advertising for drivers

 Where to start with this one............. I pick-up those little free books at the entrances of truckstops once in a while and flip thru them and read the articles to see if I might gleam a bit of knowledge about fuel savings, tire wear, taxes, ETC.  I also grab the issue of Roadstar or Truckers News, and Landline is delivered to the house.

  Here is my beef about advertising by trucking companies looking for drivers or owner/ops,  just because you put a picture of a pretty girl in your ad,  is that really going to bring drivers in? I will grant you, I stop and look at the pretty girl so on that part, I guess is does work. You pulled my attention to the ad.  ( I am sure there is a number cruncher somewhere that has a mathematical formula to prove it works).

After I read the ad (I said the pretty girl did get my notice) I think to myself "if you have to resort to the 'SEX SELLS' mentality, would I even consider working for your outfit?" NOT!!!!

 And another thing, fuzzy pictures of little kids and puppy's, Christmas trees,  Thanksgiving dinner, ETC.   The only things that drivers or o/o's want to know are three things:

   1. PAY - % or PER mile (leave out all the B.S., I.E. "our top driver earned 2 zillion dollars last year" OR " drive 20k miles in a month and earn an extra 2 cents per mile").  PLEASE, I want to know what the average guy made because that is where most drivers are going to fall.

   2. Hiring area and service area (all 48, canada, just regional, just south, ETC)

   3. And how often can I be HOME!!!!!

 

 I have two great examples of the home time being very important:

 1. I was a company driver for Schneider National in the early 1990's,  and they ran me around and kept me loaded pretty well BUT I had no time at home to speak of. They would keep me running out on the road 6-8-10 weeks at a shot and when I would finally manage to drop a load in the same state that I lived and run home empty, within 24 hours and sometimes less, dispatch would be on the phone wanting me to take off again. NOT EXACTLY QUALITY TIME AT HOME!!!!  I couldn't even keep a girlfriend, if I meet someone while I was home, by the time I returned again, she would be dating someone else, shacked up or 4 weeks pregnant (not by me, remember, I was gone for a minimum of 6-8 weeks every time).  This lasted about a year and a half and finally I said I can't do this anymore.  I bought my first truck so I could control the shots.

 2. The company I was leased to in the 1990's (my tractor, their trailer) had forced dispatch.  I had all the responsibilities of an o/o, but was treated like a company driver.  So I quit, bought a flatbed trailer and tried joining TMC.  There was another o/o that lived about 40-50 miles from me that was also leased to TMC and was home every other weekend.  Before signing on I asked how the dispatchers were able to get this other truck home and I was told that they had a load every week going into northern Mich.  On the odd weeks, they would get me on that load so I could get home on a regular basis.... sounded good to me!! NEVER HAPPENED!!!!! After two months of running all over the country, I was near Gary, In. and dispatch wanted me to pick-up a coil weighing 50k (my truck was 32k empty, 50+32=82k which would have put me over gross).  I told dispatch "I can't scale that." They said "run around the scales." I said "no." They said "you have to." I said "goodbye, I DO NOT HAVE TO ANYTHING" and hung up the phone. Then drove north to the house, pulled their signs and permits off my truck and mailed them back.....

 Just be honest about the pay and hometime.  Don't ask us to push the limits of what is safe and legal.  I think drivers and o/o's would be a lot happier in the long run.