Clarissa Rankin becomes a TikTok celebrity. But it’s not a typical social media influencer that prompts followers to buy specific products. Rankin is a truck driver who shares details about her work and life to attract people to the industry.
“I make training videos,” said Rankin, who is an owner-operator for CloudTrucks. “I bring them into my house … and I show them how I prepare my truck, how I prepare my food, how I prepare my family before I hit the road.”
As work restrictions continue top of the trucking industry’s concernscompanies had to get creative with hiring.
Social media-driven peer-to-peer crowdsourcing is gaining popularity as a truck driver recruitment tactic. It’s a method that works for herself and for the clients of Conversion Interactive Agency, an advertising recruitment agency.
“We’ve had some leads be very successful, particularly using Facebook,” said Steve Sichterman, ConversionU’s vice president of transportation at Conversion Interactive Agency. “The bottom line is we’re trying to attract drivers any way we can.”
The transparency of peer engagement on social media demystifies the industry and creates solidarity among truck drivers, which can make the job more attractive to prospective employees.
Reviewing references
Social media crowdsourcing is, essentially, a type of referral — a method that’s been around for decades.
“It’s nothing new. It’s just that the tools that people are using are different or maybe more advanced now,” Sichterman said.
Some of these tools are apps like RocketCDL that allow drivers to recruit their peers from their cell phone and can just as easily find out when a referred driver is hired.
“The bottom line is we’re trying to attract drivers any way we can.”
Steve Sichterman
VP of ConversionU at Conversion Interactive Agency
Many carriers have bonus programs that pay existing employees for successfully referring new drivers. Employees should be reminded of bonus programs sporadically over time, not just during new employee orientation, explained Wendy Bartz, director of sales and services at recruiting and retention software company DriverReach.
Regardless of the specific method, referrals are a top way fleets find new drivers. A few years ago, driver referrals accounted for about 40 percent of a carrier’s hiring, according to Sichterman.
Managers like that the referred driver has already been reviewed by an existing employee.
“The hope is that you get someone who is like a driver that works for you, and that you also get a better quality hire,” he said.
A referral bonus program doesn’t have to be a new expense. it is possible to finance it by shifting around certain budget items.
“Instead of putting your ad spend into the advertising world, giving some of that ad spend to your current leads” can be effective, Bartz said. “You can’t put all your eggs in one basket. You have to break it down into a lot of things, whether it’s your marketing, your advertising campaigns, your referrals, your rehiring.”
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Bartz has also seen an increase in transportation companies giving away big-ticket items like cruises and vacations to attract and retain employees.
“We always think it’s money, but the tangibles happen, too,” he said.
However, joint recruitment can have disadvantages. It’s hard to tell if someone on social media is being paid or if it’s a genuine, unsolicited post, said Duskee Kassing, director of operations at Dot Transportation, a subsidiary of Dot Foods.
Sichterman noted that some people use social media to destroy a business after just one negative experience, but the damage can be widespread.
Simple and effective
Allowing employees to collaborate with peers on social media probably has more positives than negatives for well-functioning fleets, experts said. And as the truck tries to develop his reputation and target populations currently underrepresented in the industry, platforms with broad reach could help spread the word.
“So many people are afraid of trucks,” Rankin said. “I’m trying to make sure that, on my platform, people have a complete picture of the industry … I’m giving them a picture of what truckers are really going through.”
Rankin is especially trying to reach out to women.
“I really want to show women that they can do this,” she said. “We need to get that rate up from the trucking industry’s 9 percent.”
Women make up a small portion of the driver workforce, relative to other transportation occupations
Percentage of female workers in each category
Dot encourages employees to make personal posts on social media about their trucking experiences and what it’s like to work there. Kassing said she’s noticed more drivers using YouTube to talk about life on the job.
While the company doesn’t oversee a formal crowdsourcing program, it provides peer-to-peer recruitment materials to drivers who request it, including Dot-logo t-shirts and a recruiting website.
Crowdsourcing is likely to stick around and even grow as a trucker recruitment practice for two main reasons: It’s easy and it works.
“A lot of women have said, ‘I never noticed him driving a truck until you came along.’ And they notice it more because I put them behind the scenes,” Rankin said. “The word is really getting out there.”
Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that DriverReach is a software company.