Poor recruiter interest

[piper1]

Thecompanies involved in this shall remain nameless but they are some of the top ones.

After many years in the trucking game (almost all on the behind the desk side) I am at the point where I can financially afford a career change. I LOVE driving (I would drive on the weekends whenever I could) and have been looking into expediting as I can now buy a new truck outright. Went to the show in Wilmington to search around, talked to several drivers (you folks are a nice bunch) kept lurking around here and listening. I went to the seminars in Monroe MI with the intent on talking to 3 specific company recruiters.

Company A: has had a booth at Wilmington and Monroe, pamphlets on table, recruiter nowhere to be found (after several visits).

Company B: Talk to recruiter but he is not the guy for my region. Talks to me and gives me e-mail for the guy I need to talk to. I send the right guy an e-mail and after 2 weeks the guy I talked to basically sends me the basic recriut package.

Company C: Talk to recruiter for my area. Talk for 20 minutes to this guy. He's interested as he is asking a lot of really good questions and answering all of mine. Tells me to e-mail him with my info and situation. I do. Have not heard from him since.

Is this normal? I figure I'm a fairly young guy (37) and will have the financial freedom to get into this without going broke to do it.

I figured they'd be interested but do they only want guys who are in it up to their ears in debt so that they need to take any load offered to them. I wanted to have the money so that I could accept loads and learn without missing truck payments if I screw up!

Am I missing something here or do carriers only want to steal people from other companies?

Sorry for the long winded story.

 

[x06col]

Actually you are too well off. Seems they want someone hungry.

 

[cheri1122]

Piper, I can't tell you what recruiters want, but it seems the ones you spoke with clearly don't want a person who's intelligent, and prepared, so I'd cross them off the list.
Don't give up, though, because there may be some recruiters who DO want what you're offering. If you've focused on the big carriers, look into some medium size, or vice versa. Maybe, if you can get to a truckstop, and talk to some actual drivers, you can get the names of recruiters who won't blow smoke, or blow you off, either. Best of luck to you, and if you keep at it, let us know how it goes, ok? It might be helpful to the next guy, following in your steps.

 

[ATeam]

One of the things a recruiter looks for in a prospective contractors is a truck. Since you do not yet have one, recruiters will show more interest in people who do.

 

[pelicn]

>One of the things a recruiter looks for in a prospective
>contractors is a truck. Since you do not yet have one,
>recruiters will show more interest in people who do.

I've never bought a truck, or leased one on with a company, but buy a truck before I even had a company that was interested? That sounds pretty risky.

 

[Tennesseahawk]

Kinda wonder if they'd rather give more interest to the company jumpers, than to someone new to the o/o aspect. Maybe company jumpers tend to take out their frustrations on recruiters... ie, used to the deception?

-True independence can only be gained if you're trully independant.

 

[terryandrene]

I agree with Pelicn on the truck before the carrier issue. I doesn't make sense to buy a van and then enter a futile search for a carrier that needs more vans. Similarly, The purchase of a large reefer truck might disappoint the buyer when he finds his carrier of choice doesn't have any reefer freight. A liftgated truck might find limited opportunities hauling auto freight to assembly plants that don't allow liftgated trucks at their docks.

I feel a bit sad for Piper1 who traveled quite a distance from Canada to gain a bit of information from the EO Workshop speakers and to mingle with a few carriers' recruiters for a potential lease arrangement. We trust the recruiters A, B and C will read this thread and realize that they are the folks that create the first impression that an aspiring expediter will have of their respective carriers. Their failure to return phone calls they solicited, or to otherwise communicate with a potential candidate casts a pall over the entire expedite community.

 

[piper1]

One of the things I asked each carrier was specifically what they wanted to see in terms of a truck. I may have the money to purchase a truck but don't want to be foolish about it and buy the WRONG truck. There is a very wide variety of trucks out there and I was surprised to see how different the trucks were between carriers. A drive though the parking lot at the Wilmington show left me with the impression that certain carriers maybe preferred certain kinds of equipment (carrier X seemed to have more tandems for example).

All I want to do is try to do this right and figured the recruiters would be a bit more helpful. I wasn't asking for commitments just some info so when I did show up keys in hand I didn't have a white elephant.

Time will tell, perhaps once the UAW contracts are all settled and business picks up in the spring interest will be higher. Until then I'll keep trying to learn here.

Thanks everyone.

 

[pelicn]

You're on the right track, you're doing the research before you jump in. There is a wealth of knowledge here, and yes, it is confusing at first. Just keep reading, when you run across a term or phrase that's "greek" just ask. The folks here are very knowledgeable.

 

[ATeam]

>>One of the things a recruiter looks for in a prospective
>>contractors is a truck. Since you do not yet have one,
>>recruiters will show more interest in people who do.
>
>I've never bought a truck, or leased one on with a company,
>but buy a truck before I even had a company that was
>interested? That sounds pretty risky.

I'm not saying to buy a truck. I'm only saying that recruiters will pay more attention to people who have trucks than to people who do not.

That certainly proved true in our case. When we were researching the industry, before we settled on FedEx as our carrier of choice, we tried and tried and tried to get the FedEx recruiter for our region to talk to us. He ignored our e-mails. He ignored our numerous voice messages. Even at a face-to-face meeting at a truck show, he showed no interest whatsoever in talking to us, and pretty much did not.

We were left feeling like we had nothing to offer. He can't sign up people with no truck, so why bother with people like us? It pleases us that he is no longer with FedEx. No way would we ever refer a propsective expeidter to him. We would not want the people we referred to end up feeling as rejected and put down as we did.

Terry's point about the need for recruiters to talk to all interested people is spot on.

 

[RichM]

Unforunately your experience is not new. I don't know if it's a question of the recruiters having too many irons in the fire or just flat out lazy. The days of Bill McCloud,Lou Fry,Jeff Gara etc are gone. These guys and others had territories that they would cover, not sit in a building waiting for something to happen.

Bill McCloud who passed away several years ago would always return a call and sometimes just call to see how things were going and could he assist you in any way. But all things change.

 

[kwexpress]

KW Express
o/o till i die

if your well off you dont need them anyway.just do it yourself you will be happier in the end. why invest your money in something that owns nothing. do some research and be your own success story.

good luck

 

[riverrat2000]

I have been with the same carrier for quite a while but in the interest in staying current I call a number of other companys to see what they had to offer, out of six I have never heard from three, two, finally returned my call two to three weeks later and I was impressed with one in that i got a "live" person to talk to immediately, I was honest and told them upfront that I was at the moment just seeing what was available and wouldn't be making any fast moves, this didn't bother him in the least, I got answers to my questions and one that I am particularly interested in concerning their views and policies about personal use of the trucks, I ask him to check with their safety officer about their policies and to get back with me on the answer that is when I found out that the person I was talking with WAS the safety officer as the recruiter was out for the day! Well I am really impressed that the man took the time to ALL my questions even though it wasn't his job and could have easily taken my number to pass on let the answering machine take the call in the first place. If I do decide to move this company is at the top of my list,take note recruiters this is expediting we do it just in time so should you