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Recruiting and Retention: Get Ready to Gear Up

By Kelly Anderson

I’ve asked several carriers how business is going and the standard answer I’m getting from non-flatbed carriers is, “We’ll have a couple of good weeks and we think ‘here it goes’ and then the third week is dead.” They go on to say they are receiving increased requests for rate quotes. However, substantial downward pressure remains on freight rates. Flatbed freight remains nearly nonexistent, and they don’t expect any major increase in freight volumes until 2010.

A couple of people told me they are still skeptical about the turnaround and they believe things are getting better when we have three good weeks in a row. My answer to them is: Think back two months ago when you didn’t have two good weeks in a row. I believe the economy is bouncing on the bottom as evidenced by the good weeks we’re having followed by bad weeks. This is a start to steady improvement.

Several carriers have reported to me that driver turnover is starting to ease back up. Furthermore, although they continue to get a large number of applications, the quality has gone from very good to about 50/50 good vs. bad.

Dale Reagan, vice president at Tenstreet (in my opinion, the absolute best driver application software system in the industry), monitors the number of consumer reports being ordered as an indicator of carrier hiring activity. Earlier this year, Dale told me he had seen a substantial increase in the number of reports being ordered. I see three reasons for the increase in ordered reports: increased turnover; fleets growing their fleets; and, as Chris Anderson, vice president of MCT, told me, they were ordering more consumer reports because they had to process more applications to find the drivers he wanted to contract due to reduced driver applicant quality.

Based on these conversations and economic reports from such diverse organizations as the ATA, Wachovia and Global Insight, I am very optimistic the economy is starting to improve and will continue to improve. With it we will see a significant spike in turnover as drivers search for greener pastures and carriers start filling idled equipment.

We are facing several challenges. First is the decision of when to start our advertising campaigns. Second is communicating with our driver fleets to impress on them that they are in the greenest pastures to control turnover. Third is to motivate our recruiters to get back to aggressively recruiting again.

With regard to the last point, I believe recruiters have become complacent as they’ve had an over-abundance of high-quality drivers calling and asking for a job. Moreover, they didn’t have to process the application quickly because the driver wasn’t going anywhere. One vice president told me he had more than 100 of the highest quality drivers he’s ever seen on a waiting list. I believe that list will evaporate once carriers start hiring.

I also believe we are about to enter the toughest recruiting environment we’ve ever seen due to an incredible driver shortage caused by drivers who left the industry, drivers leaving due to their age and CSA 2010. The carriers with the drivers will win. To get drivers they will have to get their recruiters fired up again to compete in this ever-changing industry.

Kelly Anderson is president of the International Society of Recruiting and Retention Professionals. He can be reached at 888-429-3445.

Note: A version of this article appeared in “The Rear View Mirror.” Reprinted with permission.

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