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Explore the world of driver recruiting with the Hire Truckers Podcast! Join us as we talk to recruiting experts, offering industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to enhance your recruiting skills. Whether you're a seasoned recruiter or just starting, our podcast is here to help you level up your game in the trucking industry.
Welcome to the HireTruckers podcast where we interview experts in driver recruiting. We provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to help you level up your recruiting game. Welcome to the Hire Truckers podcast. I'm your host, Erin Craddock. And today, we have Chris Harbin with Henneth.
Aaron Craddock:Actually, super excited about this conversation, because we relate to each other just on the leadership development and a passion for that. And Heniff has some incredible leaders in the organization, so excited to kinda dive more into that. Chris has over over 2 decades, like, in trucking and or the industry as a whole and companies related to that. So he's at Coca Cola for a while in a few different roles, and then went on to Miller Transportation, which was later acquired by Henneth. And so that's why he's with the Henneth, family of companies now.
Aaron Craddock:And, one of the one of the things that's a big deal is even though they only started 25 years or so ago, like, they're one of the top 10 largest, trucking companies in the nation. And so, it's a big deal, and so I'm just excited to because because Chris and I haven't haven't chatted much before this call. So I'm excited to learn alongside you as the audience. So the first category we're gonna start with is growth mindset that we typically touch on. And the first question I have there for you, Chris, is what makes Henneth great in terms of leadership or ownership?
Chris Harbin:It all start with our leader, mister Bob Heniff himself. Bob has a vision. Bob is one that has done this for many years. And when your leader has a vision, he passed that down to his employees and everything. Not only employees, but our our workers.
Chris Harbin:And you you gotta have that energy and and wanna go out and get drivers and wanna, make things grow. And that that's, to me, is what make things go. He's one himself that has driven, can drive, and will drive now. I myself, the same thing. Have driven, active CDL about how to get out there and do it.
Chris Harbin:It's it's all about getting the job done. We so family family affair here that will will we get things done. It's about 1.
Aaron Craddock:That's awesome. That's just such a big deal, and I think it just makes you unique in the industry that that you guys have just somebody, you know, heading up the company that has done that. Because, you know, a lot of your big companies, in transportation or similar sized fleets just don't don't have that anymore. You know, they did back in the day, but it's, you know, leadership now that maybe hasn't necessarily always been in transportation, definitely hasn't driven a truck. And, and it's so is he still pretty actively involved just
Chris Harbin:He's very much so active involved, and not not only him, but pretty much all of our managers, here at the corporate office. We all have driven in some form, shape, or fashion trucks in our careers and stuff. And it's just a good thing, man, when you got people that has knowledge and done a job and make it easier to go out and recruit other drivers. And, when I talk to guys during our orientation, introducing myself and all, you can just see their faces, like, woah. He actually done that.
Chris Harbin:And they talked to our safety managers, and they found out, okay. Yeah. This man has driven too. So we can relate to the things that they have been through and the things that they are going to go through, which in turn make them feel proud about who they're working for. They don't have a problem with referring their drivers, their friends, and represent the company out in their in their trucking world.
Aaron Craddock:So what does Bob do specifically, that you love about just the way he leads?
Chris Harbin:He's a straight shooter. He's a straight shooter with a vision, and he lead by example. He's not gonna ask you to do nothing more than what he would do or has done himself. He's also one that's there for advice. If you need something, you got a question about something, you ain't gotta be scared to go in his office.
Chris Harbin:So see him in Ohio. He gonna have that that smile on his face. He's he's direct. He's one that, if you wanna know, ask him. And he gonna tell it.
Chris Harbin:He'll tell it just like it is. And that's the one thing that I I like about him. You know? When you got somebody that's not gonna beat around the bush with you, that goes a long way with me. So yeah.
Aaron Craddock:I love it. So one of the things you said in our pre interview when you were meeting with Ginger on our team is that communication is key, like, in in the recruitment process or the way you you run your department. And so can you can you elaborate a little more, like, why is communication key?
Chris Harbin:Well, you think about it. When when you're trying to get a driver to come to work with you, the one thing that he or she is gonna do is ask questions. They wanna know the information. They wanna know about pay, of course. They wanna know about routes.
