Think outside the box.

There are many different things you can do to make more money than the typical truck driver will ever make. Start by pursuing everything you do in trucking on a professional basis and do it with intent.

Most trucking companies offer their drivers an opportunity to earn a bonus for every new driver they recruit or refer to the company. Often it is called a referral bonus or recruiting referral or driver referral bonus. Whatever they call it – they are going to pay you a certain amount in accordance with their program every time you bring in an eligible driver.

Most drivers that earn this money do it sporadically and without any real intent. So they don’t earn very much.

They only recruit or refer another driver when someone happens to mention they are unhappy with their current company and actually asks them about their own company.

A few do work at it and are actively making an effort to go out there and find drivers instead of just waiting to stumble across a few here and there.

You can do the same thing. Go find drivers for your company – if they are willing to pay you a decent fee for doing so, and most companies will these days. Those who don’t are missing the boat and will get the stuffing kicked out of them by the rest that are.

There are specific tactics that you can use to bring prospects to you – and then you need to be prepared to give them the information they are after and do it accurately. Then you must follow up if you want to be good at this. Help them through the hiring process, and beyond. If you get good at recruiting you can earn a significant income doing this. Possibly more than you can ever make as a driver.

The reason for that is simple math and the number of hours in a day, energy in your body along with the hours of service regulations. Even if there were no regulations – you would still be limited by the other factors. It is only possible for you to ever run so many miles in so many hours. Even though you typically get paid based on mileage it is still a form of trading time for dollars. Any time you do that – no matter what you do – you will always hit a hard limit.

It doesn’t matter if you are a doctor treating patients, or a technician painting cars, making table legs, cop writing tickets – what ever. The fact is no matter how hard you try you are always limited by hours based on personal production only – none of what you do is automated or systematized to be able to produce even in part automatically.

Recruiting can be done during normally wasted time while you are sitting at customers and other places. So even though you can’t get any more miles at those times -it is possible to earn more money. It is also possible to automate a lot of what you need to do to recruit drivers – not all of it – but enough that you will be producing results in part even when you sleep.

So how much can you make?  Look up your own company website or go talk to your recruiting department and ask them what they currently pay per driver. Now how many are you willing and able to recruit?

Several of the companies I looked at for this post are offering $1000 or more per driver referred/recruited. Some pay more some pay less. Keep in mind they pay it out in different ways too.

For example they may pay you $500 when the new driver completes orientation and runs his or her first load and then pay you the other $500 or what ever the amount is after 6 months so long as both you and your referral are still there.

Keep in mind that if the company is good enough for you to work at and be happy with then its good enough for those you recruit to it too. Just always be honest and clear on the good and the bad. If you do you will find that recruiting gets easier the more you do it and you might even enjoy it. That is an important consideration.

Don’t like your company? If you are not happy with your current company – then don’t recruit people for them.

In fact – start looking for another company yourself, and choose wisely. You should only be working at a company that you do feel confident in, that you respect and that respects you – and so long as you do then the more drivers you can help it find and bring in then the better for everyone it is.

So could you recruit 2 or 3 drivers per month? How about 2 or 3 per week on average?

With some knowledge and effort you can recruit even more. But please do not get dollar signs in your eyes and think this is going to be easy money. To recruit that number of drivers consistently you have to develop some skill at recruiting – just like driving a truck. That requires time and effort. Pursue it on a serious level, do it right and you can make some serious cash though – all in addition to what you make driving.

Want to learn how to recruit truck drivers effectively? Then sign up for email updates and I will let you know when the next webinar is and when new relevant information is being published.