To fill driver seats, carriers and drivers must make contact somehow. This contact happened before the Internet, before the advent of modern mass media, in fact. But the Internet has made such contact faster and more widespread.
Prior to the advent of the Internet, drivers had to make physical contact — walk in the office and ask for a job application. As carriers learned to use advertising in their, then rare, needs for more employees, newspapers and radio, and eventually television, were added to the list. Following deregulation, the need for drivers exploded and carriers faced a shortage of drivers as well as a smaller pool of potential employees as the general population aged. Mass media driver recruitment became a necessity, but reached only as far as the circulation of daily newspapers or the range of television or radio stations. Advertising could bring in a few drivers for on-site interviews or to job fairs, but results still were limited. The Internet has changed the entire equation. Modern computer communication has given the reach of driver recruitment intercontinental range. With most drivers now carrying laptop computers, all these recruiting tools are within a driver's grasp.
Web sites for driver recruitment work all the angles. Some offer to put drivers in touch with trucking companies. Others offer bulletin boards for motor carrier recruiters. Still others want to sell recruiting programs or services to carriers. The most intriguing site we found attempts to match drivers in Australia with carriers in the US.
An Internet search using the keyword “truck driver recruiting services” turned up a wide variety of sites. In addition to third party sites, look at the recruiting pages of most major motor carrier web sites. The following is a look at a few of these sites.
www.truckersforusa.com
Truckers for USA is a driver recruiting service located in Sydney, Australia. While the primary purpose of the site is to find Australian drivers who want a chance to drive in the US, the site also makes a pitch to site visitors from the US who might be interested in truck driving as a career. The approach to US employers is straightforward enough. “Have you ever looked into hiring a foreign driver,” it asks. “We have many experienced drivers willing and able to come to America to drive your trucks. Australians and New Zealand drivers are some of the friendliest people in the world, and they love to drive.”
Site navigation is with six buttons on the home page. The Australian Drivers button leads to a page that attempts to recruit and screen potential applicants at the same time. It suggests that the company has the contacts to provide driving jobs, and it outlines the standards that successful applicants must meet. Answers to frequently asked questions suggest that drivers relocating to the US will be driving premium tractors with large sleepers and many luxury specifications. It claims that unloading is handled by lumpers. The pay scale quoted by the site is a little lower than that paid by most major carriers.
Travel documents are handled by Truckers for USA. The service notes that foreign drivers can work only for the carrier that sponsors their visa. Airfare from Australia or New Zealand is the responsibility of the applicant. Paying airfare would be the same as sponsoring a free vacation for some drivers if Truckers for USA were to take that responsibility, the site says.
The site attempts to recruit experienced US drivers and those workers looking for a career change. In each case, foreign drivers, experienced US drivers, and new workers, the site offers a button for an online contact form. It also offers a contact form for motor carriers along with a form for potential advertisers on the site. The site lists local and overseas telephone numbers as well as a toll-free number in the US. A physical mailing address in Sydney is not listed.
www.recruitingcenter.com
This is the address for The Recruiting Resource Center, a firm that markets driver-recruiting programs. The company is built around finding, hiring, and retaining drivers and running recruiting departments. Site navigation is with 11 buttons along the right side of the main page. In addition, a link leads to a page with details of a campaign to educate drivers about the costs of switching jobs.
The Services button on the main page leads to a list of those provided by the Recruiting Resource Center. Services include consulting, evaluation of recruiting practices, assistance with trade show exhibits, web site development, and driver retention programs. The Products page lists software and publications for driver recruiting. It also offers motivational posters for use in dispatch and recruiting departments.
Go to the Strategic Planning page for a working spreadsheet that helps carriers calculate how many drivers a year must be recruited at various turnover rates. This computer model predicts the number of applications that must be reviewed to meet projected hiring needs, and it projects the staffing requirements necessary to meet the hiring goals. The Resource page lists articles previously published by the Recruiting Resource Center on driver recruiting.
www.truckdriver.com
Truckdriver.com is a relatively simple site. The opening page offers separate menus for recruiters and for job applicants. Using the Recruiter menu opens a secure link to a Free Category search, a Free Skills search, and a Free Keywords search. All three offer the same price list of recruiting products from Truckdriver.com. The Applicant menu opens a link to an extensive job application form that is part of a Submit Resume page. Drivers are asked to complete the form for inclusion in a database of available drivers.
www.bestdriverjobs.com
The site for Best Driver Jobs opens with two simple buttons: Drivers Enter Here and Recruiters Enter Here. Clicking on the Driver link leads to a page with job possibilities for company drivers and owner-operators. These jobs are sorted by region. Clicking on a region leads to a map where site visitors can click on a state to see which carriers in that state need drivers. Clicking on a carrier name leads to more details about that carrier. Drivers can fill out an application at once or apply to all carriers shown by clicking a link that sends an application to all carriers shown on the screen. Clicking on the Recruiter link on the opening page leads to a pitch for recruiters to use drivers from Best Driver Jobs. The site also contains links to display ads from specific carriers, a coming events list, fuel prices by region, traffic reports, weather forecasts, and a link to Department of Transportation regulations.