Chris Harbin:They wanna know about the management team. They wanna know the locations and all this good stuff. Well, it all starts with picking up the phone, asking the call, communicating to that driver. When you're, conferencing a man with the terminal manager that he or she would be working for, it's all about communicating that information back and forth. Communication is the key to success with just about anything.
Chris Harbin:If you don't communicate with people, you know, the information that you're trying to get over to him or her is gone from the get go. My team, I'm big on communicating the drivers, what they need, where where they at with that driver will come in aboard. If the phone rings, pick it up and answer. You know, it it's it's just huge with recruiting. If you can't ask the phone, you can't relay that information around, you're lost from the get go.
Chris Harbin:These days, you have all the other companies. Some companies have a big a large amount of people whom are out calling these drivers, trying to get them on and all that. We we're not that company to do that. We have a smaller group, but we stick with the facts. We live by, again, what we just said, communication.
Chris Harbin:Answer the phone, related right information. Let's get that driver in as quickly as possible, but don't beat around the bush and tell them misleading information. So and I have been not only I, but my team and I have been very successful with doing it. You know?
Aaron Craddock:That's awesome. And so you're able to be a little more efficient, like, on number of recruiters versus drivers coming in?
Chris Harbin:Correct. Correct. And and and the reason why is, again, we don't have all those we don't have, like, some couple of 10 or 15 people just sitting there calling different leads and all that good stuff. Now we are a little bit different from a van company, flatbed, and all that. We specialize in tankers.
Chris Harbin:So we have our drivers have to have the hazmat endorsement. They have to have the 1 year tank experience. They have to have the tweak card and all that good stuff. So we are looking at specialized drivers, which should have experience when they come on the board. But, again, when they pick when they call and they wanna ask information or they submit a short form, you wanna communicate the right information.
Chris Harbin:You know. And that's how you get them aboard, you know. Don't mess around, because just like you recruiting that person, somebody else is too. So the one with the most accurate information and the one who get to them the first the quickest are usually the ones that you're gonna be hiring and who they come to work for. So Do you
Aaron Craddock:track that? Like, speed to or or answers or, like, is are there metrics around that where you track
Chris Harbin:it? I don't track the speed because you can give and the reason why I don't track speed and all that because when you're getting a good driver, they're gonna ask some questions. And then, you know, you might be on that call with him or her for 10 minutes. He'll get off the phone, and then 5 minutes be coming back and gonna be calling back again. Sometimes they repeat the same question as they that I asked you already to see if you're gonna say the same thing.
Chris Harbin:Sometimes they have some more breaking new questions that they wanna ask. Who knows? They might even have their friends on the call. You there have been times that I've been on, conference calls, especially when, back in the COVID time when Facebook was good, communicated all the Zoom calls. And I I get on, hey, Chris.
Chris Harbin:How are you doing? I'm looking at all this, like, who are these people on this call? And I'm talking to them and all that. I don't know them from the man in the moon, but, you know, they they're they come out to be good people. Some of them come on, some of them come don't come on.
Chris Harbin:But they like the way you interact with them. They like the way you talk to them. They like the way you relate information to them. But the answer to you, I don't track the time. I do track the people that they talk to, but just not the time, response time, things of that nature.
Chris Harbin:I can pretty much tell you if they talk to Joe Blow or whatever. I can tell you, how many people they talk to during the day, but just not the quickness or whatever. So
Aaron Craddock:Yeah. Well, that's a that's a good that's a good metric of just how many people. Yes. Even something as simple as that. Because I know it may sound crazy, but a lot of fleets, you know, don't track anything.
Aaron Craddock:And I know for you to be, you know, one of the, you know, more efficient in terms of, like, recruiter per hire that comes in, then, you know, that means you have to have some level of a higher higher volume or more intentionality. It sounds like also more intentionality.
Chris Harbin:We we do. We we actually have 3 orientations schools or locations that we run. We run 2 of them every week. Since the downfall, since last year, we had to cut back and all, but we still have the 3rd one available if needed. But you you gotta set goals for your recruiters.
