Overcoming The Hiring Hurdle: Tips For Trucking Businesses

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As the owner of a trucking business, there is one constant in your life: you have a lot to think about.

 

You have to think about the economy, and particularly the price of gas and how it can impact your bottom line. You have to think about fleet management to maximise safety and efficiency. You have to think about the health of the vehicles in your fleet, scheduling reviews and repair work that may be necessary. Essentially, your mind is continuously occupied with a thousand and one tasks that are essential to your business’ success.

 

However, the factors above all tend to have simple answers: you can switch to using telematics data for more effective fleet management, encourage your drivers to adopt fuel efficiency techniques, and create a repair schedule that ensures all vehicles are always operating at their very best. Unfortunately, there is one aspect of running a trucking business that is far more complex: hiring.

 

The trouble with hiring

 

The trucking industry tends to be besieged by staffing issues, with many countries experiencing a truck driver shortage that severely impacts their ability to work at full capacity. As a result, staffing can seem like an impossible problem to solve – the proverbial Gordian knot that trucking business owners will always struggle against.

 

No easy answers

 

Unfortunately, there is no Alexander the Great in this situation: trucking is, and will likely remain, an industry that is very difficult to maintain good staff levels in, and this cannot change overnight. There are, however, a few beneficial practices that can help limit the issues you experience in this regard, such as…

 

Incentivise, incentivise, incentivise

 

Trucking is a difficult job and often requires many solitary hours on the road – a working routine that can undoubtedly take its toll. It’s therefore important to do all you can to ensure that you provide powerful incentives that help to compensate for these issues.

 

• You will need to provide a competitive salary to your staff. Check what your competitors are offering and, if possible, seek to offer a substantial increase.
• It’s also helpful to offer additional bonuses, and especially retention bonuses, to your workers in addition to a good basic salary.
• You may want to consider adopting a schedule that allows for long periods of time off as part of normal practice. People are more likely to be willing to work demanding jobs if they are ensured of long breaks, such as one week off in every four.

 

Openness to the new

 

In addition to incentives, it is also helpful to be open to hiring less experienced staff. While every business would always rather hire someone with a huge amount of relevant working experience, this does limit your choice of candidates. Switch your focus from experience to qualifications; if someone is certified to drive a truck, then limited experience should be a less important factor in your decision as to whether to offer them a job.

 

In conclusion

 

Staff recruitment and retention can be difficult in the trucking world, but the ideas above can help to tip the balance in your favour and ensure your company always has the staff you need to ensure your business’ long-term success.