www.drivepro.com
The site maintained by Drivepro.com is essentially a compilation of blind job listings. These are organized by driver category such as owner-operator, company driver, or recent driving school graduate. Perhaps one of the most telling factors in the current driver shortage is the standard acceptable to many of the carriers represented on Drivepro.com. Several of these job listings indicate that potential drivers are acceptable if they have no felony convictions in the past five years.
www.truckfleet.com
Arsenault Forms Alliance
Arsenault Associates and Fleetcommunity Inc have announced an alliance agreement to provide advanced maintenance management technology to Fleetcommunity.com members at special members-only rates.
Fleetcommunity is an opt-in e-mail community for fleet decisionmakers to facilitate the exchange of ideas and best practices among its diverse membership. It acts as a conduit to bring its more than 575 fleet members information they need to manage their fleet better.
The two companies have developed an alliance program to bring technological choices to Fleetcommunity members: they can now choose to install and run Dossier32 software on their own computers, or they can elect to run their fleet maintenance program over the Internet. Special pricing is available for Fleetcommunity.com members.
www.intergis.com
InterGis Provides ConnectRoute System
InterGis offers ConnectRoute, an external routing and distribution system for companies that move people or products.
ConnectRoute allows companies to use InterGis' routing, scheduling, dispatching, and optimization capability directly from their existing systems, without having to actually man the system. ConnectRoute optimally routes, schedules, and tracks product pick-ups and deliveries or service-related activities. By optimizing scheduling and routing operations, the system enables fuel costs and travel time to be cut as much as 25%.
Providing up-to-date information regarding location of resources, the system can inform customers of scheduled arrival times. ConnectRoute also performs resource management for representatives, vehicles, and workforce activities. The system reports planned-vs-actual drive times, arrival times, and work times on a real-time and historical basis. For more details, contact InterGis, PO Box 899, Torrington CT 06790.
www.at-track.com
@Track, TruckMate Integrate
@Track Communications Inc has completed integration of its HighwayMaster Series 5000 mobile communications system with TruckMate for Windows, a software solution designed for dispatch operations by Maddocks Systems Inc.
This new integration combines on-road capabilities of the Series 5000 with functionality of TruckMate dispatch software, enabling fleet operators to improve service, manage dispatch operations more effectively, and increase revenue miles per truck.
www.upslogistics.com
Roadnet 5000 Revamped with Version 7.0
UPS Logistics Group has released Roadnet 5000 Version 7.0. A routing and scheduling software program, Roadnet 5000 improves customer service and reduces transportation costs. Version 7.0 delivers expanded customizable routing options and enhanced reporting.
Roadnet 5000, originally released in 1993, is designed for daily routing and scheduling of delivery fleets. It analyzes customer location, time windows, open/close times, and vehicle capacities in a matter of minutes — and delivers optimum routes. Roadnet 5000 is the flagship product of the Transportation Suite, which also includes eRoadnet, Territory Planner, FleetLoader, and MobileCast. For more details, contact UPS Logistics Group, 849 Fairmount Ave, Baltimore MD 21286.
www.geocomtms.com
Vehicle Routing, Messaging Software Offered
GeoCom TMS now offers TMS Router vehicle routing software and GeoNav monitoring and messaging software in the United States. This package comes with a scalable n-tier client server architecture, mapping capabilities, and a constraint-based genetic algorithm optimization engine. The combination will remove 5% to 20% of delivery cost from a complex delivery process, says the firm.
The products offer both routing and tracking elements. GeoNav is a simple, efficient application for fleet monitoring and messaging. GeoNav users are tracking and communicating with fleets all over North and South America. TMS Router is a scalable multiple-stop constraint-based fleet scheduling, sequencing, and routing system. Users implementing TMS Router have documented up to 31% savings in delivery costs, including savings in diesel fuel, equipment, and driver costs.
www.strategy5.com
Interface for Strategy5 Users
Strategic Concepts Inc has released its advanced vehicle monitoring system interface. This new interface allows Strategy5 users to download state line crossing odometer readings, driver and vehicle performance statistics, and vehicle fault codes from tracking system providers including Motient and Qualcomm.
Strategy5 is supported on the Red Hat Linux, IBM AIX, and Sun Microsystems Solaris platforms with integrated Microsoft Windows clients.
www.FreightDesk.com
www.vastera.com
FreightDesk, Vastera Team
Vastera Inc, a provider of web-based solutions for Global Trade Management, and FreightDesk.com, a provider of Internet-based cargo management applications for international shipments, have announced an agreement designed to reduce operational costs and increase transaction management efficiencies for freight forwarders and their customers.
Under the agreement, FreightDesk will integrate Vastera's global trade management solutions with its own tracking, collaboration, and office automation capabilities, providing the international freight forwarding industry a solution to manage global shipments.