Chris Harbin:Mine's personally is 4 people in class every week. Now some some manager, they're probably thinking like, that's not a lot. Again, we are specialized in what we look at. And I can assure you, if you come to work for a Hennep, you can go work anywhere. We are very, very, detailed with going through your app, going through your driver record, going through everything.
Chris Harbin:So it takes us a little bit more time than what it would take a normal van or flatbed or dry bulk or any of that thing in that nature. But we we are on it when it come down to getting them aboard. And we average, you know, every every weekend class 15 to 20 people. So it's
Aaron Craddock:we're doing And that was gonna be that was gonna be my my next question. How many a week?
Chris Harbin:Yes. Now sometimes it it falls down, but that's the nature of the beast. From different aspects, you know, things happen. You know? People have changes in their life and their families where they can't come up on work.
Chris Harbin:And, you know, sometimes it might be medical situations, or anything can happen. But for the most, that's what we shoot for, and that's what we what we're doing. For the most, my people are very competitive, so that you got recruiters that are trying to outdo the other ones or whatever. And and they keep the excitement going, you know. I like basketball myself, so I I got a lot of little country sands that I'll be giving out to them.
Chris Harbin:And, boy, they they keep them going. So keep them going.
Aaron Craddock:Yeah. The, just in running a business, like and and the people the type of people that I hire, into my company, it yeah. They're all competitive. A lot have a sports background and earn enjoy it. And, yeah, I I just lose interest if it's not some type of competition or some type of goal we're heading towards achieving.
Aaron Craddock:Like, it's like even if we, you know, hit a goal, that means I gotta I have to stretch the goal further just because I don't do well without just the change and the competition, and that that's literally how our whole team is is wired and
Chris Harbin:say And and then I'm the same way even back to go back to my college and high school days for playing basketball and stuff, my coach gave me a mouthpiece and told me to keep it in my mouth because I don't sit up. If it's if it's up here, it's gonna come out of my mouth sooner or later. And my my team, they all and I kinda stir him up. I'm like, hey. This recruiter here got x amount of drives.
Chris Harbin:What are you doing? You're not getting it going or whatever. But it's it's just the little things that keep them motivated. They all have respect. And I have seen that over my my career.
Chris Harbin:I have reviewed 100 and 100 of 1000 of applications over my time, but the recruiters that do have a sports slash trucking background, all your better recruiters are the ones who who get out there, they get in the trenches, you know, they they do their thing. And they they have a huge following on social media, which is a big tool for us that we use. So
Aaron Craddock:Yeah. And I think one thing you just mentioned is, like, it's healthy competition. Because it's not like that backstabbing competition. It's it's like we can all win. And well, you you sometimes have that where people are envious and wanna wanna undermine other people, and so it's just cool that you've developed just a healthy competitive culture.
Aaron Craddock:Because I
Chris Harbin:can, 100,000,000 percent say that my team, they work together. They if somebody's down, they're gonna help the other one get caught up or whatever needs to be done. There's no back stabbing whatsoever. That's awesome. They some great people to work for work with.
Chris Harbin:So
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Aaron Craddock:Visit trucking clicks.com or call 512-982-0816 today. One of the things you've touched on so far that I wanna dive more into is just your your focus on safety. And, you know, some of that kinda came into the due diligence process, like, the or the process of getting all the documentation when you bring people on. But some of the things I have, just in doing a little research on you guys is your average age of equipment is, like, typically under three and a half years. You try to keep it there, and just the different cameras you have, the different training you have in place.
Aaron Craddock:But, yeah, my question specifically is, like, how do you how do you encourage safety, like, in the recruiting process and onboarding process?
Chris Harbin:Everything we do is around safety. We're recruiting drivers. If you look at our requirements from hiring drivers, it's tied around safety. When running reports and things of nature, we have a question about anything, we had a relationship with our safety department where we can go to them, hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about that?
Chris Harbin:They're gonna give us their opinion on what they think and, you know, and we we make a decision from there. But everything we do, hands in, hands out, is about safety. We have a a lot of my competitors and all that, they they might be a little lax on different things. But, you know, just to be honest with us, you you have a seat belt violation. There's something simple.
Chris Harbin:3 years, you you can come see us after the 3 years. 15 over speed limit. Give us 3 years after that, then we can look back at it. Cell phone violation, 3 years. We we are very strict.
