Sometimes, there is nowhere to start but at the beginning. In March 2019, Sam Thudium joined Sutton Trucking as the Director of Recruiting after spending more than 7 years building and designing trucks for the Sutton team.
As Director of Recruiting, Sam spends his days assessing if any new drivers are needed, communicating with current drivers, determining where he needs to focus his ad spend, and more. With three locations to manage, his time is spread across keeping track of all these different areas. In addition to recruiting, Sam is also responsible for:
- Finding and sourcing mechanics to keep trucks running smoothly
- STI Truck Repair shops which, although associated with the Sutton brand, are their own stand-alone revenue generators
- Selling and offloading old equipment and trucks as well as building new designs
As the only recruiter on the team and with so much on his plate, Sam hadn’t been with Sutton long before he realized there was a real opportunity for technological assistance.
Challenge
Prior to Sam joining the team, Sutton had nothing in place that resembled an ATS or CRM solution. Applications submitted through Indeed or DexYP were sent directly to the inboxes of Sutton staff members. It was up to these people – all of whom had other jobs that didn’t have to do with recruiting – to nurture these applicants through the stringent qualification and hiring process.
Needless to say, the team struggled to keep all recruiting data and conversations on track. Recruiters couldn’t stay in touch with applicants, potential hires were going dark, and critical details were being lost in the process. All in all, Sam estimates that the Sutton team was missing out on 20 to 30 applicants per month without a proper tracking and management tool in place.
Solution
Sutton Trucking officially adopted DriverReach in April of 2019. Since Sam is currently a recruiting team of one, he is both a manager and an end-user of the solution. Every day Sam checks in on incoming communications from current drivers and potential applicants. All Sutton drivers have quickly adopted text message communications and they are incredibly responsive with the corporate team.
Some of the other key ways Sutton Trucking leverages DriverReach include:
- The DriverReach and Luma integration
- Streamlining the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse query process
- Maintaining industry compliance
Results
Prior to implementing DriverReach, Sutton Trucking was spending around $4,500 per month on ad spend alone with Indeed and DexYP in an attempt to produce driver leads. With DriverReach, Sam is now looking in the right places and staying better organized when it comes to managing these leads, which means that the team doesn’t need to bring in as many prospects to hire more drivers.
Between DriverReach, Luma, and current ad spend, the Sutton Trucking recruiting expenses total just $1,400 per month – just over a quarter of what the team had been spending on ads alone.
Other results include:
Retention: After operating at around 80% driver turnover for many years, Sutton ended 2019 with only 20% voluntary turnover.
Capacity: Since Sam came on board and implemented the DriverReach platform, trucks have been at a steady 100% capacity – resulting in $1,000 in gross revenue per day per truck. By keeping the driver queue full and operating at a 100% capacity, Sutton Trucking has recouped $360,000 in revenue per month.
Want to read more about how Sam and the Sutton Trucking team succeeded with DriverReach? You can download the entire case study here.
Stay up to date on CDL trucking trends! Be sure to check out the DriverReach blog or follow us on LinkedIn for other relevant articles and head over to our webinars page for an up-to-date list of upcoming events and on-demand recordings.
Interested in seeing DriverReach’s modern Recruiting and Compliance Management System in action? Take DriverReach for a test drive!
