Recruiters say there is a high demand for qualified drivers and competition is fierce to hire them first. This is because drivers often talk to multiple carriers at the same time once they make the decision to leave their current trucking company.
A 2019 survey by Glassdoor found that nearly 60% of job seekers use their smartphones to search for jobs on their site. However, the survey discovered that number is even higher — around 63% — for job seekers in the transportation industry.
To get a leg up on the competition, recruiters are turning to Tenstreet, a software-as-a-service company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to help them expedite the onboarding process through automation. The company states on its website that it is a “one-stop shop for driver onboarding.”
The company’s trucking-specific platform connects carriers and drivers and allows recruiters to stay in constant communication with drivers throughout its transparent onboarding process, said Leah Kelly, Marketing Content and Communications Manager of Tenstreet.
Over the past decade, 2,000-plus motor carriers and private fleets have used Tenstreet web-based tools to help market, recruit, hire, and manage drivers. And 3.8 million drivers have used its platform to find their next trucking jobs.
Tenstreet’s transparent onboarding process helps recruiters and drivers build a relationship, according to Michael Coble, Vice President of Recruiting for Robert Heath Trucking Inc. of Dallas.
“What Tenstreet does, is it allows us to communicate with the drivers throughout the process, which is key,” Coble said. “As drivers upload their documents, it alerts our recruiters and if we have any questions or need more information, the app notifies the drivers. This allows the driver and recruiter to engage with each other and speeds up the hiring process tremendously.”
Robert Heath Trucking, which was founded in 1939, now has around 300 drivers and power units, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) SAFER website.
Coble was an early adopter of Tenstreet’s technology, which has helped streamline their onboarding process. Since joining Robert Heath nearly two years ago, Coble said, he has helped grow the refrigerated truckload fleet of around 100 trucks to its current size using Tenstreet’s platform.
According to Tenstreet’s website, its orientation tools allow drivers to fill out forms and view training videos, and the app sends updates to carriers on how far along drivers are in the onboarding process. This process also shortens drivers’ classroom time, which allows them to hit the road faster and start making money.
Tenstreet’s Document uploader tool lets applicants use their smartphone to take photos of any document, such as their commercial driver’s license, Social Security card and TWIC card information, which shortens the onboarding process tremendously.
Tenstreet’s recruiting platform has shortened the process of hiring quality drivers by 10 to 15 days at Great Plains Transport, according to Joe Richey, Talent Placement Specialist at the Mapleton, North Dakota-based company.
“In the old days, we would have to go to different platforms or agencies just to order a driver’s report, which could take around two weeks,” Richey said. “Now, using Tenstreet’s tools, everything is in one place, so when we get a quality hire, we can actually have them approved and an offer on the table within 45 to 60 minutes on average if everything checks out properly.”
Great Plains has 150 drivers and 170 trucks, according to the FMCSA. It hauls general freight and has a refrigerated division that hauls fresh produce and meat.
Richey said Great Plains has saved a lot of money by advertising open positions using Tenstreet’s Job Store tool, which is free for its customers. Tenstreet partners with industry job boards and posts openings using its portal, the company said.
“For drivers familiar with Tenstreet, once they have filled out an application for a job, the software saves it, so drivers don’t have to go through the incumbent process of doing another full application,” Richey said. “It makes the process of getting those drivers qualified so much faster.”
A rarity among today’s carriers is that Great Plains doesn’t really have a turnover problem, Richey said.
“We may have anywhere from two to five drivers go through our orientation process on a weekly basis,” he said. “We are looking for quality and safe drivers, who haven’t jumped from job to job. Tenstreet’s Driver Pulse app helps us find those experienced drivers.”
Tenstreet also allows carriers to order and track Greyhound bus tickets through its Xpress dashboard and forwards ticket information directly to new hires through the Driver Pulse app, the company said.
Additionally, carriers can customize some features within the Pulse app, including a driver referral program.
“I’ve got a really aggressive driver referral program and using Tenstreet’s Pulse app, when they are talking to a driver at a truck stop, they can log in to the app, put in the driver’s name and it is sent to one of my recruiters,” Coble said.
“I had a driver that made $27,000 last year with that program,” he said.
Pulse MD allows recruiters to select available drug-testing facilities for a specific date, ZIP code and radius. Drug test results are directly entered into a driver’s record using Tenstreet’s Xpress tool.
“This allows us to see the results in a timely manner to help us decide whether to proceed with a driver or not,” Coble said.
