Preparing for Peak Delivery Season with Targeted Driver Recruitment

As we head into the holiday season, more people are making purchases, which means more products will need to reach homes and shop shelves, and we’ll need more drivers to deliver them. UK retailers, manufacturers, and logistics companies need to boost their rosters with more temporary and permanent drivers to meet the nation's additional shipping needs during the busy season.

But you can't sacrifice reliability, professionalism, and customer service skills by hiring unvetted, unproven HGV drivers. You need team members you can trust to uphold your company's professional standards and deliver the excellent customer service that sets you apart in the field.

Plus, you're not alone. You're competing against every other UK business that needs more holiday drivers for the most skilled and reliable staff.

The competition for hiring seasonal drivers is stiff, but not insurmountable. Here's what you need to create a driver recruitment strategy for the holiday season.

Assess your workforce needs

To hire the right drivers, you need to know exactly what you require in your seasonal fleet. It can be hard to predict, but a good place to start is analysing metrics from the last few years. Specifically, take a look at:

• Demand: How many drivers have you needed between the months of October and January in the last five years? By how much have those numbers increased year-on-year? You can make solid estimates simply by analysing your past data. If possible, talk to your clients about their upcoming shipping needs, too. If they're predicting a remarkably busy delivery season, you can do the same.

• Routes: Take a look at where you delivered last holiday season and ask yourself whether you're likely to need drivers for uncommon routes, or one-off deliveries. You can also decide where to consolidate routes for more efficient deliveries.

• Skills: What types of HGV drivers have you required in the past? Were there skills gaps in the seasonal drivers you hired, and which skills did you most miss during that period? Make sure you plan for any special delivery types that might arise during the season.

Use those numbers to forecast the demand and determine the number of drivers you'll need for both full-time and part-time placement, and the non-negotiable skills they should have. You can compare those requirements to your current workforce capacity to strategically fill the gaps.

Streamline your recruitment processes

When you pinpoint the right skills and find ideal drivers, it's frustrating to wait for HR to complete their paperwork before you can start scheduling routes.

Before the holiday crunch starts, work with HR and operational management teams to see where they can streamline your recruitment processes.

Improve your driver retention & engagement policies

A strong company reputation will make it easy to attract the best drivers. You might only be hiring for the season, but offering an exceptional professional environment will yield the pick of temporary drivers, and you might decide to keep some of them on permanently.

• Offer benefits like a competitive salary, holiday bonuses, and flexible schedules. Competitive pay and perks attract a wider pool of candidates, giving you more choice in hiring from a host of qualified applicants.

• Provide training, incentives, and a positive office environment. Exceptional drivers aren't born, they're trained. Not only do incentives like training allow you to mould your drivers into a professional dream team, it serves as a bench mark for gauging candidates. The best employees will welcome the chance to improve their skills, deepen their technical proficiency, and improve their career prospects.

• Showcase other benefits, like a healthy work-life balance. Great people want to work at a great company that values their professional contribution as well as their right to a personal life. You'll build a more dedicated team by encouraging drivers to strike the right balance between work and personal time.

Ensure compliance & safety

A respectful work-life balance plays into a safer working environment for your drivers, which is essential to recruiting new hires and retaining your current team.

You are responsible for creating a workplace that's safe and healthy for your team. It's the law, but it's also part of a savvy hiring strategy. As you ramp up your seasonal hiring, make sure these safety protocols are in place:

• Review drivers' hours, tachograph rules, and compliance standards.

• Schedule vehicle safety checks to keep your crew on the roads and minimise time spent in repairs.

• Conduct refresher training on road safety and best practices.

Plan a nimbler fleet with logistics tech and strategy

As you hire, you can also trim operational waste.

• Use route optimisation software for more efficient driving. You'll likely find redundancies in your routes and opportunities to reorganise them to save time and fuel.

• Implement telematics and fleet management tools for real-time tracking. You'll see where your drivers are getting stuck, which clients require the most loading and unloading time, and how you can map more efficient routes.

Driver recruitment specialists like Driver Require supply holiday hires across the country

The holidays are busy for everyone, and hiring new drivers is a heavy task on an already long list. But you can tick it off with ease by using a driver recruitment agency.

Driver Require is your leading source for experienced drivers. Our drivers are familiar with agency work, hold clean, complete driving licences, and are comfortable jumping in at a moment's notice to fill gaps in your demanding holiday delivery schedule.

Companies across the UK trust Driver Require drivers to get them through the hectic season. Talk to the team before you hit your holiday rush to see how we help you go the extra mile.