A truck driver’s job is not easy. Being constantly on the road takes its toll. The routine of it becomes all the more excruciating if the truck drivers are not appreciated, looked after by their companies. Upon that, there is always this curiosity about their assignments: how much do truck drivers make? With truck drivers rarely being around you at the office, the management never wholly knows what they are going through. Most importantly, according to a survey, mental health issues of American truck drivers like loneliness, erratic sleep, depression and various emotional problems are often sidelined. All these factors collectively lead to truck drivers rejecting your job offer.
Whether you helm a huge corporation or a brand new startup, if your business relies on truck drivers, then you must consider these criticalities. At the core, truck drivers are gifted to get the goods moving with all their efficiency. However, as a business owner, you must have empathy and understand their concerns as well. By doing so, you would eventually garner consistent support from truck drivers. They will never reject your job offer if they feel that you care for them not just to finish the jobs but most importantly, as a human.
Keeping that mind, here are a few tips from Team TruckBook that would help you in efficiently handling truck drivers. By following them, you would get a better response from them for job acceptance and effective job completion:
Appreciate their Talent and Love for the Job
Most of the time, truck drivers won’t take up your job offer because they are offered a better gig elsewhere. As an entrepreneur, you need to understand a truck driver’s talent and offer them a job that matches up to their value or potential. Because truck drivers do have several opportunities lined up. Make a genuine effort to be in touch with them and make the communication quicker if you are making a job offer to them. If you and the team are not quick, then you might lose a truck driver to a company that quickly gave them the job.
Offer them Competent Salary and Incentives
Think as an average American truck driver. They spend most of their time on the road, the last thing they deserve is a meagre salary that makes them feel thankless. Conversely, there is a real dearth of efficient truck drivers. In this scenario, if you wish to work with efficient truck drivers, then you need to pay them well for all their efforts. Keep their experience, haul type, skills in mind and offer them better salary against industry standards. Grant them regular incentives so that they work with you for the long term. By doing so, you would be investing in better talent, and it would reward your business in future.
Make Sure they are not Overburdened
Truck drivers really look forward to having a quality family time. Take efforts to ensure that they regularly get to unwind with their loved ones. Do not assign them back to back assignments. One of the major reasons due to which truck drivers reject a job offer is because nobody pays heed to their schedule. Carefully understand their lifestyle, work ethic, circumstances and keep them motivated by offering flexible schedules. This way, they would connect with their family on a regular basis and also never feel burnt by the job.
Structure all the Essentials and Communication
The last thing truck drivers want to do is get caught in complicated procedures on the road. Give your truck drivers some helping hand. Assign someone in your team to be their point of contact, help them out in case they are stuck somewhere. Truck drivers would certainly accept your job offer if they feel that you have created a culture of support and transparent communication at your company.
Give them a Chance to Grow and Tap their Potential
Everyone wants a promotion at work. Truck drivers are no exception. That’s why if you want truck drivers to accept your job offers then assure them about timely growth in your company. Tell them about promotions, vertical growth in the company. If your assurance is sincere, then they would certainly respect your offer.
Reward their Effort and Give them Respect
Every employee of your company is important, and you need to make truck drivers feel the same. Therefore, timely realize that truck drivers need to be looked after as well. Make them feel good by giving them yearly or half-yearly incentives. If they are outperformed on an assignment, that recognizes their efforts and rewards them.
Allow them to Fully Focus on Driving
Answering official calls, texts along with social media can become severely distracting for truck drivers. If they are distracted then the road can prove to be risky for them. Give them access to relevant tools to curb the use of social media, keep the communication limited whilst they are on the road. This way, they would be more focused on the road and feel less stressed out for constantly communicating with their peers in the office.
While these are a few of the major reasons for which truck drivers end up rejecting a job offer, the most basic of them are: lack of respect, empathy and effective communication at companies. Bridge these gaps and we bet that talented, efficient truck drivers would love to work at your company and grow it for good.
At TruckBook, we would be glad to connect you with just the right truck drivers and ease your hiring process. Do visit our website to recruit the best of American truck drivers without any hassles.
