Finding Drivers

You need to be very selective as to whom you hire and very upfront and firm with them. When drivers come to work for an owner/op, they usually do so because they have the impression that they can get away with murder and since you are desperate for drivers it is often true. If you let a driver get into that mindset, you will have nothing but problems from that point on.

I know that didn't really answer your question, but it answers your thought afterwards about how it "seems" you are finding only rotten apples in the barrel. As for how I find drivers; I'm not really an owner/op. I'm a company owner(carrier) and I rely on my drivers to do my recruiting. A happy driver is the best possible recruiting tool you can have.

 

Unless ya know the guy you really don't know what your gonna end up with. I've had a couple of good ones and a couple of bad ones. The last guy seemed too good to be true when he walked in, clean cut, polite, excellent driver, but he was a thief. The guy i got in there now I've known for a while, I've got a nice truck and i want it taken care of, this guy helps me wash it and grease it when he rolls in and it's as clean as the day i bought it on the inside. This is one guy I'd hate to lose, i pay him .40 a mile loaded or empty, he's a runner to, I've slipped him 50 or a 100 under the table at times for a job well done. Even at that there's no guarantee he'll stay. On the other hand, i got a buddy across town thats got some wore out Volvo's and pays his guys cash, .32 a loaded mile and hasn't had any turnover in a couple of years. I run an ad in the local paper friday thru monday and see what i get. I pass up the guys who have to use 2 or 3 sheets of paper to list past employers for the last 3 years. I always thought having a nice truck for a guy to drive would keep him in it, but so far this hasn't turned out to be true. Good luck.

 

It sounds like you are willing to take care of the people that take care of you!! Man that is good to here, that itself is hard to come by for people looking for work. I would also look to see if he/she has a stable home life.
There are ways to get info from people just from talking to them and kinda feel them out. I used to do interviews and people will talk. Sometimes they tell to much and you get you answer.

I would set up an interview and go up stairs and watch where he/she parked and watched how they walked across the parking lot. Now you may ask why?? Well most places have a certain area where they want you to park. This shows how well they follow directions and how much they pay attention to there surroundings.

I watch how they walk across the lot to see if they are a hustler or a little lazy, maybe they just strolled across the lot as if they were back on the block so to speak, you know I look at there demeanor about themselves. They don't expect you to do that so you can see the real MACOY for a few brief moments. Maybe they threw a cigarette down on the ground in stead of putting it in the can where it goes. Once they are in front of you there guard goes up and now you have an actor/actress auditioning for a job.

You can learn a lot from a person just from watching them. I do this all the time no matter where I am, try it and I think you will realise what I am trying to say. It will give you a little more about that person with out saying anything.

 

Maybe I should have sent this to homsick sorry d-man57 my mistake I guess I need to pay more attenion to my surroundings as well!! LOL!!!
OH WELL this info is for all... Right!!!

 

Being a lazy American myself, I must have the nice truck... but I also need really good pay. Not per mile, but at the end of the week on my paycheck regardless of how things were rolling.

Of course lastly I need every full weekend off at home. Full weekend meaning home by 6 on friday and not out again til monday morning, no earlier than 5 a.m. After all, great pay doesn't help if you aren't home to enjoy and spend the money, right?

hmmm... maybe I shoulda stayed in school ??? lol

 

Just a thought or two...I am a semi-retired, 58 year old professor of forestry (20 years), who use to linehaul drive (6 years) before I went to school to become a college teacher. I still enjoy driving a lot and am a driver for a dedicated hauler out of Sparks, NV. Since starting back in the driving game, I have run across a number of retired truckers who still enjoy driving, but don't want to do it "day-in and day-out" for weeks/months/years at a time. I would suggest that you perhaps use a free service like Craigslist (that's how I found my job - the company actually posted that they wanted retired drivers) to look for retired truckers...people with a lot of miles under their belts. We (older drivers with experience) tend to be easier going, easy on equipment, and less willing to "push the envelope", so to speak. My company took me for a drive knowing I had limited driving experience the last 20 years, but that I had about 500K miles accident free when I drove every week in the early to late 1970's.

Perhaps you can find a couple of old-timers who want a week a month or somehow fit a schedule to them. I usually drive two nights a week (and another retired driver takes it three nights per week) and love it...Sometimes I drive a week straight because the other guy I share the job with wants a week off to go prospecting or something. In turn, he covers for me if I want a week off. My ideal job would be to do a dedicated run to the midwest or east coast one week per month.

Anyway, I guess what I am saying is maybe look for the right kind of drivers by finding drivers who want to drive, but don't have to drive to make a living. That way, you have someone who wants to drive, appreciates your equipment, and appreciates the opportunity that you are extending to them...I know I do. Another thing you might use to weed out the thieves and irresponsible, is to run a credit report on applicants...high credit ratings are generally a good indicator of someone who is responsible. If you get to be a geezer and their credit rating is 800+ - you have found a fairly responsible person. Of course this doesn't guarantee a good driver (road test and driving record should answer that), but it does reduce the likelihood that you are hiring an idiot who only cares about himself or herself.

 

Great catch Spankie!...one of the underlieing principles in science is that the observation of an event, changes its outcome to some extent. The real person only shows up when they don't think they are being observed...or as the old man used to say "its easy being an honest person when you know you are being watched, it is what you do when you aren't being watched that really determines if you are an honest person."

 

Hmmm, Didn't i fire you? Seriously i had a guy who wanted all that, in fact just after 2 weeks of light running he demanded that. Needless to say that was his last demand. Nothing wrong with that, if thats how you roll, but i make it real clear how i want the truck to run before anyone starts. I wouldn't ask a driver to do anything i didn't think i could do and i was never a supertrucker when i ran OTR. I had a retired fella in there, nice guy and took care of the truck but, his hard running days were long gone even though he said he was up to it. He'd been out of it to long. He still works for the same company i do, he does a short dedicated run and has worked out great for that end of the business. Spankie, your right about alot of that stuff. I like to take a look into their personal vehicle and see how that is kept, still you can't judge a book by its cover.

 

I can see how that happens d-man, an older driver thinking he/she can still run with the young dogs...I know I can't, but better still I am in a position where I don't have to run with them. For a week or two I could run with anyone, but I couldn't for much longer than that. That is just being honest with myself and with employers. The company I drive for tried to get me to take the run I work two nights per week. I told them no, I can't do it...I could do it for a couple of weeks if need be, but not on a permanent basis. Funny, you mention looking into a potential employee's personal vehicle...the local manager asked to look at my pickup at the end of the interview and he liked what he saw! Thankfully, I hate driving a vehicle that isn't clean and maintained...drives me nuts!