If somebody put you on the spot and asked, “Alright, so how do you reach drivers today?” what would you say?
A lot of people’s minds would probably go to something really gimmicky, like “Let’s get on TikTok and make the executive team rap and hit the Gritty.” Or maybe you’ve hopped on the AI train and push to make one of those weird AI baby videos that took over the internet a few months ago.
But that’s the trap: immediately treating driver recruiting like a channel question before asking what’s actually changed about them in the first place.
I’d argue “reaching” drivers is more than coming up with the next clever marketing ploy. It’s about understanding what actually resonates with drivers. And if that’s true, then fleets need to be asking an entirely different question:
What’s actually different about drivers now from 10 years ago? How have drivers changed?
That’s exactly what our latest download, 10 Years of Truck Driver Research: The Decade that Changed Driver Expectations, set out to explore.
It looks at more than a decade of driver survey and poll data to track how driver expectations, priorities, and job-change behavior have shifted over time so you can answer that very question.
So how have drivers changed?
It isn’t just that drivers are popping up on new platforms when looking for jobs, you’re not wrong about that.
The bigger story is that, over the last 10 years, the things they put the most value on have shifted, and that has changed how they judge one job against another.
1. Pay still matters. It just isn’t the end-all-be-all it used to be.
A decade ago, a better paycheck could carry your pitch on its own. If another fleet paid better, that was often enough to convince a driver.
That got harder once pay started compressing.
As more drivers landed in similar pay ranges (drivers earning $50K-$75K climbed from 34% to 43%), money stopped being the one clear way to separate one job from another.
Drivers still care about pay, obviously. But by 2025, only 30.2% of drivers said fleets’ biggest issue was pay while 29.2% pointed to a lack of respect.
Virtually tied.
The paycheck won’t win you the hire anymore, it just gets you added to the shortlist. Now, drivers are weighing things like treatment, respect, home time, schedule, dispatch support, and how the job impacts their quality of life.
2. OTR became a tougher sell.
10 years ago, long-haul was still the standard version of the job. In 2014–2017, 57.9% of drivers identified as OTR. By 2025, that number had dropped to 44%.
That is a pretty significant shift.
And it says something more specific than “drivers want more home time.” Over the last decade, more drivers started putting greater value on consistency, predictability, and flexibility over when and where they run.
That’s why regional, dedicated, and local roles started looking better to more people, while OTR became a harder sell unless the tradeoff was really worth it.
In fact, according to the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), the average length of haul in trucking has decreased by about 37% since 2000.
OTR is still a huge part of the industry, but drivers are continually asking themselves if the job is asking too much while giving too little back.
3. Job search looks a lot more like research now.
A decade ago, 47.8% of drivers said word of mouth was where they most often went to find a job, while 31.5% said they looked online. By 2025, 69.3% said pulling up Google was their first move.
That by itself should tell you how much this dynamic has shifted.
Drivers still talk to other drivers, that much will never change. But now that talk usually happens later.
They’re not leaning on each other to find jobs anymore. Instead, they’re turning to each other to check whether what they see on Google, fleet websites, job boards and review sites like Glassdoor actually lines up with reality.
What fleets keep getting wrong.
Too many recruiting strategies are still being built on the fantasy that today’s drivers want the same things they did a decade ago.
But that’s just patently untrue.
Here’s what fleets get wrong:
- Using pay as the biggest differentiator between you and other fleets.
- Focusing on home time as a selling point when route type is more important to drivers.
- Not understanding the role of online reviews in driver recruiting.
Here’s where you should start:
- When advertising pay, understand you will need more differentiators to stand out.
- Highlight local and regional routes when available. OTR is a much harder sell without additional perks. Find ways to add them where you can.
- Assume drivers are actively gathering intel on you from every available source, requiring you to have a strong brand presence and reputation online. Check and manage reviews often.
See what else we found.
This article is just the appetizer.
Fill out the form and download the full report to see what else has changed over the past decade.