Driver recruiting is horrifying.
Every day a driver recruiter goes to work they are forced to repeatedly face humanity’s biggest fear:
Rejection.
As scary as rejection can be, rejection is one of the best outcomes a driver recruiter can have.
Recruiters are often placed into insidious situations that outsiders cannot relate to.
Here are 5 horrifying recruiter stories to show that we all have our demons to battle:
- Handshake From Hell
- Grim Adventures of a Driver Recruiter
- Night of the Living Dead
- Ghosted by a Driver Recruiting Agency
- The Ring
Handshake From Hell
I recruit for a larger carrier, about 250 trucks, and it is common for multiple drivers to be in our headquarters/terminal while waiting for a new load.
One day I was checking in with a driver trainer to see how the new crop of entry-level drivers was performing. After our conversation, I had an orientation to run, but first I needed to use the restroom.
While washing my hands I noticed someone walk out of the bathroom stall and not wash their hands.
I am not a germaphobe, however, I am a firm believer in washing your hands after using a stall.
Anyways, I went upstairs to our office area and began preparing for orientation that day. 15 minutes later the recent hires began pouring in and I went to greet them all with a handshake.
The first driver to enter the room? The person from my bathroom visit earlier that morning…
I shook his hand… and everyone else’s…
Anything to get a driver on the road.
Grim Adventures of a Driver Recruiter
A while back I worked for a CDL A staffing agency where we did all of the hiring for our clients.
To keep organized and provide the best service possible, we relied heavily on our ATS. The agency had a policy to never delete a driver candidate from our system.
If we were to call a driver and discover that they had passed away, we would label them as “deceased” in our database.
In the year I worked at the agency, a colleague of mine “deceased” 8 drivers within 12 months. This set a company record and a coworker sketched an illustration of my colleague as the Grim Reaper.
Night of the Living Dead
Recently, I hired two separate drivers who both agreed to be placed on a team.
The drivers each had 5+ years of experience, and one of them specifically requested to be on a team because they preferred to drive at night when there was less traffic.
3 hours into their first shift and the team was in a ditch.
The driver that specifically requested to drive at night had fallen asleep behind the wheel.
Ghosted By a Driver Recruiting Agency
I have been recruiting for the same carrier for 7 years now.
At first, I was an entry-level recruiter, but eventually, I worked my way up to being the head recruiter. There are about 5 recruiters who I am in charge of.
At my company, the head recruiter is in charge of deciding which driver lead source the company uses.
For my first 2 years, the company had always relied on the same driver recruiting agency and had great success.
My first month after being promoted, I signed the check to pay this agency $5000.
And then nothing. Followed by more nothing.
The recruiting agency had gone out of business shortly after cashing the check I wrote them.
They ghosted us.
The Ring
I was the first full-time recruiter hired by a carrier that was new and trying to grow.
Before my arrival, the company owner had signed up for a lead generation service to help with hiring.
For the entire first month I was there, we were not able to contact a single driver sent to us by the lead generation service. It got so bad that we thought our phones were broken.
Turns out that the lead generation service that promised us 100% direct leads was lying to us. They took our money and sent us the same list of names that they send to every carrier who works with them.
Thousands of dollars and hours wasted.
Conclusion
Every driver recruiter has their own horror story to share, comment yours!
If you wish to eliminate these horror stories and begin growing your company, fill out the form to speak with a Meramec Solutions specialist today.
