Reframing recruitment as a sales process – Taking the Hire Road

Lorus Byers, CEO of Carrier Intelligence, sat down with Taking the Hire Road host Jeremy Reymer to discuss the driver recruiting and retention strategies that Carrier Intelligence uses to stand out.

Byers spent his early freight career with C.H. Robinson in capacity and load tendering. Eventually, he found that many carriers didn’t necessarily lack loads, but they did need drivers. 

“That’s why I started looking at everything holistically, and I saw a big hole in the marketplace for carriers not knowing how to go out and find that most valuable asset, which is the driver,” Byers said.

As a result, he founded Carrier Intelligence, a truck driver recruitment agency that focuses on disruptive marketing.

According to Byers, even companies with strict hiring processes tend to lose many drivers, and turnover is a problem for small and large carriers alike. What Carrier Intelligence focuses on is fitting drivers to the company that best matches their needs and skills.

“Ultimately, we help carriers recruit and retain better-qualified drivers,” Byers said. “If we can help carriers attract the right driver to begin with, we can plug and play drivers who fit into that culture and that in turn leads to higher retention rates.”

Many recruiting agencies focus on multicarrier models that generate broad leads for every carrier, but leads don’t always result in hires, and they certainly don’t aid retention.

According to Byers, one of the key areas of focus for Carrier Intelligence is the 90-day retention benchmark. A driver who stays for 90 days will likely stay for a year. Finding effective ways to keep drivers on board for that first 90 days is vital to retention. As Byers said, “If we can do that, it’s not uncommon that we help companies reduce their turnover by upwards of 40% or higher.”

Primarily, there are two ways to find and recruit drivers. There are drivers who are actively looking for jobs via job boards, online classifieds and social media, and there are employed drivers who are not searching for jobs.

“Going out and finding those drivers who are not necessarily looking for jobs and aligning them with your company is disruptive marketing, and that’s what we do,” Byers explained.

“The best drivers who will fit your company are often already working and don’t have time to apply on a bunch of job boards,” he said.

Many qualified drivers are unaware of the carrier that may be the perfect fit for what they need and want. “They don’t know about ‘Carrier A’ yet,” said Byers. “And we want to show why that’s the best company to work at.”

Carrier Intelligence specializes in finding these direct leads and fitting drivers to the right carrier.

“I personally don’t believe in multicarrier leads,” Byers said. “Most smaller carriers don’t know that they’re fighting a losing battle because they’re working multicarrier leads against their direct competitors.”

According to Byers, many trucking companies fail to think of recruitment as a sales process, and that is why they don’t stand out to the best prospective drivers. “You’re taking somebody from their current situation to a new desired situation. That process is a sale,” he said.

On the surface, most carriers have similar marketing strategies, websites and branding. However, as Byers says, on the ground, every truck company is unique, and that is what he highlights to carriers.

“You have something only you can offer. You have to find drivers that want that thing,” Byers said.

Click here to learn more about Carrier Intelligence.

Sponsors: The National Transportation Institute, Career Now Brands, Carrier Intelligence, Infinit-I Workforce Solutions, WorkHound, Asurint, Transportation Marketing Group, Seiza, Drive My Way, F|Staff, Trucksafe Consulting, Seated Social, Repowr