Chris Harbin:We look at your PSP close, look at your violations, what you pulled over your truck inspections. Were the violations something that you could've that could've been prevented? You know? Or was it anything that you prevented? You know?
Chris Harbin:Iowa State Department, they have a lot of great people, and I can assure you we we work close together with everything. And that's not only that's not only one recruiting driver, but use that on retention standpoint too, to keep you driving because, you know, we can hire anybody. But if you're not giving them the lessons and keeping them up on the up to date trends and different things, you're gonna have problems with them in the field. And I could say, our safety department, they are good at keeping them with the driver, making sure they're keeping the speed down, making sure they got integrity, doing the right thing when no one is watching. So
Aaron Craddock:That's important. One thing so I'm a big podcast fan, which I guess that's kind of ironic because we're doing a podcast. But, one thing Ed Mylett says, because I I listen to his podcast, is, like, watch people without the sound on to, like, act like the sound's off. So don't don't watch what people say. Like, watch what they do.
Aaron Craddock:And so I just when you said that that that integrity piece, it just made me think of that. Like, you know, didn't really watch what people are saying and watch what they're doing on a daily basis
Chris Harbin:Exactly.
Aaron Craddock:And how they treat how they treat people.
Chris Harbin:Exactly.
Aaron Craddock:Yeah. One of the things I say with my kids, I have, like, a, like, a 4 year old and then we have a 15 month old. But, like, like, I want I want the 4 year old to, like, catch me doing things, like, that are, like, good things. Like, I I was having a conversation this morning because, like, faith is one thing that's important to me. And I was like, I want him, like, catching me reading the bible.
Aaron Craddock:You know, like, you know, not not catching me doing something I shouldn't be doing. You know? It's, I just yeah. I love that love that integrity piece. That's right.
Aaron Craddock:That's a I can tell
Chris Harbin:you this. What you're saying about catching someone, doing something. My son now is 8 year old, my youngest. My other kids, they 22, 21, 18, and, yes, I do have a 8 year old. But everything I do when he's around, he's there.
Chris Harbin:I'm actually a deacon at my church, and, my church is a little country church. This particular time, I was it was my time. We rotated Deacon's around to do the prayer. Well, you get down on your knees and you say in the prayer and all that. It was ironic.
Chris Harbin:Mike, you know, when I raised we said amen and raised my head up, he was right beside me. Oh, his knees hit the same thing in in in the the older members, and it was quite a few minutes of church. They'd be like, keep up the good work and all that. So it's a great thing that, yes, with your faith and all, keep keep the children involved. And,
Aaron Craddock:Well, that's what I I mean, we just I just know they're not gonna remember just what I say. Like, they're really gonna remember what I do. Exactly. Like, way more because I think back to just, you know, because my parents had a big impact, like, talking about the faith piece on me because I caught them, you know, reading the bible as well and and studying it. And and so that that, yeah.
Aaron Craddock:But I don't remember, you know, all the times of them saying, like like, do this do this do this, like, because that's just like teaching and you get so much information. But, like, the real information I remember from a kid that, like, stuck was, like, what did they do?
Chris Harbin:Yeah.
Aaron Craddock:And that's
Chris Harbin:And, you know, Aaron, that's that's true of recruiting, to be honest with you. I, myself, I'm yes. I manage the recruiting team. I'm over and out of it, but I don't leave it up to them just to be the ones who call in the drivers and and doing all the reports. I'll jump in in a heartbeat and help them out and stuff, and that goes a long way with the team.
Chris Harbin:When they see you actually out doing stuff, calling drivers, talking to them, working apps along with them, that that that gives them a sense of pride. And to me, that I think they they wanna work hard or or whatever. So Mhmm.
Aaron Craddock:And that goes back to just your initial comment on comments around Bob, and and his involvement is just he's willing to do that. He's willing to do any job. Like, that you're saying that was super impactful for you. And so that's that's what he what he does, and that I just it seems to permeate your entire culture, just from the different people I've I've been able to interact with so far.
Chris Harbin:Most definitely.
Aaron Craddock:So the next section I'm gonna go into is industry insights. And so my first question there is, do you have more drivers in the pipeline, like, this year versus last year? Like like, what is the recruitment kinda landscape looking looking like for you guys?
