How to find the right truck driver candidate.
It may occur you are opening a new business or just extending the one you have for the transportation services. Or you may need to hire a truck driver for a couple of routes only. Anyway, it’s not normal research everybody is doing on a daily basis. In this case, it’s better to have a look at some special features of this process.
Truck Driver Resources
Luckily, in the modern hi-tech world it’s getting much easier to look for and hire truck drivers. No need to visit some offices and communities, but of course every employer will need to make a personal interview with a potential candidate.
To find this potential candidate you can use some famous websites, like Indeed, Truck Driver Jobs 411, Monster and many others. It also can be useful to make an advertisement. Depending on the particular website it may be free of charge or cost you some sum.
There is even a specific website in case you are looking for a temporary truck driver to hire – Meet a Truck Driver which can be an extremely useful tool in this specific search.
Average Cost
Before offering a specific price when hiring truck drivers, it’s highly recommended to check similar offers from the competitors as the range is essentially varied. On average, it will cost from 2,000 to 10,000 USD (on a permanent basis), but it fully depends on factors such as usual distances and routes, truck specifications, the company’s size and network, and many others.
It’s also useful to know about that trucker’s salary. According to recent research, it takes hourly up to 20 USD.
In regards to the salary, it may vary a lot, and one of the main reasons for that is if fuel is included or not. Most companies cover all the fuel consumption costs with an appropriate documentation approval, but some of them pay more to the driver considering that he will be in charge of these payments on its own.
How to Find an Appropriate Candidate
In regards to the normal office jobs, it’s quite a common practice to use HR to find a new employee. But the transportation industry has some specialties.
Normally people that are working in HR are not driving the trucks on their own. In this regard, it’s highly recommended that a professional trucker attends the interview to ask specific questions.
In case if the driver is quite experienced, the company may use CDL Scan to check the reviews from the previous clients or even employers of the potential candidate. This database includes more than 10,000 drivers across the country, so just by inserting the name and last name, you will see all the feedbacks left.
Questions to Ask
There are also some important questions for a potential employee that might be asked even by non-professional drivers during the interview. For example, it’s essential to know if there were accidents with him involved (this information also can be checked). Or how many hours of driving are applicable for the candidate. And, of course, you need to check his CDL driving license to make sure he is eligible to drive a truck at all.
After a normal interview, it’s necessary to hold a practical one. This will prove the driving skills of the candidate and also will show his strengths and weaknesses. In case of a new driver, it may also make sense to arrange some additional training in case you think this driver has potential. Such training can be payable or not, depending on the particular company’s policy.
Basically, there are companies that are interested mostly in experienced truckers while others pay more attention to those ones who just graduated from CDL technical school. It’s important to give the chance to all the candidates even if in the beginning you don’t consider them fitting.
Searching for a truck driver for hire is not that easy procedure and requires patience and professionalism. But keeping a new employee is not less important. A comfortable environment, flexible schedule, and possibilities for growth (including the salary) normally are the most important features at a new working place.
See Also — Semi-Truck Accidents Are Different Than Regular Car Accidents and Here’s Why
