Weekly Driver Recruiting Report – February 9, 2022

The Weekly Report brings you updated data on recruiting metrics including click, search, and spot rates, plus a new story of the week. This week’s story – The Professional Driver Agency released the Top 10 Driver Issues List of 2021.

New episodes of the Weekly Report premiere every Wednesday at 10 AM CT on our YouTube channel and Recruiting Resources page.

We provide the Weekly Report in numerous formats every week. Which one is right for you? Watch the latest reports on our Recruiting Resources or YouTube pages, use our Numbers at a Glance section for quick visual references, download the Weekly Report PDF (available below), read the transcript, or listen to the audio version of February 9, 2022, Weekly Report below.

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To register for the online premiere of Digging Deeper and live Q&A session CLICK HERE.

Watch CCJ‘S 10-44 Webisode Covering the Top Ten Driver Issues.

Numbers at a Glance

February 9, 2022 Driver Recruiting Insights

Would you like to have your own copy of the trucking industry data? All of the information covered in this week’s report for February 9, 2022, is available for your convenience in PDF form below. Click the image to view and download your copy of the Weekly Trucking Insights.

Weekly Report Transcript – February 9, 2022

Hello everyone and welcome to the Weekly Report. For Randall-Reilly, I’m Joshua Miller. Before we get started, if you like our Weekly Report, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.

We have lots of other great driver recruiting content on the Randall-Reilly site and our YouTube channel for you as well. We put out new videos every week covering all kinds of recruiting issues, such as last week’s brand-new episode of Yard Jockeys, and the upcoming episode of Digging Deeper.

If you’d like to check out Yard Jockeys it’s available now on our site, YouTube, and in audio form through Apple Podcasts, links below; and if you’re interested in attending the online premiere of Digging Deeper tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm CST, which is followed by a live Q&A session with guests Seth Becker and Julie Arsenault, I’ll leave the link to register for that as well.

The episode will be made available on Friday, but … that Q&A session is exclusive to the online premiere attendees. The topic for our latest episode: The Guiding Principle of Recruiting. So, if that sounds like something you’d want to check out, sign up and join us tomorrow afternoon!

All right, let’s get to the report!

THIS WEEK IN JOB BOARD SEARCHES AND CLICKS

Truck driver searches were up all the way around. We saw gains of 4% WoW, 15% MoM, and 2% YoY. Clicks on driver postings saw a 14% increase WoW, a 7% drop MoM, and a 65% increase YoY.

The driver search numbers for last week reached their highest point since the first week of October, and … there were more searches last week than the same week of the prior year for the first time since last September.

Clicks on driver postings surpassed 200,000 for just the third time since April of 2020. And just in case you were wondering, all three of those times have been since the beginning of 2022.

THIS WEEK IN FREIGHT

Total load postings fell by 6% from the previous week, and both dry van and flatbed saw decreases. Dry van was down 2%, while flatbed saw a 13% decrease WoW. Refrigerated load postings, however, notched a 7% increase WoW.

Truck availability shot climbed 13% WoW as the overall load-to-truck ratio fell sharply yet remained higher than the levels recorded prior to the holidays. On a more micro-level – the refrigerated load-to-truck ratio rose, while it eased for dry van, and fell sharply for flatbed.

Spot rates rose 5¢ per mile WoW, and all three major segments posted rate increase. Dry van was up 2¢, refrigerated increased by 7¢, and flatbed saw gains of 4¢ per mile WoW.

STORY OF THE WEEK

The Professional Driver Agency released its first ever Top Ten Driver Issues List. They identified the top driver frustrations from this past year based on thousands of phone calls with truckers.

Unsurprisingly, the equipment supply chain issues are a clear source of frustration. The top driver complaint was mechanical/breakdown issues with the truck. This was such a pain point that four out of the top ten issues were related to breakdowns or other mechanical problems.

This represents a 4% increase in equipment issues in 2021 from 2020. It’s likely that aging fleets had a part to play in that increase. We can likely expect those equipment issues to continue into 2022 as the semiconductor and parts shortages continue to keep the new truck supply from meeting the growing demand.

Another four of the top ten issues were directly related to pay rates or inconsistent miles. The second highest driver complaint was that their pay rate was not competitive.

One way to try and alleviate some of these driver frustrations is for fleets to make sure trucks are operating smoothly and clean before they are assigned to a new driver. If a driver’s first interaction with a truck is bad, they will likely feel disrespected and harbor negative feelings toward their new fleet.

To view the full top ten list and hear a discussion about it you can check out CCJ’s 10-44 webisode, link below.

And that does it for this week’s report. Come on back and see us next week for more updated data and a new story of the week. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe. And don’t forget to check out that new episode of Yard Jockeys and sign up to join us tomorrow for the online premiere and Q&A session for the latest Digging Deeper. Until next time, have a great week everybody.