Chris Harbin:We have yes. It's way more drivers in the pipeline than it was last year. Last year, the industry was a totally flop, not only for the tanker side, but for trucking, period. And a lot of these small smaller companies or smaller 5 to 10 truck carriers or whatever. They they went out of business, so they were looking for companies like us to come to.
Chris Harbin:We have a ton of people that are applying. The thing what I see is getting qualified drivers. We got a lot of folks out there. Yeah. They can hold a steering wheel and get in there, but do they fit tankers?
Chris Harbin:Are they the right fit for us? And a lot of them are not. You know? They don't have that that tank experience. They don't have the hazmat or tanker endorsements for god's sakes.
Chris Harbin:They want you to train them, but they don't want to put in the work and effort when going through the training. So we we we train certain spots, certain company drivers, but we don't train ICs. We don't train fleet drivers and things of that nature. And that knocked a lot of people out out of the box, and we have even had drivers that, that are applying now that maybe was doing flatbed or van or whatever the case. They have their own truck.
Chris Harbin:They might have had, experience with tank, but they don't have equipment on the truck. So that that is knocking them out, from being approved. And you also have a lot of drivers. They wanna come on. They they're genuine about it, but they want you to help them to get the equipment on and do all this stuff.
Chris Harbin:You're probably thinking like, yeah. That might be a good idea when actually, it's not because you helping get his equipment on, and 5, 6 months down the road, he's not happy. He or she is gone, then you got a loss there. And you gotta spend more money to take it off if they bring it back to you to take it off, or you just gonna lost it. So we're getting a lot more drivers in the portal.
Chris Harbin:It's just finding those, good drivers, you know. We we like the military. We're looking for a few good men and women, but you gotta be that right person to go through to go through
Aaron Craddock:with. And and kinda like the military in the you have high standards, you know, like, back back to the safety piece. And so it's like high high standards, but just the right people, and it and it sounds like it's just an awesome opportunity for drivers.
Chris Harbin:Yeah. That's that's one thing that we have been looking at too, harder is the military for peep military people that's coming in to drive because they you got some people that has drove trucks tankers in the military, but they're the more disciplined type folks and easy to train too. So
Aaron Craddock:Are you doing something specifically, like, for veterans, like like, in terms of outreach or anything like that?
Chris Harbin:We are there are several different, veteran programs out there that we have been touching bases with them, visiting bases. There there are a lot of people that are retiring and wanna get into trucking world, and we're taking advantage of it. For the ones if that it has a good safe record, good record on the DD 214, we we and it has a home for you. So That's awesome.
Aaron Craddock:So where where is the we talked about kind of driver recruiting and, like, where that's headed in the trends. Next question is what marketing channels are working well for you guys or or driver referral program, anything like that? What's working for you guys?
Chris Harbin:The number one source for us getting drivers besides social media, I wanna start off with is the driver referral program. You have drivers that send folks over to to, you got drivers to get out and recruit other drivers just because they're working in a good place. And when you have that, you can you pretty much gonna have some good drivers coming in, in certain markets or whatever that, drivers might not be well. But for the most, yeah, the driver for 1st, number 1 source. The next source is gonna be social media.
Chris Harbin:You probably see our ads and stuff all over Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, for God's sakes. All of those places with the social media side, and that comment play because just like instead of filling out a short form, you can they can message you back and forth. They can create these little small groups. I'm in a lot of especially Facebook groups, and some of my recruiters are too, where you we're able to have, like, these call these, group chats and been able to talk to them. And and that's where you get your real drivers from, you know.
Chris Harbin:And social media if you're not using social media, yeah, something you might wanna rethink it. It's different from back in the day, you know, back in the early 1300, you know, we was putting stuff on Indeed, Craigslist, the last all those pages, we still use them, but social media slash driver referrals are the 2 number 2 sources that you gotta use. You gotta
Aaron Craddock:That's awesome. So so your recruiting department actually, like and you yourself, like, are in these different driver groups and interacting with them there, messaging, and then that ends up actually resulting in quite a few hires.
Chris Harbin:Yes. All all day, every day. I wish well, you can't see my screen. I was looking at this constantly, messages coming through. And and most of the time, it's drivers, like in the evening time, you you look at drivers that shut down for the day.
