The convenience of being able to fill out a job application in minutes via smartphone can make all the difference in a trucking company’s ability to recruit and onboard qualified drivers in today’s competitive environment.
That’s why Lane Williams, director of recruiting at Carrier One Inc., a 100% owner-operator, flatbed trucking company based in Griffith, Indiana, uses Tenstreet’s automated marketing tools that connect carriers with drivers throughout the recruiting process.
Tenstreet, a software-as-a-service company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, uses automation to expedite the hiring process for motor carriers. The company’s trucking-specific platform allows recruiters to stay in constant communication with drivers throughout its transparent onboarding process.
Carrier One, which has about 150 owner-operators, hires between 30 and 40 experienced flatbedders each month, Williams said.
What he likes most is that Tenstreet’s IntelliApp is not a one-size-fits-all recruiting tool.
“We noticed that some of the experienced drivers were abandoning our application at a certain point in the process because maybe some of the questions didn’t apply to them,” Williams told FreightWaves.
Using Tenstreet’s IntelliApp Stats feature, Williams was able to identify the exact step in the application process where “we were losing people.”
“We were then able to sit down with Tenstreet and they helped us dive back in and customize our questions by changing the wording or removing questions that were confusing to some applicants,” he said.
IntelliApp Stats provides great visibility on where applications are coming from through the use of pie charts, bar graphs, and line graphs – allowing hiring directors to easily identify trends and make reliable predictions that enable them to better market to future applicants.
“This service helps you discover where in the application drivers are most likely to drop out, giving you insight into how you can improve your process,” said Leah Kelly, director of marketing and communications for Tenstreet.
Tenstreet’s statistics tools allow recruiters to follow applicants’ devices, operating systems and browser trends to better understand those who are applying for trucking jobs. Recruiters’ understanding of their applicant base gives them an opportunity to improve their advertising/marketing efforts.
The tweaks that Tenstreet made to Carrier One’s mobile application process helped increase its completion rate to nearly 100%, according to Williams.
Tenstreet’s mobile-first app leads to high completion rate
Tenstreet has designed its IntelliApp to be mobile-first, meaning that 80% of all drivers’ applications are completed using their smartphones.
Another feature that helps Carrier One attract experienced drivers is the auto-population feature that helps drivers complete more applications in less time than ever.
Once a driver has filled out an application using Tenstreet’s IntelliApp, its software saves key pieces of information, including name, previous employment information, address history, and more – so when a driver is looking for a new job, those fields are already filled in, speeding up the process.
“When you are filling out a DOT application, you can only get the timing process so low, but with Tenstreet’s ability to auto-populate some of the fields, it can take a driver maybe eight to 10 minutes to fill out our application,” Williams said. “Those few minutes can make a huge difference for them.”
Many motor carriers using Tenstreet’s recruiting tools report that drivers refuse to fill out any other type of application, including paper applications, because of IntelliApp’s pre-population convenience, Kelly said.
Over the past eight years, Williams has used Tenstreet’s recruiting tools with carriers with only 60 trucks to companies with nearly 6,000 trucks.
“I’ve been fortunate to be a part of Tenstreet’s growth over the years,” he said.
Tenstreet helps carriers stay DOT compliant
Tenstreet’s IntelliApp helps drivers and carriers navigate the hiring process and stay DOT-compliant.
The IntelliApp automatically adapts to states where applicants live that have ban-the-box and pay equity laws.
Currently, 13 states (and the District of Columbia) have ban-the-box laws that prohibit private employers from asking applicants about their criminal history on an initial job application.
For carriers seeking drivers in a ban-the-box state, Tenstreet removes all criminal background questions from the carrier’s IntelliApp.
Questions about compensation in previous positions will be removed from a carrier’s IntelliApp for applicants living in a state that has a pay equity law, according to Tenstreet.
Tenstreet helps carriers navigate onboarding during COVID-19
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Carrier One is also conducting the majority of its onboarding and safety training remotely instead of having drivers complete the process when they arrive at the company’s headquarters.
“We have about 25 to 30 different modules that they can fill out using their cellphones,” Williams said. “While some drivers are more tech-savvy than others, we haven’t had anyone have an issue with this process.”
With all of Carrier One’s drivers’ documents saved using Tenstreet’s automated system, there’s no risk that documents can be misfiled or lost like back when trucking companies relied solely on paper files.
“In the event that we are going through a DOT audit, I don’t think they would be very understanding if we were missing documents,” Williams said. “Instead of saying, well, give us a few weeks to find this particular document, we are able to find it within minutes.”
