you want somebody that can see their mistakes and know that how they could have fixed it and then they're they're open to change and at the end of the day how can we work together how can we work together and you know you bring something to the table that i don't have i'm not a you know commercial driver you're a professional driver and i have something that maybe you you want and it's a job right welcome to life of the mile delivered by brakeworks one of america's fastest growing podcasts actually produced by trucks indicted to tell stories compelling drivers i need to do something like industry

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welcome to life of the mile delivered by freightworks i'm your host butch volpe it's a wonderful opportunity again today just to do as we often do which is to make a dive into the world of trucking and logistics i'm really grateful to have a friend that's on today he is typically so busy uh the opportunity to get him is is not easy so we value very much isaac guerrero the 30 minutes that you're going to give us today and as a recruiter at freight works you're on the front lines of a very important uh process and everything so welcome glad to be here well and you know what let's let's start off by asking a simple question which is when people here because we have people that aren't involved in trucking logistics that watch uh on youtube or listen to the audio platforms when when people hear the word recruiter they may not know what that means what does that mean in a nutshell so for recruiting purposes um anytime that you're seeking to either grow your company or seeking to add maybe or fill a position most of the time that falls in the hands of a recruiter which is somebody that will go out there and either sell your company or sell your product and for freightworks i'm here to sell frameworks and what we have to offer and see whose lives we might can change well you know we often say this and by the way quickly subscribe if you've not subscribed to our youtube channel make sure that you like engage share help us grow the audience it's how we keep bringing podcasts like this to you you know when you look at the marketplace you really have all your trucking and logistics companies are out there competing for drivers right correct yeah and when you hear the statements that are being made uh we've got a shortage of drivers we don't have enough qualified drivers we've had a number of people that have pulled out of deriving after cobit or because of new drug tests god what do you make of all of that how do you if i were to ask you because you're a freightworks expert in this endeavor if i were to ask you what's the marketplace like for recruiting these days what would you say so i agree there is a lot of information out there as to what is this industry like uh what's happened you know post covid you know and what we can gather is that um many times it falls to the particular company that's you know hiring their their guidelines of what they're selling what they're offering and so to to make a general statement and say there's a shortage of drivers or maybe there's a certain type of driver that you're not able to find or what it all boils down to your structure your particular structure within your company and what ads you're putting out there or what you're um selling and it's very key to if you're not getting those drivers you know to fill the positions that you're needing filled to look within and start there and many times i like to say that if you think the grass is greener on the other side start watering your the grass you're standing on and well that's good if you think the grass is greater on the other side start watering the grass you're standing on and i i may say that a lot to drivers better you know maybe posing the question of you know what what makes you all different and you have to kind of reach within and you know i'm a spiritual person and many times i have to reach within to find out okay what are they asking or what are we trying to do publish here right well and it's interesting to say that because we often will tell people during the podcast while we're a very diverse company we are a company that was founded in a sustained on prayer and biblical principles so when we tell drivers for example we're not going to lie to you we're going to tell the truth the reason we do that is because god tells us to and and so it's different i think that respect now you know what's interesting is i used to have a little office over there where silas is and i said you know what i don't need that office i move around a lot and i want to be close to the drivers so brake works one studio that we're in is right around the corner from the driver's lounge and i spent time in there talking to drivers and often don't think that i have authority to get their truck fixed or something which i don't but um you know they will say to me isaac they'll tell stories about companies they've come from and we don't bash other companies it's not our value to do that but they will tell me things like every company's told me we're a family you're a name you're not a number we'll compensate you well we'll put you in a safe truck we'll guard your home time when you look at the marketing out there everybody's kind of saying the same thing aren't they yes you get that general um statement from most recruiting um platforms is that it and it really creates the the the false hope of well we'll say anything to get you in here you know and they may offer some level of those particular items that they're that they're offering but to totally encapsulate the the satisfaction for a driver and what they're actually looking for um i think that making those general statements across the board is not the route to go when you're trying to grow your company well and it it's interesting because what happens is you get people that come with tremendous disbelief i've had drivers that have said to me uh well we'll see we'll see the jury's going to be out so you really inherit whatever it is that people came into the company with right and they'll bring whatever issues that they've experienced or the scenarios that they've gone through and which there is much uh to be said in terms of what they've gone gone through there's a lot of people that have been done wrong and like you said we're not out to bash any one company but when you take that one driver that's telling you their story one thing you have to learn is to listen to them and find out okay well what can we do that's different than where you were at and that's where i start my conversation most of the time that's really good you know i remember even a driver here six or eight months ago new driver is doing real well for us and he said i want to show you something and he took out a picture and showed me a picture of a trailer that had a wheel it was all wrong he said every four miles he had to stop and readjust something on the