Temporary CDL Drivers are Vital to every Trucking Business
Drivers with a commercial drivers license (CDL) are qualified to operate commercial vehicles including buses, heavy trucks, and more. The truck driving shortage has had a major impact across the nation and demand for truck drivers is at an all time high.
Why Temporary CDL Drivers are Essential
When you manage a trucking, transportation, or delivery company anticipating the number of workers you may need during any given week to meet demand can present a real challenge. As business picks up, your employees may feel pressure, overworked and overall unhappy, resulting in inefficient operations, higher turnover rates, and less revenue for your company.
We’re here to tell you there’s a better way. If you’re not leveraging temporary labor to help supplement your staff as demand for your transportation business fluctuates, you should be. Here’s a few reasons why:
Stability During Fluctuations in Demand
Of course, you never want to hire more employees than you anticipate needing. Since you likely have a good idea of how many employees you need to have on staff to cover a typical week, hiring additional full-time employees to meet your changing business demands doesn’t make sense. Instead, consider hiring temporary workers who will only work the jobs you need them to.
Temporary workers can also be added and removed based on your upcoming workload. Since you likely experience increased demand for drivers based on a variety of factors like the time of year, or COVID-19, you can utilize temporary workers to quickly scale your workforce as those variables change.
Happier Employees
When employees use their bodies and mental expertise to complete quality jobs, or work long hours, they can understandably become exhausted and unmotivated, but this doesn’t have to be the case. By supplementing your trucking crew with flexible labor, you can offer a more ‘hands-on deck’ approach to get deliveries while preventing permanent employees from being overworked.
Increased Revenue
Aside from the cost-savings benefits that accompany hiring temporary CDL drivers over full-time employees, hiring workers on-demand can help you complete more deliveries and hauls, satisfying your customers and generating more revenue for your business.
How to Fill Last Minute Temporary CDL Jobs
It can be difficult to find qualified last-minute labor for driving shifts, but GigSmart makes it easy. If you’re a business that offers trucking or transportation services, you can find and hire temporary CDL drivers with GigSmart. To do so, be sure you are searching for licensed CDL drivers in the Get Workers App.
If your needs are immediate, we can help you find qualified, temporary labor in less than an hour. If you know you’ll be receiving a large shipment soon, you can hire up to 30 days in advance. All of our workers are insured at no additional cost to you, and you can even require workers to have passed a background and motor vehicle check prior to working your gig and operating equipment. Lastly, you set workers hourly rate, and GigSmart takes care of the payment securely through the app — without the additional paperwork and overhead that accompanies hiring W-2 employees.
What to Look For in Temporary CDL Drivers
Whether you need a semi-truck driver or a school bus driver, it is important to know what to look for when hiring. Use the following tips to find qualified CDL drivers to cover open shifts.
Open availability
Tell candidates upfront what hours and shifts you are looking to fill and how regularly. You should also verify whether the candidate can work nights and/or weekends.
Relevant experience
Perhaps the most important determinant of success for driver applicants is the amount of transportation experience they have. New drivers gain problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills, and car/truck knowledge only through first-hand experience. Before you hire a candidate, determine whether they have practical experience operating a vehicle for work. They should also have experience performing basic car or truck maintenance and interacting with customers or passengers.
Verify insurance and licensing
Verify that the driver has a current, valid license. Some truck drivers will need special licensing for vehicles of certain sizes, for example a CDL A or CDL B.
Clean record
Run motor vehicle and and background checks to ensure you have a verified candidate.
Physical capabilities
If your job requires packing or unloading it is important to confirm physical capabilities. For example, the requirement to lift up to 50 lb.
Preparing Drivers for Temporary CDL Jobs
Preparing temporary workers for trucking gigs can seem like a daunting task. If you’ve only been using full-time employees, it can be a challenge to know how to train temporary workers. Investing time into training will make workers more efficient, less likely to be injured on the job, and more likely work future driving jobs for you. Below are the topics you should cover in your truck driver training:
- Confirm your candidate is in compliance with the Department of Transportation requirements.
- Provide general ergonomics training and task-specific training to temporary workers to maximize their time.
- Include safe lifting advice, and any other recommendations to prevent physical injury.
- Incorporate industry guidelines, OSHA requirements, and state/ local regulations that apply to the gig into training to help avoid injury and citations.
- Review basic industry language to familiarize the worker with terms used on the job for clear communication.
- Demonstrate tasks you expect the worker to perform during their shift.
- Educate your workers on company safety measures and procedures.
- Cover information specific to your company or anything else that will help them successfully complete the gig.
For the same reasons, it’s important to make your temporary CDL drivers aware of your expectations, and it’s crucial to advise them of what the consequences will be should they not meet those expectations. Make sure you are transparent with them and aligned on what to do and what not to do to prevent confusion on the worksite. With everything clearly laid out, who knows, you might just find a temporary worker you want to hire over and over again, or bring on permanently.
Fill Temporary CDL Jobs Now with Get Workers
Struggling to find the talent needed to keep your company moving? Get Workers provides the safe and reliable drivers, and flexible talent available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
With over 26,000 licensed CDL drivers ready to help with all your commercial needs from school busses to semi-trucks, you can access qualified on-demand drivers when needed. If you’re ready to hire temporary CDL drivers for your trucking company’s needs, create your first free gig post in your Get Workers hiring account today.