Motor Carriers Increase Spending on Driver Recruiting

An increase in trucking company advertising underscores how quickly demand for truck drivers is growing, says a transportation advertising executive.

"Over the last three weeks, the demand for advertising for recruiting has almost doubled in our carrier base," said Steve Sichterman, vice president of new business development for ACS Advertising, a sister company of ACS TripPak and a Xerox subsidiary.

ACS handles advertising campaigns for about 260 carriers. It also organizes an annual recruiting and retention conference with the Truckload Carriers Association.

"We expected it to start growing this year, but the speed at which it started growing has been surprising," said Sichterman. "Normally when we come out of a recession you start to see it ramp up. But not as quickly as we've seen."

Many truckload carriers are reporting higher shipping volumes. Some that cut payroll last year may be scrambling to hire more drivers as they chase down freight.

The swift increase in recruiting also may reflect the business that carriers expect to gain in the next 60 to 90 days, Sichterman said.

Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com.