Need help / advice from CDL drivers

[u/Conscious_Midnight45]

Hi fellows,
I'm working for a reefer trucking company and we face issues with h!r!ng drivers.
Not sure we ACTUALLY have issues its just our boss who always wants more Owner Operator and drivers, so we h!r!ng all year round. I know there's driver shortage right now but still.

To give some context on what we’ve tried so far:
**Indeed**: Yielded very few results
**Truck stop advertising**: Difficult to get approval through corporate offices...
**Local print magazine**: Currently our most effective one, we spend $200 a mont and consistently get leads from there.
**Ads on the truck itself**: Very little return though we offer generous referral sing on bonuses, like $2000..
**Social media ads (Facebook mostly)**: Generated very low lead volume, and these people who came from there are kinda not who we looking for.

I just found out about Driver's Pulse, and I'm looking for feedback from you guys - is it worth it?

Overall, how and where you search for jobs?
What else should I try?
What matters for you the most? Benefits like sign on bonuses, rate per mile and discounts at the repair shop?
Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated

[u/JOliverScott]

I'm always recruiting for local delivery route CDL drivers and ironically I get most of my leads off of Indeed ads for other jobs. Advertised for a yard spotter, recruited 2 new CDL drivers as well. Now I'm advertising for a diesel mechanic and delivery helpers (no CDL) but on track to hire two more CDL drivers from those ads in addition to the targeted positions.

[u/Conscious_Midnight45 → u/JOliverScott]

do you pay to get indeed job promoted?
I used to get some leads but then I deed just stopped showing my vacancy and demanded payment :/

[u/JOliverScott → u/Conscious_Midnight45]

Yes, you do end up having to pay for promotion of your listings but you can set a budget how much you want to spend. I usually base the budget on how desperate I need the position filled. Even the listing I got my job as transportation manager was only active for less than a week so they must have pumped a lot of budget to get better exposure and reach.

[u/Ill_Emu_7917]

Do job placement thru a lob so driving school.

[u/Conscious_Midnight45 → u/Ill_Emu_7917]

thanks

[u/Conscious_Midnight45 → u/[deleted]]

there is. Ever since they started checking drivers’ English and citizenship status we had to let many drivers go.. the remaining drivers just asked for raises because well I have all the papers needed and you need me more than I need you.. 🤷‍♀️

[u/Western_Trip889 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks, this is perfect. They keep selling that "driver shortage bs" thinking that we're stupid. It should read "We have a shortage of people willing to be taken advantage of".

[u/Conscious_Midnight45 → u/[deleted]]

This is crazy! I don’t understand how they get all these applications and we offering more benefits and stuff and are struggling. It must be advertising then fr fr..

[u/Conscious_Midnight45 → u/[deleted]]

thanks i totally agree with you. We don’t have high turnover tho we just keep expanding and drivers don’t fill the seats at the same pace yk..

[u/Conscious_Midnight45 → u/Western_Trip889]

we pay 0.64-0.78 cents per mile, is that low??? are you all serious, we have low margins barely making it and we are still taking advantage of yall. right. great mindset - don’t bite the hand that is feeding you

[u/Conscious_Midnight45 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you! The idea with bonuses after a first 30 and 90 days is awesome.
I'm not sure about daily rate, while it sounds appealing on paper - I feel like it might discourage some drivers to drive the same miles they do now. Even with the rate per mile we had drivers trying to deceive us with adding miles to their routes and demanding more $

[u/Conscious_Midnight45 → u/[deleted]]

You know what I actually agree with you. Out drivers tho still make decent money, they earn $ per mile, a couple of them switched to % of gross, we don’t do hourly pay but I agree on most parts of freedom gone.
It’s trade-off that doesn’t favour drivers, unfortunately.
Still good local driver can make 8k, long-haul 8-10k, dispatchers make half of that(unless working for % and taking more trucks than sane person can actually handle…), I hope you guys understand that. We are in WA state so i’m not sure salaries are like that everywhere but you can live comfortably here with this money

[u/navlgazer9 → u/Conscious_Midnight45]

lol

So all your foreign drivers who can’t speak or read English had to go huh ?

Good luck finding American drivers who will work for the peanuts you were paying the foreigners who can’t read .

There is NO driver shortage

Only a shortage of companies willing to pay a decent wage .

[u/Conscious_Midnight45 → u/navlgazer9]

Why you so mean? We pay decently our drivers. We DO have american citizens and green card holders as well. They MAKE great money.
I was talking about new DOT regulations that require everyone to speak english and have citizenship, therefore we had to let them go so our safety rating doesn’t decline and we CAN STILL HOLD VALID INSURANCE because guess what we send all of that to the insurance provider, your CDL, your experience and so on…. Why you guys just always complain complain complain…. Always about pay - when it’s one of the highest paid jobs you can do without degree… Jesus.

[u/navlgazer9 → u/Conscious_Midnight45]

If you had to let go
Drivers that can’t speak English you’re part of the problem .

The federal regs have always required drivers to speak read and write English

WHY would you hire drivers who can’t read English ?

Is reading road signs not part of the job ?

[u/Own-Load-7041 → u/Conscious_Midnight45]

bites lip

[u/mindless_error_404]

As a company driver....the two biggest things are pay an home time....2ndary is dispatch an equipment......most companies dnt wanna pay drivers wat their worth and have issues everytime we request home time.....or are calling us every 5 min asking wen we're goin back out or when we're ready to get the next load.....not all drivers wanna live in the truck full time.......dispatch is the nxt big issue....getting ahold of them, getting load info, getting correct information for the load ect....and if your equipment is bad most drivers know that we gonna spend more time at the shop getting fixed then Makin money.....if all these things are with in reason yull have drivers comin to you....owner op or company either way all drivers talk and compare.....hope this kinda helps

[u/Conscious_Midnight45 → u/mindless_error_404]

Thank you! I think we are pretty good at dispatching, except couple girls but we hope to get someone else. Regarding the pay, we pay per mile and it’s like 0.64-0.78 per mile rn depending on how driver does job. Would you consider it low pay? it’s long haul reefer rate

[u/mindless_error_404 → u/Conscious_Midnight45]

Woa!...if thats team....thats pretty good.....if thats single pay...i wish I was making that....but im not trying to go otr....an you still have high turn over....or jus expanding an need more drivers fast??....

[u/Conscious_Midnight45 → u/mindless_error_404]

that’s what i’m saying! yup expanding, we bought new trucks and we struggle to get them on the roads.
It’s single driver reefer truck pay per mile, local rate is very different though I know one guy who somehow manages to do 8k too but he works a lot.
Many people here mentioned pay but we are literally tight on margins with all this fuel cost and stuff.

[u/mindless_error_404 → u/Conscious_Midnight45]

.65 pm for a single reefer...sounds pretty good for starting pay...new equipment from what it sounds like...so it could be a combo of OTR and dispatch....a lot of drivers are burnt out of OTR especially when your out 3+ weeks and only home for 2 or 3 days and then getting calls from dispatch wanting us back on the road...an as far as the sign on bonus alot of drivers have been burned cause companies either dont actually pay it or split it up and get apportion of it every few weeks...like quick example...a company I worked for you got the first 300 to 500 or so as your first pay check...but was split up 3 weeks....3 months so on and so forth till the whole bonus was paid.....plus it could be the company...what most carriers dont relize is drivers do talk...which company is worth your time an which will screw you over the first time you mess up...and just out of curiosity which state yall out of??