TTL Toronto Tank Lines

[Rob]

Toronto tank lines has recruiters ( I was told operations manager) out on the weekend scouring areas looking for guys washing and or working on their trucks. When the find one they stop and pitch the guy for a job. I lost a driver to them in this manner.

Hmmm I know where 3 of their guys live and a couple more that work there, could be a good trade off, one over aggressive driver that I received numerous calls over aggressive driving for a couple good owner ops..

Douchebag move TTL

 

[Freight Broker]

Not a nice way to go about recruiting drivers for sure..

 

[whatiship]

Really? I give the recruiter credit for going out and trying to solve a problem. I have done it myself lots of times. As long as he is being honest, giving the potential O/O the straight goods about his operation he is just doing his job. As mentioned in several previous posts, the big ads in the magazines don't work so well and a recruiters job is to recruit.
Plus, he is only going to be successful if the O/O is not happy and thinking about making a change anyway.
As long as he is doing his recruiting on neutral territory he is doing nothing wrong.
If you are in sales you go to the customer and ask if they are happy and would consider a change. That doesn't make you a "douchebag" (although some certainly are) it makes you a Sales Representative.
It is understandable to be a little pissed when you lose an employee but If you were at a party and met an owner operator and you told them you were hiring and they switched, you would be pleased with your efforts and would not consider yourself a DB.

 

[Freight Broker]

There's a line in the sand somewhere here. What is ok and above board really depends on the individual. I don't fault the recruiter's initiative, but there's something here about fair play that's missing. It's kinda the same with sales.. I cold call companies and I don't care about who is currently serving the account. However I won't attempt to get another carrier's/broker's customer list and go that route. It's below the belt. I kinda feel the same about this recruiting tactic. I can't really articulate this beyond saying it doesn't feel right to me.

The best way to recruit (and I've done my share of recruiting in the past) is more arms length. You develop a recruiting campaign using primarily word of mouth, drawing in leads from your current driver base. You fine tune and build that pipeline of leads even when you're really not in need of drivers. You follow-up and stay in touch. The key is to keep the leads pipeline working.. that you've got at least one or two qualified leads coming in every month (more if you're a larger carrier).

Jumping out of your car and meeting guys who are fixing their trucks also reflects poorly on the carrier in my view. Some drivers are going to wonder why you need to go to those desperate extremes to find drivers. The approach detracts from the carrier's brand just like a guy who sells watches and chains off of the back of a pickup truck at a truckstop.

 

[PackRat]

I agree with whatiship....the recruiter is no different than a regular sales rep..."boots on the ground". They are just showing initiative and creativity. Truck wash or garage is pretty neutral territory, and if the driver is happy where they are then there is nothing to worry about.

 

[Rob]

Meeting a guy at a party and driving around and hunting out guys spring cleaning or working on trucks is the same? I meet drivers on a weekly basis at different events be it Optimist, Masonic, or Royal Canadian Legion related. If a guy makes an inquiry as to what I do to make a living and inquires with me as to weather I am hiring at said events is a lot different than going out on a Saturday and hunting drivers and owner operators down.

Sure I will talk to a driver or O\O anywhere and try and keep my equipment full at all times but this move just screamed DB to me. As far a drivers being happy I do believe we all know lots of them will jump ship for any given reason if the grass looks a little greener. This one it was the benefit package. No skin off my back really in the long run as the truck never missed a trip as I have hired a another driver. The driver had quit his previous employer and being as we had a relationship with that carrier I told the driver I would be calling the ex employer before I would say yes to taking him on. The relationship meant more to me than the revenue of maybe having a truck sitting for a week or two as we looked for a new driver.

That move TTL pulled to me is like trying to pick up at girl at closing time when they are drunk. Not right but hey nothing in this business really can surprise me anymore as it is full of douchebags.

I guess I have some morals even if I am a crusty old prick.

 

[Freight Broker]

Boots on the ground... in a relatively large market like Ontario it is easy to forget that we're each part of a more complex ecosystem. Our actions today may have downstream consequences that may not be immediately apparent. Our competitors is often not ONLY our competitor.. he or she may be a supplier carrier if we broker out loads, he or she may be our neighbour four doors down or may be your son's hockey coach. So the means to your end can undermine your ultimate goal. This is much more apparent in a smaller market (like New Brunswick) than it would be in a large market like Ontario. But the same dynamics are at play here. Nothing wrong with recruiting, but one should be mindful that over aggressive and targeted tactics may come back around to bite us in the end.

 

[lowmiler88]

Rob and FB I couldn't agree more we had a well known carrier that we gave loads to out of areas that have bad rates and paid more than we had too ($200 to $300 more and year round loads), they took 1 of our drivers which I can live with but the 2nd and 3rd was not acceptable, the funniest thing is when we called them on it they couldn't see why we would have a problem. I can guarantee you this they are losing more revenue from us than what the drivers are producing because most have moved on Karma is a good thing.

 

[theman]

Driver turnover is a big problem. While I don't necessarily think the recruiter is going to win 'Mr Nice Guy' awards ... the fact of the matter is that when we have big turnover ... whether it is with drivers, office staff, whatever ... the only way to really fix it is to cure the underlying problem. It's actually much the same if in sales and there is customer turnover ... I can usually blame myself to some degree when it happens.

 

[Freight Broker]

This is why it is so important to have a recruiting pipeline in place. The entire process becomes methodical and dispassionate, and success is in large measure assured by the law of averages. There's then no need for people to be jumping out of cars on Saturdays and cornering drivers who are working on their trucks. The process you've got assures a steady stream of candidates through your door, and your job is to qualify each one. Let the law of averages do the heavy lifting for you.