Are you thinking of hiring truck drivers for your trucking business? If YES, here are the best hiring months in the trucking industry.
There is no ideal time for hiring in the trucking industry. Market demands and seasonal adjustments can distort data during unusual periods of rapid contraction and expansion in the US economy.
For instance, seasonal adjustment added 16,000 trucking jobs to the unadjusted numbers in April. Note that these differences can distort facts and shippers’ views of what’s actually happening in the market.
However, the good news is the year-over-year shortfall in trucking employment continues to shrink, falling to 43,000 despite the drop in employment in December. The gap peaked at 103,700 jobs in May 2020, a month after 84,800 trucking jobs were lost.
The data released last year by the BLS includes detailed information on trucking employment on a sector-by-sector basis. From a shipper’s standpoint, November remains the first month the long-haul truckload carriers were able to start bringing drivers on board in 2020.
Unadjusted employment numbers for long-distance truckload carriers rose by 5,900 from October to November, reaching 511,900, the preliminary BLS data shows.
That’s a 12,800-job gain from July 2020 when the truckload carriers tracked by the BLS saw employment drop to 499,100. November was the fourth month of truckload job growth.
In addition, the non-seasonally adjusted 274,600 jobs the BLS reported for the local trucking sector in November is the highest job count for that sector since October 2019.
Long-haul truckload employment, in contrast, peaked in November 2019 at 530,200 jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic and recession resulted in an 18,300-job year-over-year shortfall for the sector in November.
Hiring in the trucking industry tends to follow a seasonal ebb and flow that is fairly inconsistent and unpredictable. There are some exceptions by freight type too, but generally, these are the months you will have the greatest success hiring new drivers in the trucking industry.
What are the Best Hiring Months in the Trucking Industry?
1. January
Following the holiday season, hiring companies are returning from that busy period ready to fill open positions. The first few weeks of January are still slow as people return from vacation, but positions are often posted during this month.
2. February
February is a peak hiring time. Most trucking jobs are posted in January and hiring companies often begin interviewing top candidates in February. The hiring process may be slow since companies have the time and resources to select the best candidate for the position.
3. March
March functions much like February in the hiring process. There are more or less still open positions from the start of the year and hiring companies are interested in putting the best people into those roles.
4. April
April is often when hiring companies start to feel a bit more urgency in the hiring process. If they have not yet been able to fill a position posted at the start of the year, they will begin working harder and faster to find a qualified candidate. April is a great time to make follow-up calls or put in new applications for jobs that have been open for a while.
5. May
May is when most colleges and universities hold graduation. This makes May a top hiring month for companies eager to acquire the best new talent straight out of school. If you are already a member of the workforce looking for a new position, you can use this prime hiring time to your advantage before the slow hiring months of summer arrive.
6. September
September is a time of renewed vigour for hiring companies. Following the summer months full of vacations and constant delivery, trucking companies are eager to fill open positions before the end of the year. Some companies may be facing vacancies from early-season hires that left the company after only a few months on the job.
7. October
Just like April and May, October is an urgent hiring time. Hiring companies are eager to fill open positions before the holiday season begins and before key employees in the hiring process are on vacation. In addition, this is the last opportunity hiring companies have to fill positions before the New Year.
5 Best Ways to Recruit Truck Drivers
With so many available tools, it can be hard to gauge the top platforms you should include in your driver recruitment strategy. Nonetheless, here are five tips to recruit drivers.
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Search Engine Optimization
Leveraging SEO to recruit drivers is fast becoming a highly successful way to send traffic to your website. An ideal way to organically improve your SEO performance is through continuous blogging. By centering your blog posts on specific keywords, users can organically find your web pages rather than endlessly hunting for them. Utilize platforms that will measure your SEO efforts, such as Google Analytics.
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Pay-Per-Click Campaigns
Pay-Per-Click campaigns tend to vary slightly from content marketing as they need more of capital investment. When recruiting truck drivers, the use of PPC campaigns can significantly help to leverage a successful SEO infrastructure. Incorporating PPC campaigns moves your recruiting site to the top of search engine results, producing more traffic from potential truck drivers.
Have it in mind that the most prominent benefit of PPC is that you only pay for your ad’s placement when the advertisement is clicked. This entails that it is easy to monitor the success of your campaign and tweak the variables if required. For example, if you’ve set up targeting in Google AdWords and find that your landing page isn’t reaching a lot of traffic or sending the right message, then your CTR (Click Through Rate) will show this.
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Social Media
In this modern age, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other popular social networks are rapidly growing. This is one of the ideal methods to adopt when recruiting truck drivers. Note that the connectivity offered by social media is comparable to none. The ability to “like,” “share,” “retweet” and “follow” opens up your potential driver base tenfold.
Also consider measuring the success of your social strategy through available analytic tools. The process of recruiting truck drivers on social media is powerful and an excellent way to generate positive conversation about your company, so don’t miss out on this one.
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Driver Job Boards & Aggregator Sites
Have it in mind that the widespread use of the Internet when searching for positions means that using online job boards is far easier in order to attract potential drivers.
The online marketplace will be the first port of call for many truck drivers seeking a trucking career, so you have to ensure that your job posting is unique and sends a powerful message! Be sure to sell your company’s strong points, as the Internet has also opened up the avenue for stiff competition. Make best use of the technology at your disposal.
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Driver Recruitment Landing Pages
Note that having a driver recruitment landing page is one of the best forms of inbound marketing available today. All of your inbound marketing activities should be created with one goal in mind – to attract and convert qualified drivers.
To do this, you are expected to have a top-notch landing page. Once you attract drivers to your landing page, the “nurture” phase comes into play. This is where you where you completely sell the benefits of your company and provide a driver application or a CTA (call-to-action).
Have it in mind that the key to transforming visitors to leads is through effective landing pages and CTAs. Whether it’s a mini app or free download, your landing page should move prospective drivers through the conversion process.
Conclusion
Hiring in the trucking industry indeed follows a relatively consistent seasonal pattern, but it is still dependent on the economy. For instance, seven months of employment growth in for-hire trucking came to a halt last December as unadjusted payroll numbers dipped despite strong reported freight demand. If you’re looking for the best ways to recruit truck drivers, these five tips will certainly put you on the right path.