Sources

Recruiting Truck Drivers Using Social Media

www.avatarfleet.com

·

1

The Best Ways to Hire Truck Drivers - Truckker

www.truckker.com

·

2

How to Attract Truck Drivers on Social Media - TrackFive

trackfive.com

·

3

How to Get Your Drivers to Submit Video Testimonials - Driveteks

driveteks.com

·

4

Answer

Video Full Text

• 00:00 Hey guys welcome back to another video if you're new to my channel. Hi my name is Miranda and I teach about anything and everything related to the trucking industry and how to navigate it. So if this is a topic that interests you feel free to subscribe down below Merry Christmas you guys and if you don't celebrate then happy holidays. I hope you're having a wonderful start to your week and if you're working transporting a load thank you so much for what you do. I will never stop being amazed at how under appreciated drivers in this industry are after all without them where would we be where would the US economy be and speaking of drivers. Today I want to make a video that was highly requested about the process of finding hiring and retaining drivers. This is a very challenging topic to talk about because I don't have a formula that will work each and every time when it comes to finding drivers or retaining drivers. But I'm happy to share my experience ready. Let's go our right let's start at the beginning so you are a carrier and you decide that it's time to expand and add some team members to join your team. The first thing you will want to do is actually talk to your insurance provider and this is because insurance companies will dictate who you can and cannot hire so for example. Our insurance requires that the driver has a two-year-old CDL or older and has a clean Motor Vehicle Record. This is by the way part of the reason why we opened a second Trucking Company the one that I refer to as the baby company because one of my business partners who has a 20 plus year. Old CDL from Europe came here and of course the CDL was non-transferable so he had to get a new CDL in the United States and was considered a new CDL holder now with our insurance in our original company. He was not able to work so we opened a baby company with another insurance provider lighter Progressive that ensured new drivers so make sure to talk to your insurance before starting your search now. Once you talk to your insurance company. You need to start thinking about how you will be hiring your drivers and you have two options.

  Read More
• 02:17 Option. Number one is a W-2 worker or an employee. An option number two is a W-9 worker or an independent contractor. Many times it's cheaper for the carrier to have independent contractors on their team and this is because you don't have to worry about the employer taxes and usually you do not have to pay for Workers Compensation Insurance. However many carriers and businesses in general have abused this possibility of hiring independent contractors to the point. They have done it in illegal ways. We'll call it that to the point where States like California and now Massachusetts and New Jersey have adopted a test that makes sit pretty much impossible to hire drivers as independent contractors in the trucking industry. But then there's also the federal level right. So on a federal level. There is actually a common law test that will help you classify your workers as either independent contractors or employees. So the part one of the common law test is the behavioral test so let me read. This does the company control or have the right to control how the worker does his job so for example in this industry. If you're training new hires. These are employees if you're telling them when and where to pick up loads. These are employees if you're telling them when and where to refuel or perform maintenance or repairs on the truck and trailer employees if you do performance evaluations or if you have any say as to when your drivers can take some home time employees. Part. Two of this test is the financial ass aspect are the business aspects of the workers job controlled by the payer. So for example if you're reimbursing your drivers for things like a trailer washout or getting tools for the truck. Most likely this driver is an employee if you're paying an hourly wage to your driver. Most likely this driver is an employee then there's part three of the test and that is type of relationship are there written contracts or employee type benefits if you have a written contract where you name your new hire as an employee and you are detailing the work that should be performed in the contract. Most likely this is an employee if you're providing any benefits such as health insurance or vacation time. This is an employee now I'm attaching the actually 20 questions that will help you determine whether you're hiring an employee or an independent contractor down below so under the IRS rules who the heck is an independent contractor sure well let me give you a perfect example.

  Read More
• 05:02 Let's say there's Jane Smith who has her own LLC with an EIN and her LLC is named Jane Smith. Trucking now she does not have her own authority so she relies on other carriers to provide their Authority so she can book pick up and deliver loads and make her money. So let's say that Jane Smith applies to work with. Trucking made successful me. Now she has her own truck and trailer and all she needs is my authority in order to be able to work what I would do is and this is a very simplified example. There are so many more details that go into it. But what I would do is. I would add her to my insurance but she would actually have to pay for it. When I send her the payment for the work performed I will be deducting that insurance cost on top of that either. She is the one who directly books loads or I act as a dispatcher. But when I'm booking loads for Jane Smith I have to ask her hey is it okay if I book this one or are you okay with going here. She is the one who has full control because she is the business owner and she can tell me you know what no I'm going home very well again. She's the business owner so she has full control of her operations if she needs to refuel or do repairs or maintenance on her equipment. I have no say in that of where she should do it how she should do it. This is an area where I have no say now if I provide her with a fuel card so she can get discounts on fuel purchases basically when I pay her I would be deducting that fuel expense because she's paying for her own fuel again as a business owner. You have your income. You have your expenses. You have your profit and loss. So. She is in complete control of her own business and operations even though she is using my motor carrier authority to work now a quick note even though on a federal level. There is that test I told you about and the questions that I linked down below of course. Each state state has their own rules and States like California and now Massachusetts and New Jersey have an ABC test to determine whether you're hiring an independent contractor or an employee. Now. Because of this ABC test. It makes it pretty much impossible to hire independent contractors in this industry but in order for you to understand that ABC test I'm linking a video I made on it down below okay so now that you are more clear about the classification of your workers. Let's talk about finding drivers now again unfortunately I do not have a formula for finding drivers but I can share what worked for me and the number one tool that I use is the website called the truckers report.

