Within any group of driver applicants, approximately one third are high performance, one third are average and one third are low performance. One of these groups often appears acceptable on paper, interviews well and is always available to start working tomorrow. Sounds great, right?

This group is actually the bottom 30 percent who if hired will ultimately generate customer complaints, have safety and equipment problems and have shorter than normal employment tenure. Furthermore, internal studies have shown that fleets with low driver tenure or high turnover experience more accidents, which ultimately costs you money and lost production time.

How can you spot the bottom 30 percent and avoid hiring them?

JOBehaviors, a preferred vendor partner of Protective Insurance Company, uses assessments to help fleets hire the best drivers. They suggest looking for these characteristics to identify the bottom 30 percent:

• Able to present themselves in best possible light (application, resume, interview)
• Often have more than two years of driving experience
• Not customer-oriented
• Unsafe driving habits that may or may not have resulted in an accident…yet
• About to be terminated from current job
• Unhappy in current job due to being “misunderstood” by manager
• Willing to jump jobs without giving notice to their current employer
• Available to drive for your company…tomorrow!

Conversely, the top 70 percent have the following characteristics:

• Often not good at self-promotion (application, resume, interview)
• Respects current employer
• Safe, customer-oriented
• Looking for a company that will reward their performance
• Needs to be sold on the merits of coming to work for your company
• May be an outstanding driver with less than two years of experience
• Feels the need to give current employer two-week notice
• Wants to feel valued by potential employer
• Often take longer to onboard

Good drivers don’t always present themselves as the obvious choices. The challenge is to identify the best candidates as objectively and quickly as possible.

Job-specific behavioral assessments are extremely accurate predictors of performance and very easy to administer online. With instant comparative results, you can stop wasting your time and resources on the bottom 30 percent and focus your efforts on the top 70 percent. This group may take more effort to recruit but they’ll ultimately be a long-term asset to your company. Here’s a testimonial from an independent contractor:

“We have found the JOBehaviors assessment to be a key tool in our recruiting process. I can reach out to only the candidates that meet my criteria, which saves a great deal of time focusing on getting qualified candidates on board.” – Don Perry, Riverwood Investments, Inc.

To learn more about hiring and retaining outstanding drivers, visit www.JOBehaviors.com/transportation or call 800-763-9550. Protective customers will receive a free 30-day, no obligation trial.