Driver hiring

Nov. 1, 2008
When it Comes to hiring truck drivers, the obvious objective is, naturally, to most cost-effectively employ the best candidates. What may not be as well

When it Comes to hiring truck drivers, the obvious objective is, naturally, to most cost-effectively employ the best candidates. What may not be as well understood is that efficiencies in the recruiting process have a huge impact on the type of drivers that a company may eventually hire. The more efficient and effective the hiring process, the faster the most qualified applicants can be processed, and the quicker a job offer can be made to them.

“The best drivers don't stay on the market very long,” said Dale Reagan of Tenstreet, a leading supplier of services and solutions to help truck fleets better manage human resources and driver pools. “The objective of any good hiring process is to get an offer to the best applicants as soon as possible so they aren't lost to another company.”

Aside from determining what makes for a successful driver at a particular company, “the other biggest problems are procedural, due to the paper intensive hiring practices and all the compliance requirements, particularly those mandated by the US DOT,” he pointed out. “And all too often, applications are incomplete, which adds time and expense to the application process.”

Adding to the challenges, companies often have a decentralized recruiting process.

Many of these bottlenecks can be navigated by the use of technology with such systems as Tenstreet, which uses transportation-specific technologies and techniques to improve the online hiring process. The company's products automate the collection of driver work history and employment data through the web at the first point of contact with driver applicants.

Using a digital signature technology, applications include signed drug and alcohol releases without the need for a fax to obtain a signature.

The Tenstreet application is interactive, said Reagan, and incorporates an automatic-gap checking feature that helps applicants make sure they fill out the full application, with all the necessary information.

“This ensures the completeness and accuracy of data collection with less manual intervention for improved recruiting productivity,” he said.

Tenstreet's technology helps manage and track applications. It also scores applicants according to a company's specific driver qualification criteria to identify the best applicants.

“This stops the typical recruiting process of screening every applicant that meets the minimum requirements,” said Reagan. “When you do this, you start throwing time, money, and other resources at them.

“By scoring, companies can devote attention and resources to only the best applicants.”

With such transportation-specific technologies and techniques as those available through Tenstreet, the hiring process can be better managed, the best drivers in the applicant pool qualified faster, and the verification process speeded up. This enables a company to respond sooner with a job offer and lessen the chances that the good driver will have the time to sign on with another company.

What's more, Reagan added, there are operational savings in the cost and time to hire, enhanced resource management, and an improvement in recruiting productivity.

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