How to be Effective in a World of Rookie Recruiters

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With Driver shortages at an all-time high – It is becoming more difficult to not only recruit, but to retain qualified drivers and owner operators.  How do you find drivers and operators that are a better fit for your company to begin with? 

Finding Drivers and Operators that "fit" you company is a key component in retention.  Most carriers, while looking at a lot full of empty trucks, tend to use the “Habeas Corpus” or “Just Produce a Body” method; we will hire someone qualified, but not necessarily the best fit for our trucking operation, or the driver for that matter.  This always results in a short career at our company for the driver and higher turnover, which produce significantly higher costs to our trucking operation.

·         How many countless Ads has your company placed using traditional methods such as newspaper, radio, or even TV with little to no return? How many internet ads surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands of other advertisers?

·         How much money has your company allocated to these already exhausted methods?

At 18 Wheels of Justice; we are providing a unique approach to recruiting and capturing the attention of drivers and owner operators.  We have tactfully and quietly developed one of the most devoted driver and operator audience in the nation and continue to foster that growth.

Why Partner With Us?

I'm the author of "18 Wheels of Justice", an educational, trucking based Book & CD series, website and blog. I have appeared on Big Truck TV (a partner with Internet Truck Stop) and various trucking radio shows.  My blogs are published on Big Truck TV, TripPak and various other venues. Drivers and owner operators visit and trust 18 Wheels of Justice to interview and explain the core values of a trucking company before they sign on.

The 18 Wheels of Justice “Blomotion” (Blog Promotion) is an in depth story that is designed to answer the drivers and operators questions about your company before they call.  

The game has changed so much over the last few years that most drivers & ops are hesitant to call to ask questions because of all the follow up calls they will get from recruiters for months, even years.  Our article presents your company in an up front and personal light by a reputable third party.  It works, and it works well.

Recruiting advertising is not like selling soft drinks. You're selling a career, success, a lifestyle and trust.  Repetition and flashing ads simply can not convey this message.  The time has come to promote in depth what makes your company appealing and makes it standout in our industry. Every trucking company has its own appeal and is unique; we focus on and promote these attributes.

We tell the founders story, the struggles and successes throughout the company’s history, the human side... This has great appeal and the principles of attraction must be applied to recruiting drivers and operators.  The operators, drivers and their wives want to make their own decision and learn about the company on their own.

Let us tell your story...

How it works

·         Written “Blomotion” (Blog + Promotion) on you company which includes an in depth story about your company with your final approval before publication. The article will be posted on our different blogs several times during the month.

·         Original article on your company includes interview with company CEO or Director of Recruiting describing the benefits of working for your company.

·         Blog article will be featured on owner operator and driver page on our website for 30 days, along with link and phone number to your company’s website.

·         Posted on 50 Craigslist Cities within your hiring area as an article by a 3rd Party (it works well, we know how to catch owner operators and drivers attention)

·         Any existing recruiting video you have will be published alongside the article on our website and blog as well.

Most Drivers and Operators(and more importantly, their wives and significant others) review companies and make their decision over the Christmas Season when they have time off and make their move in January, don’t wait. Our schedule is filling up quickly for the remainder of 2012, and this is the ideal time to have your “Blomotion” posted, especially to ramp up for 2013 driver needs.

Act quickly by simply replying to this email or call 314-620-5536 to learn more.  We do all the work for you…

                                              Copyright 2012 - 18 Wheels of Justice

The Ugly Truth About Empty Trucks

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What exactly does an empty truck cost a trucking company?  "Not that Much" said one brave soul.  "A whole lot!" replied another.  "I don't know!" he said quietly to himself, and he was right.

Let's jump right in and figure it out, because the water is warm and getting hot.  The purpose of this blog is not to cause grown men to cry, nor put the fear of God or additional pressure on already nervous Driver Recruiters, but quite the opposite.  Where are your resources going?  Are you giving your recruiting departments enough resources?