wheel and when he called into the dispatchers the dispatcher said keep going keep going for at least another 122 miles or something like that and so he was basically asking the question are you ever going to put me in a position where i'm in harm's way so you you have those kind of conversations with drivers don't you right yeah and and when somebody uh tell us a little bit about the process how does somebody show up on your radar screen so for me i'm one of two recruiters um i primarily handle anything uh that would come by way of facebook or facebook chats or any type of traffic that's come from our facebook recruiting you know drill down there for a minute how does that start so you you monitor what's hap a facebook ad is placed and then what happens we have an inbox in several different platforms and a lot of those come into messenger or facebook notifications and i'll see a chat come through and we do have um kind of some pre-populated uh questions that they may click on uh when they click on an ad to review whatever items that we're offering they'll many times generate a question of you know where are you located or how much experience do you require and many times because they're pre-populated i don't directly answer that question i know it's a driver most of the time on the other end of that chat and i immediately dive into um are you looking for a job what are you looking for and and and get them to talk and i want to find out what they're looking for and that's where i start i think that may be one of the things that's a little distinctive of freightworks is instead of saying this is what we're selling there's a big difference in saying what are you looking for right and then you're able to adjust and and compensate from from there so many times what we have to offer is based on location and where the driver is at in terms of the lanes that we run so i'll ask for their zip code or i'll ask from you know what kind of home time they're looking for what type of days on the road how long they're looking to be out that will pretty much dictate to me uh based on what we are offering where i can put them if they're a good fit now mind you there's so many factors that play into whether they're a good fit but just to start the conversation zip code and finding out their locale is probably the easiest i'd say entry into them to say okay you're from denver north carolina so you can probably do this that or the other and that's where we start when we look at the salad bar of different opportunities that we have for driving positions can you give a general description of what it is we have to offer so we we like to say we run all 48 states and i'd say we do that primarily by way of four or five different fleets that we that we run we have an otr over the road solo over the road um teams we do a route that's pretty much anything east of i-35 coming east so you're running you know gulfport mississippi all the way through carlisle pennsylvania um tennessee then we've got northeast regional uh area runs that we do we have fleets that primarily work up there then we have several different local positions you know high point north carolina greensboro north carolina gastonia north carolina that all converged into one goal of helping the the accounts our customers helping move the freight and so i'd say it's pretty diverse now there is from a recruiting standpoint there is lots of focus on okay well we you know have a deficit here so we need to fill this so we might take a month two months and and focus on a particular fleet to make sure positions are filled to the best that we can now talk a little bit about how you came to freight works well i uh actually because we have incredible stories sure yeah um i actually i'm a certified paralegal i'm i worked for the josh farmer at his uh law office the founder and president of correct and i was his wife andrea farmer her paralegal for several years doing disability claims and lots of other areas and doing that i enjoyed helping people i interacted with people every single day so through covid and other issues i left

farmer in morris which was the law firm for a certain time and i took care of my my grandfather ended up passing away and took care of some family things and did another uh insurance sales and did some recruiting there and that gained quite a bit of knowledge of the metrics and how to um you know interact on that front so then i ended up coming back to um josh and he offered me a job here at freight works and i started you know basically in the safety department and doing um claims and and many other hats you know that you wear there and a recruiting happened to be one of them and there you go you know i ended up doing recruiting full time you know i tell folks that uh freight works is a little bit i've traveled to israel a lot it feels very israeli to me you know in the israeli army they'll say if you need me to drive a tank i'll drive a tank if you need me to fly a plane i'll fly a plane if you need me to work in the kitchen and cut potatoes i'll cut potatoes and one of the things i love about freightworks is that people are committed to do whatever it takes to to get the job done and there's also mobility i mean you obviously came in one track and now you're on the front lines of recruiting talk a little bit about the kinds of drivers that we get i mean because people will sometimes say are you all cut out of the same cloth and i want to tell them i hang out with the drivers a lot these days and we've got so many incredible stories so can you talk a little bit about the kinds of people that end up kicking the tires and saying yeah i want to be part of the company definitely um i i would say we are definitely not all cut out of the same cloth the folks that we bring in are so diverse uh many are coming from broken homes broken marriages they're going through a hard time in life and one thing we have to see in recruiting is that it's not just about filling positions it's not just about finding somebody that has a quote good record a good driving record and oh we want this person because they have a you know million mile award and it may not be all that many times we are the home of second chances many times and people and drivers talk about that i've had drivers tell me my life was not in a good place but freight works has helped it turn around right and having those conversations in the beginning of finding out what they need and what they're looking for really helps dictate what kind of driver that they're going to be and really tells us as recruiters um is this someone we would like to be a part of our family and the only times that we've ever really run into of well we wouldn't hire this person at this time if there's is a real severe safety risk you know somebody that's really gone through a troubled time and they're just going through some serious safety flaws and then as from a liability standpoint we can't bring that in but many