If you’re in the business of logistics or transportation, you know just how crucial it is to have a reliable team of skilled truck drivers by your side. These unsung heroes keep the wheels turning, delivering goods across vast distances, and playing a vital role in our global economy.
However, as the demand for trucking services continues to surge, the shortage of qualified drivers has become an ongoing challenge for many companies. Finding and recruiting top-notch truck drivers can feel like navigating an intricate highway system, especially now that most youths now want to be graphic designers and Instagram influencers.
That means, more than ever, it’s important that you are diligent and careful when hiring a driver, given that they could be driving an asset worth over half a million dollars. So, in this post, we show you some essential steps you can follow to attract and retain the best talent in the industry. Just keep reading!
How to Recruit the Best Truck Drivers for Your Business
1. Set the job requirements
Even though you may have existing drivers, it’s important that you write an actual job description and any variations from other drivers’ roles. This might include specific tasks or using a particular piece of technology or hardware.
For example, are they the only driver with a tail lift on the truck, or are they also responsible for loading using a forklift? How many hours will the driver be working, what days will they work, and what would a typical start time be? All these should be well stated in the description to avoid any confusion or disappointments.
2. Establishing the ideal driver’s qualifications
Your requirements might include a particular length of time doing this role or experience using a particular type of truck. For example, you might need a truck driver with a Roadranger gearbox or one with a tipper trailer.
You may need specific qualifications and licenses, such as the ability to carry dangerous goods or operate a boom lift. That means the qualifications you want from a potential driver should go beyond just asking to be a reliable, punctual, polite, and professional driver. Their presentation should meet your requirements.
However, bear in mind that some drivers are drivers because they don’t want to deal with end customers or members of the public. That means if you have a driver working in a quarry and they only ever deal with the loader drivers and dispatchers, it’s less important that they can engage with the end customer.
3. Interview and evaluation
Once you have decided on a shortlist of drivers, it’s important that you get them to do an online driver assessment. This is to help you identify areas of improvement that could be made through training or to weed out drivers who are especially lacking in the required knowledge or skills.
For the final one or two, check them with an in-cab assessment that encompasses a pre-start check, a drive on the road, reversing skills, loading skills, and a general test of attitude and safety consciousness.
Drivers should also present a medical certificate (if relevant), and you should check their references, verify their license is genuine, get a clean drug test and check for previous driving infringements.
4. Vehicle Checklist
Before the driver arrives, the vehicle must be checked to be safe and have all the necessary equipment. This includes manuals, load-securing devices, and fuel cards. You will need a system for monitoring the registration and servicing requirements; don’t rely on the drivers.
5. Your chosen driver starts work
The driver will need an induction for the vehicle and any other auxiliary equipment that will be used. The induction should cover all the vehicle’s functions plus its limitations and any rules around its use at work and for personal use.
In some companies, a buddy system can help handle this. That’s where an experienced driver buddies up with a new driver to show them the ropes. Just ensure the driver has the correct PPE and that you’ve given them the fuel card (if relevant).
6. Schedule training
This will be a mixture of courses to fill in gaps in knowledge identified by the driver assessments and in-house training that covers standard operating procedures (SOPs) and methods of working. At the same time, you will need to set a schedule for periodic assessment of the driver.
Documents should also be supplied to the driver. This may include documents like a safe driving policy, training and induction materials, user manuals, forms, and information on systems used to collect information such as crashes. While you are scheduling training of your employees, you also need to look for the health services for your employees like occupational health screening occupational health screening – It ensure the safety of workers and their colleagues.
Final Note
That’s it about hiring the right truck driver. These steps we have highlighted above should get you started well on how to go about this. However, that’s not the end. Even after hiring your man, there are still some responsibilities you need to shoulder.
Throughout the driver’s employment, it’s important to perform regular, structured assessments of the driver’s skills not only behind the wheel but for everything else that they do for their job, such as loading and unloading.
They should be expected to consistently and diligently use the systems you provide them to log faults, report issues, etc. If the driver is having incidents and accidents, provide training at the earliest opportunity.