When it comes to driver recruiting, compliance and training, AvatarFleet President Scott Rea looks to solve “the driver problem.”
Rea details AvatarFleet’s streamlining of driver onboarding with FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller as part of the FreightWavesTV show, “Fuller Speed Ahead.”
“We exist to solve the driver problem. We define that as I never have enough drivers, I can’t keep them, compliance and regulation rules are always changing, and accidents and injuries are always chipping away at my bottom line,” described Rea on the challenges his company must tackle on an ongoing basis.
AvatarFleet is in the business of simplifying the process in which transportation companies find not just drivers, but safe drivers. It specializes in recruitment, compliance as well as driver training to ensure the best-qualified candidates are hired, thus minimizing the risk of accidents on roadways.
AvatarFleet’s A-Suite software-as-a-service (SaaS) is designed to efficiently find and train drivers who are the best fit for its users. Its driver recruiting software tracks potential hires as they progress through the recruiting funnel. AvatarFleet claims A-Suite can reduce the time-to-hire process to under five days.
“It’s an efficiency game. So recruiting is sales; it’s a numbers game. The more touches the more hires,” said Rea.
On what he hopes to accomplish with A-Suite, Rea said, “Creating profiles, saving data, just making that mobile experience super friendly. Ninety percent of drivers apply on a mobile device. That’s what we saw last year across trucking, motorcoach and school bus [drivers], so this is where people are. You’ve got to make this process simple.”
According to AvatarFleet, its services can help users hire 20% more drivers each week as well as reduce a company’s accidents by 20%.
Recruiting and retention can be tough for those in the trucking industry. Rea mentioned that every company claims to treat drivers with courtesy and respect. Since the pitch is the same industry-wide, the key to attracting drivers is to be unique in your message in what Rea describes as a “purple cow.”
“Before I joined AvatarFleet, I used to do recruiting for a company locally here in the Cleveland/Akron area, and that fleet remains growing like a weed, and part of it was what we called a purple cow. They had a unique message that stood out from the rest. At that time they were offering a guaranteed paycheck. They said if you do what we expect, we’re going to give you $1,200 a week, every week,” said Rea.
Rea encourages trucking companies to engage in unique offerings for their drivers. Whether it’s programs to support drivers’ families while on long-hauls or scholarship opportunities for the children of drivers, finding unique ways to distinguish your company from the competition will help tremendously in driver retention.
“If you’re a trucking company, your opportunity is there’s a lot of black and white cows out there. Actually standing out isn’t that hard. That’s your opportunity if you’re willing to be creative,” explained Rea.