times we've had issues where um somebody said hey you know my brother died and you know um i was taking the wife to the the funeral and you know this this and that happened and it was really tragic and they're going through a hard time in life and so then they immediately get back in their truck and expect to go to work and then they they make a mistake or they um you know because they're distracted they're distracted and i i would say nine times out of ten there's always that one uh instance where they can go back and say had this not happen i probably would have you know corrected it and and and not had that mistake and and when you talk through somebody is other somebody's issues and they're willing to go that to that extreme with you uh many times those are the people you want you want somebody that can see their mistakes and know that how they could have fixed it and then they're they're open to change and really many times it's you know what does freight works require of you and it's we we require a good attitude we require uh yes we have minimum guidelines that we go by in terms of bringing a driver in but many times it's all about and at the end of the day how can we work together how can we work together and you know you bring something to the table that i don't have i'm not a you know commercial driver you're a professional driver and i have something that maybe you you want and it's a job right and so when we put that together we can find out okay well here's your flaws here's your mistakes here's what i need from you okay and it may be paying extra attention on a pre-trip or pain you know paying extra attention to you know the road where they're you know not hopping curbs or maybe there's something on their record that makes a mention of something like that well i'll bring those points out and and make make them accountable to that extent and they'll they'll many times jump on board with me say hey give me a chance and i will i'll i'll hold my end of the deal and it works many times many times it's it's so interesting i'm remembering an example when i had my company in colorado springs where i hired a male receptionist it relates to what you're saying and uh and he was really good the second day he was there he came and knocked on my door and said can i talk to you i said sure so he came in i told him to shut the door he said i wanted to let you know that i love being here but i didn't disclose something that i should have disclosed and my conscience is hitting me and i said well what is that he said well i was in the marine corps and i beat a man within an inch of his life and i spent time in the brick and i didn't tell you that and i won't disclose his name but i looked at him and i said are you better now do you have anger issues anymore no i don't that's well you know what this conversation happened between us just get back to work that guy became one of the most loyal incredibly motivated employees i ever had and freight works we're not saying we want everybody that's got problems necessarily but freightworks has i believe an unusual capacity bored out of our biblical convictions to really get to the heart of matters don't we correct and when you say what kind of drivers are we bringing in here so much in this industry you get folks that are kicked to the side over very minor issues and things that could have been worked out and look companies have standards and and by no means are you supposed to violate standards there is rules and we abide by them but many times there's folks that just need that little extra uh motivation to do better and many times freight works we we find ourselves in that position of offering folks that um need that chance and so uh the drivers that many times that i talk to are folks that have had troubled you know you know driving records or things like that and we're able to meet somewhere in the middle and help them understand and help they help us understand and we can form form something a good relationship you know for the better this is life by the mile delivered by freight works i'm your host bud small fee this is isaac guerrero he's a recruiter here at great works and we're kind of pulling back the curtain on what it means to be a recruiter and and what the impact is for drivers that come in let me let me ask you this uh when a person then at what point does a person transition to an application and showing up for an orientation so uh like i said it starts in a chat usually on facebook and if they're interested i'll send them hey here's an application link if you are interested in the job that i you know discuss with you fill that out for me and most of the time i give them 24 hours okay hey give fill that out for me and i will review it when you say review that does require a lot of different background checks and you know pulling their mvrs psps their dac reports different you know reports that we do run for every single person that looks to be a driver so uh getting that application is very key many times in my conversation with them is they may start asking oh what kind of seats do you have what kind of you know how fast your trucks go and before i even hit any of those points it's i need to know if you're qualified and to qualify you i need an application because i can tell somebody all day long how good i am but at the end of the day if my record doesn't show that then i can offer whatever to them but if they can't attain it then and and to be fair from a company standpoint you need to be a good steward of your time as well right correct yeah so you've got you live in that tension of you know how much time can you give to somebody who may it's like real estate brokers i've got we've got mutual friends that are real estate people and they've told me i can feel in my heart often that a person's just wanting to be squired around for the day correct and usually that's why i cut to the chase and say what are you looking for and immediately it'll dive in this is what i want and this is what i'm looking for and if i have it then i offer it and at that point if we look like it's going to be kind of going down the road of an application then once i get that application that gives me the cue of okay i'm going to basically invest in this person and i'm going to do my best my due diligence and then we go from there when you get an application do you have some broad metrics once you get an application like what percentage of those will end up in a at a orientation so for us getting an application is a huge milestone um is that a real dividing point once you get a completed app yes okay um many times by the time you actually get to the point of getting an application um i'd say you know three out of five are we would consider them you know and out of that we may get two solid drivers okay and and that's all based on our in-house you know metrics that we got our guidelines you know are they of age do they have a you know valid medical cdl you