Chris Harbin:Today is, Thursday. They're looking at these settlements, what they're getting on Friday. They're getting pissed off, and so that's when they start getting on them on Facebook and these other pages, sending messages and all that. By the weekend, we had a app. And if everything goes well, by Monday and Tuesday, we don't process it, and we send them up for an interview.
Chris Harbin:And that's how you get your job, the good ones. You know? So Mhmm.
Aaron Craddock:That's that's a gold tip right there. That's pretty cool. The and I like how you're even thinking about the time of day. And then you're also not it sounds like you wouldn't be getting on to your recruiters because they're on Facebook because you know that they're, you know, that they're messaging, you know, people where they are.
Chris Harbin:They are messaging, and they're using it to their advantage. You know? That's that's how they get leads. That's how they get driver supply, and and there's folks that they know by word-of-mouth, the driver's getting a bonus from referring that person over to them. So it's worth it.
Chris Harbin:It works. That's awesome.
Aaron Craddock:So the next question I have, what this is just kind of a more broad question. But, like like, as I said, like this, you know, our our general audience is anywhere from recruiters to managers or recruiters, directors or recruit recruitment, all the way up to c level executive suite. And for those specific, advice, like like, what advice do you have for, like, your peers in the industry? Let's say, like, in a director of recruiting type role.
Chris Harbin:I would tell them to be a people person, number 1. Lead by example, and keep your phone, keep your doors open. If you listen to your recruiters, and as you listen to the drivers, they'll tell you the tools they need, they'll tell you the issues they're having on the market, and don't ignore. Find a way to overcome those issues. And you think about it as for me, myself, when I go to my boss, is it gonna be 1 or 2 words?
Chris Harbin:Yes or no? Not me being the gym that I am. If it's no, I got a plan b and c, and we'll come back with some questions just to see why is no. But always have a plan B, plan C for your recruiters to achieve your goals. We all want to have drivers.
Chris Harbin:We all, got goals, company goals, and things that we got to achieve, but you gotta have a plan. Keep an open door communication. Let them ask questions. If they if they're not asking, you got problems. They get quiet on you, you got problems.
Chris Harbin:I I tell my people all the time, I can't answer what I have been asked. I can't fix what I don't know about, and that's just the truth. And that's anything with anybody. So
Aaron Craddock:Yeah. That applies, you know, even outside of recruiting, not just in in life in general. That's just golden golden wisdom. So, is there anything I should have asked Chris today that I that I didn't ask that you wanna talk a little bit more about?
Chris Harbin:I can't think of nothing off hands, and I I again, going back to, a fellow directors of recruiting and and other people in the industry, communication is the key. I can I said it all day, every day? If you can't talk to drivers or other people, you got issues. You got to keep that level of communication where you, getting out the right information and you're making it fit to whomever or whatever type of driver you're trying to hire. We here at Henneth, we we we specialize in tanker, but all our managers have an open door policy.
Chris Harbin:All our managers, if they don't know the answer, they're gonna find someone with the answer, and we'll get back with you. We work hands on hands with our safety department. They are awesome great people. You know, some people you hear safety like, man, I don't wanna hear that safety management now. Well, if they're not getting on your nerves, they're not doing their job then.
Chris Harbin:You know, if they make everybody happy, they're not doing their job. So they I like to think they stay in the middle and they they're doing their job. So just keep open down open door communication, talk to you, your recruiters, talk to your drivers, talk to your personnel, and give them the right information, everything else will be alright.
Aaron Craddock:That's awesome. Alright, Chris. Well, thank you for your time today. That'll that'll wrap up the show. Really, really, really appreciate it.
Aaron Craddock:I just learned so much, and I was I was trying not to look to the side because I was jotting down notes the whole time.
Chris Harbin:Oh, you sure?
Aaron Craddock:Just enjoying it.
Chris Harbin:Yes, sir. Appreciate it, Aaron. Appreciate everything.
Aaron Craddock:Our goal with the Hire Truckers podcast is provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to help you level up your recruiting game. Thank you for joining us today. And if we added value, please take 10 seconds to share this with your network.