Adding a second truck need advice for hiring a driver!!!

Look for the driver that interviews YOU!

 

An old hand once said, "Good drivers make money. Money doesn't make a driver good."

The hardest part of the whole ordeal is finding someone who doesn't trash your truck, or do something stupid and sink your small company. Picking through applications and interested drivers who turn out to be garbage will just frustrate you.

The best way to find a competent, solid driver is to watch him in action in someone else's truck, and then sweeten your deal and steal him away.

Stay away from negative drivers. Waste of time. He will ask for a job and come up with a million and a half reasons why he didnt get to work, didnt get up on time, didnt pick up on time, didnt deliver on time, didnt do anything YET is complaining about his pay.

Stay away from drivers whose 'old lady' runs the show. He can be the most skilled driver in the world until she gets mad at him. Then he cant drive for TIHS. Or he doesn't show up because she wants him to stay home that day.

Stay away from drivers who start volunteering employment history. He volunteers employment history to anyone that will listen. Someone says, "Goodmorning hand." He says, "Well, I've been driving 37 and a half years and I say goodmorning." Walk away. He is the bare minimum driver. You can find a rookie with more skill. He's like a 14 yr old kid that tells you how great he's doing in school and you find out that he's still in the 3rd grade.

 

It's hard to get good responsible drivers as you probably already know. I hired 4 of mine from a group of drivers that I had known a long time, Fired 3 of the 4.

 

A couple hours talking truck will expose even the best bullshater in this game...and remember that goes both ways...that along with a through ride along (more importantly a through pretrip) and obviously mvr and verified experience check is all that's needed in my opinion.

 

Lol if it's that hard I guess I need to ask for more money!

 

I do not put a truck on road with a driver until I have a gps installed and set speed alerts and other parameters like geo fence of areas they don’t need to be. Like taking a stop by their house that’s out of the way.

 

I also have a rider waiver form they sign.

 

why not stay the way your are now, and make life easier on yourself?

 

The first thing you need to do is forget the idea until you know what you want and how to do it.

Hiring a driver is hard but not as hard as dealign with a stupid cowboy driver who just wrecked your truck. I would start with pulling together an employee handbook, not having rules you expect them to follow and not knowing what to expect will screw you in the long run.

I would also get a JJ Keller catalog and see what they have in ways of simplifying things for you.

Learn how to interview, for a road test and don't expect them to be like you and take care of the equipment like you.

Pay a competitive wage, and give them incentives along the way, not ones that the megas give. Make sure you have the money to cover the payroll at all times and can do so to get the truck back to your location. Most new owners fail this part, so be prepared to skip a truck payment to pay your driver.

 

The mistake that I see so many make is that they get a decent driver and start to get comfortable. Cash flows and they start thinking growth. Buy a 3rd and struggle a little to put a decent driver in the 3rd. One day, they wake up and have the first driver quit. Next thing you know, the owner’s standards for a decent driver gets shadowed by all the overhead as he cannot afford to let the equipment sit. This process repeats for a few years then the owner realizes he has less than he did when he was an O/O with 1 truck!