Recruiting Owner-Operators: Word of Mouth is King

For the next few weeks, we are going to talk about recruiting owner-operators. We plan to take the most important information from the Overdrive Connectivity Report and give you 3 short, simple analysis posts here on the blog.
If you want to take a look at the report, you can access that here.
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Fact: 39.3% of owner-operators rely on word-of-mouth as their primary source of driving jobs.

 
Now that may sound like a small minority, but it’s actually listed as the most significant source of job referrals for owner-operators.
owner-operator jobs

But what does this mean for your driver recruiting?

This means you need to think about every interaction you have with your drivers as an opportunity to recruit more owner-operators. Remember, all of your driver employees are traveling daily. While they’re on the road, most of them are going to be talking to their counterparts at truck stops or shipping and receiving offices. In these conversations it is entirely possible they are either praising or criticising your fleet.
You need to ensure all of your drivers are giving your fleet a glowing recommendation. If you don’t treat your drivers well, they will tell everyone about how much they hate you. They’ll talk about it everywhere the go and online. In this case improving your driver retention will improve your driver recruiting.

By giving your drivers a reason to appreciate your company, you can create meaningful word-of-mouth recommendations for your fleet.

Don’t forget to come back next week to learn more about how you can improve your owner-operator recruiting!