unfortunately, those owner-operators may not be available, as many have ceased their operation due to the slow economy and high fuel prices. Bob Costello, chief economist of American Trucking Associations, predicts that by the third quarter of this year, capacity will have tightened once again and the driver/owner-operator shortage will be back with a vengeance.

It’s been said that there’s no time like the present to address what’s just beyond the horizon, therefore I would like to encourage those looking for solutions to these looming problems of driver shortage and retention to touch base with the professionals at Ramp Publishing and become an integral part of the Mid-America Trucking Show. Be prepared for the impeding economic rebound. Let our Recruitment Center go to work for you.

Tim G. Young is CEO of the Mid-America Trucking Show.

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