Now, you may not want to know what that an empty truck costs you and I don't blame you...  You may purposely avoid driving around the side of the building where all the empty trucks are parked when you arrive in the morning.  I don't blame you for that either... Now, settle into your favorite bar stool, grab yourself a pencil and cocktail napkin, turn the napkin over onto its back, and lets do some accountin'...

Feel free to insert your own costs here, if you don't know these off the top of your head, these are good averages to use.  (These descriptions and amounts all meet again in a column near the bottom, I felt some explanation was needed as to just how I arrived at my numbers.)

Tractor Payment - $2075.00 - Just an average payment amount based on a new truck with 5 year straight financing.

Trailer Payment $300 - $600 (Oh wait, multiply that $300 trailer payment number by two! Remember the person(salesmen, operations manager, VP of this and that, CFO) who convinced you that you need to be at a 2 to 1 trailer to tractor ratio?  (Yes, Sir, you now have two trailers for every tractor.  You did that so you could do some fancy dropping and hooking and increase your revenue, yes, Sir.)

Actual Depreciation - $1541.00  5 Year to $7500 (I don't care about how you speed up or slow down depreciation for taxes, doesn't matter here, stop thinking it's a good thing, and stop thinking about it entirely for this exercise, please.)

Overhead - $900  Includes (Non-driving Employees, Office Staff, Mechanics, Phones, company cars and so on.  I'm going to peg this at $.09 per mile as a good average, basically all admin costs divided by number of trucks by 10,000 miles per month.  Again, please feel free to use what number you feel is a realistic representation of your company. 

Profit per truck - How much do you make per truck per month?  I don't know how much you make, but the 5 - 25 - 100 empty trucks on your lot play a major role in your overall profitability - Please feel free to insert your profit per truck number here. I left it at ZERO

To Summarize - 

Tractor Payment   $2,075

Trailer Payment      $600

Depreciation         $1,541  

Overhead                 $900

Profit                            $0 

Cost per Empty Truck per Month $5,116

The trucking business makes for a good mistress but she's a mean wife.  She's very cyclical as we all know and full of mood swings.  "And Boy, I Say Boy", she's been in a mood for the last year or two.  The carriers who understand the cost of an empty truck and address it head on are sure to weather the storm.  Stay strong, our time to shine is coming again...

COPYRIGHT 2012 Michael H. Komadina 

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Negotiating with Freight Brokers - Strategy #5

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Strategy #5 - Hello Third Party!

So... Your negotiation is going fairly well: it has been friendly and easy going.  You have assured the broker you can do this particular load successfully, you can meet all of his needs, you're trustworthy and in the end it will be good for him and his customer.  He needs reassurance at this point in the negotiation.  He needs to know that you want to do this load, and you do, but you have to make sure the rate is ok with one of the following people:

Your Boss
Your Partner
Your Wife
Owner Operator who will be hauling the load
Your Father
Your Mother
Your Spiritual Advisor - Priest, Rabbi or Minister.  Yes, The decision to take a load of freight is this important!

Someone other than yourself with whom you need their approval to the load.  Or someone with whom you place high value on their opinion and you always run major decisions(taking a load) by them.  If you don't have someone like this, you should find someone.

Feel free to introduce this third party at anytime during the load booking process.  I find it most effective to introduce them midway through the negotiation.  It's your call, in the beginning or the middle, but never towards the end.  If the third party is introduced early, it can ease the tension with the negotiation.  As the conversation goes along, you should be making statements like, "well...he isn't going to like that, it will be hard to convince him to hand unload all those pebbles, well it doesn't unload until 2pm, that's going to make it hard to pick up another load that same day..." and so on and so forth. 

This also creates a camaraderie between you and the broker and can be a good thing.  Always remember that you are trying to build a long term relationship.  This is a good thing because you and the broker are working as a team to convince this third party(your boss, wife, owner op, mother, father, rabbi, etc.)  I would strongly advise against introducing this third party late in the negotiating.  This can be seen as a cheap ploy and ruin all the goodwill you have created. 

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15 Ways to Increase your Income while Negotiating for LoadsPick up Negotiating with Freight Brokers and 3PL's today

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