The challenges of driving a truck — long hours and a lot of time spent alone, among others — make driver recruitment and retention difficult. A driver shortage only adds to the struggle for carriers.
With over 2 million Facebook followers, 1,300 partnering companies and more than 60,000 applications monthly, CDLLife offers a wide variety of products from lead generation to display advertising for recruitment opportunities, while also functioning as a news hub and community for truck drivers.
This provides companies the necessary tools to recruit and retain while simultaneously connecting drivers to the broader trucking community.
“We do a lot. We have a news publication for truck drivers and a state-of-the-art mobile app that we spent three and a half years developing. The app functions as a social media network specifically for truck drivers,” said Travis Overton, president and owner of CDLLife. All of our products are used to grow large audiences and then layer product solutions on top of those audiences — primarily recruitment and advertising solutions.”
Starting in the industry as a recruiter, Overton saw the ins and outs of the recruitment process and all that it entails.
“We are trying to do the most that we can with the audience that we have. As time progresses, we will see tremendous opportunities to build synergies on the additional product solutions that carriers need that others in the industry are not innovating with,” he said.
From an advertising standpoint, Overton believes that success starts with an educated team, authenticity, branding, and, increasingly, culture and advocacy. Companies need to have a balance of all these components in order to retain drivers.
“What I have found is that every carrier is in a different place. Some are amazing at advertising but need help with recruitment processes,” Overton said. “If you do one thing well, you should focus on the other pillars.”
Despite the constantly evolving face of social media, he also believes that it’s important to keep up.
“As the pace of change accelerates, doing what you were doing yesterday is not going to work in the world of tomorrow,” Overton said. “You always have to be on that cutting edge.”
CDLLife is hosting the second annual CDLLife Summit, Turning Point, in August.
“We have centered the summit conversation around following the driver life cycle from the start of the journey, with the carrier, all the way to the end of the experience,” Overton said. “We want to share our knowledge from a thought leadership perspective and say, ‘This is what the carrier needs to think about and be aware of.’ I want to take carriers through all the pillars of how to be effective and to get ahead.”
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