  Read More
• 07:45 It's a forum dedicated to this industry and they have a section for job postings and this is where I have found the majority of my team members and they are amazing now. When I post a job. I don't hide anything so let's go to the board and I'll show you my exact posting from the truckers report yikes it's a little bit dark okay. This is what my job postings look like so the first thing I want to show you is. I I do not hide anything I show everything regarding to payments because this is what people are interested in how much money are they going to make so. For example I have the payment schedule which is every Friday. The cents per miles at all miles are compensated. We use odometer readings we participate in per diem. We have our detention pay layover pay a one thousand dollar annual loyalty bonus. Uh the average miles and the fact that we do not offer any medical or benefits. At this time I also always detailed the type of equipment that the driver is going to be getting as well as the smaller equipment. We always provide the GPS. The headphones the mattress the tabletop microwave and fridge microwave if the driver so decides fuel card toll pass Auto socks. Then we have the additional information such as we don't have driver facing cams. We don't do drop and hook we try to avoid very tight cities. We do no touch freight most of the time and the requirements. But basically it's a very transparent job.

  Read More
• 09:14 Posting. I don't understand people who try to hide how much is the driver going to make or what is their scope of responsibility is going to look like. Now. The truckers report is actually not the only tool available. There is also an app or a website called transforce1 tf1 which I'll show you in a minute. Now this is kind of a recruiting tool TransForce. One has a pool of thousands and thousands of CDL holders and what happens is when you post a job through their system. It goes to their pool of drivers and drivers can apply now you don't have to pay anything unless you want to reveal the driver's contact information to be able to contact them so let me show you. So this this is TransForce one and basically when you get access to it. All you have to do is post jobs and then you will see applied in review starting soon and working once people start applying to your job. Now the reason I don't have anyone is because I'm not hiring currently but the way you would post the job. Is you would go to my jobs create a job and then you would fill all of this out and then your job will be posted and you will start receiving applicants. Now. Unfortunately I don't have applicants to show you but once you receive applicants you will see a little summary about them how many years of experience whether they were in any accidents and you will have their CDL as well to reveal their contact information. So you can contact them you would have to pay that fee. Usually it's up to one hundred dollars now. Once you find the individual who you feel is going to be a great addition to your company. It's time to do some background checks and the first thing you will want to do is get them to fill out a driver application sends you their CDL and their medical card. Now in terms of background checks. For the driving history you need to have a page within your driver application stating that you want permission to do these checks the driver the potential hire has to sign that page and agree to those background checks because you cannot do them without their explicit permission. Now. Once you get that driver application back with all the pages signed. You can do a background check and I use hire safe. It's a system called hire safe. It's a website that checks all the driving experience and the driving background of any individual who applies to the job now if everything checks out. I will also do an FMCSA Clearinghouse check to see if there were any issues related to the random testing program for this particular individual. This is something that you must do.

  Read More
• 11:57 I will attach the links down below once everything checks out. I sent this individual an agreement not a contract. We don't have contracts in our companies but the agreement will outline. The payment terms the scope of duties for both myself and the individual and basically it will be outlining the job responsibilities. I will also enroll them in my ADP system which I use to process payroll. Now I do not hire independent contractors when you hear me talk about owner operators. I'm talking about my business partners who own a share in both companies. But in terms of team members I only do W-2 employees and because I hire company drivers I need a system a payroll system that will determine the taxes that each of us have to pay what the driver has to pay what I have to pay as the employer and it also provides me with the necessary workers compensation insurance. So basically every single week I enter in the salary. The reimbursement amount and so on and the system calculates everything for me tells me how many taxes are owed from where and sends those taxes to their appropriate place and also I pay for Workers Compensation. Insurance within that system every week and the money that the driver earned gets deposited directly into their bank account so now the question of retaining drivers or driver retention.

  Read More
• 13:19 Because this is a very big problem. In this industry we have a lot of drivers who do not stay with one company for too long and the reason is it's not a question of how much you pay your. Drivers or this is not the only question. It's also a question of how you treat your drivers so let me give you my two cents for me. The most important things as an employer is number one transparency and this is why we pay via odometer readings. Not some practical mile crap number two is being accessible and that is why each of my team members has my own personal cell and they can call and text me anytime number. Three is fairness and this is why we pay detention and layover regardless of whether we get paid as a carrier. So we pay our drivers every single week. If detention or layover was accrued in that week. They are getting paid for that detention and layover that Friday number four is consistency so in terms of home time. I take this very seriously and it's of utmost importance to get my guys home on time every single time and number five and this is probably the most important thing that I want you to take away from this is be humble. I am not and I hope to never become the kind of person who thinks hey I'm the boss. So I'm untouchable. That's bullcrap I learned from my guys every single day and if I'm lucky some days sometimes they will learn from me. I have over three years of experience in this industry. The guys that I have on my team have over 10 years of experience in this industry. So I'm very proud to say that my team has taught me so much much more than I could ever teach them now are there situations where one of my guys gets really really frustrated and the tempers are running hot yeah. Absolutely. They're human. They're not robots and my job is not to yell back and get on my high horse and say well. No I am the boss. How dare you. My job is to listen to understand and to help where I can so if you really want to retain your drivers. You have to understand them. You have to put yourself in their shoes remember. These are guys and girls who are living in a tin can I'm sorry. This is a tin can especially over the road drivers. It's a hard job much harder than people believe so try to understand. Them put yourself in their shoes and help where you can and remember give your drivers.

  Read More
• 15:53 The respect that they deserve anyway guys I hope this video was helpful. It was a little bit longer than I anticipated. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get very detailed with each of these processes and this is because I don't want this video to be like hours and hours long. But I'm happy to do follow-up videos where I explain things in a more detailed manner. If you guys want wishing. You guys all an amazing rest of your week and I'll see you in the next video.

  Read More