know how many jobs have they had in the last three years um what's their criminal history accident history look like in in under those metrics if if they meet those minimum qualifications then based on their application what they've told me then we will move on to hey this is what i have for orientation when can you when would you be able to start work and and just so people know because we get drivers and others that are just curious about trucking and logistics when a person comes to orientation what what can they expect so we have a schedule and that's always very important and our team is is comprised of so many different parts so it's very helpful to any warranty that you're bringing in that they understand that there's lots of folks here that play an important role and they may not get just one person throughout the whole orientation it's going to be several yeah and helping them understand that the importance of these relationships and what the purpose is of what the information or the material that they're going to be going over helping them understand that and saying hey you know pay attention based on this factor of you know you may be on this particular run but all the information the same for every single driver so you need that and that way they can take it seriously and be responsible for what we're teaching them and what we're giving them an orientation because the point is is we need them to deliver loads at the end of the day correct and so we want to give them the best possible outcome and success to be able to do that at the end of orientation well you know the other thing that we've started to do is encourage people to look at our podcasts as a way to get to know the company and uh and we're really and i'll just remind you again we're encouraging people hey one of the ways that you can virtually kick the tires go back into the past episodes we're about to hit a milestone of 100 episodes in a year which is uh you know god's done that we're blessed as a result and they're going to be people that are going to want to know who is that guy i've been talking to on the other end of the phone and when they see this podcast they'll go there's uh there's isaac it's real helpful to be able to meet these um new drivers that are coming in and some companies do that some don't and i find it very helpful that when you're talking with somebody building that relationship of trust of hey this is what i told you on the phone but hey i'm isaac nice to meet you and if there's anything whatsoever that you don't understand come back let me know and we'll work through it together it helps very very much so right and and once we upload this podcast you'll be able to tell people you can go take a look at the episode of of me talking to butch on all of that what do you see for the days ahead uh you know we can't look around the corner uh and know for sure but you know prayerfully and from a work standpoint what do you what do you see happening in in the days ahead we're entering a cycle a down cycle in some respects but we've had several blessed months from a recruiting standpoint correct and there is so many variables when it comes to trying to determine maybe where what your next three months will will turn out to be one thing i can say that being consistent in when you have the leads coming in act on those leads right when you have the applications coming in act on those applications every single time time is a factor the quicker you respond the more likely it is something that's good definitely and um you know i work seven to four every day but that doesn't mean that you know if if somebody reaches out to me after hours and i and i know it's someone that needs information you know maybe they're looking for a job and i take the time you know if i'm available to be able to do that and it's very important that um in in the industry because you know it does go up and down as far as recruiting um you may get seasons you know when everybody's going on vacation and you know everybody's got planned time out and uh maybe there's some weeks that seem hey you know i'm not getting as many folks as you know normally come across my board but take use that time wisely to maybe within the department hey you know let's cover issues that maybe uh we could do better on we can work to together on and by doing that by taking that step back when you do that within a department it allows you to kind of get your footing again and so that because you know the market you know if you have two weeks that maybe are down or one week that's down you know right around the corner you just know it in your gut it's going to pick right back up and you want to be ready for that you know if there's loose ends let's you know let's tie those up and let's work together and so many times like you said using your time wisely it is of the essence you know time is of the essence and every single person that calls in you know doing your due diligence for that one you know it pays off well you know what we uh the mark of a good conversation i often say this that they go quickly we've only got a couple of minutes left you know freight works tells people that we're a family and we are tell tell us about your family when you're not here you've got a family family tell us about it so i have a wife and two children um a six-year-old and a two-year-old the oldest is a boy so he is um all boy i like to say he loves to be outside and loves to be inside loves to do anything that you have him doing um my little girl she is um i call she's just the apple of my eye uh every my world really revolves around um you know being a a good husband a good father and you know listening inside you know like i said i i try to do everything that god you know has me doing and when i leave here my focus is on on them you know being there for them you know anything that they need um and i love my life i love what i do and i love being able to look forward to you know my family when i come home this is isaac guerrero he's a recruiter here at freightworks and you know here at freightworks i was telling a number of people recently we're not a perfect company but we're committed to get better and we do listen and uh if you're a driver and you're thinking about making a change i we had an interesting podcast recently i interviewed a driver who was here and left he was here and left and he came back and uh and it was interesting to hear him say like so many drivers he felt like the grass was greener or he flipped just on the basis of a bonus that he got somewhere else and then realized you know what the money runs out and you got to live with the people and trust them and feel like that they have your interest in mind so that does happen which is pretty interesting yeah that it does but we want to let you know that uh it's important for you to subscribe to this youtube channel push this out to your friends post it on your facebook pages get the word out about life of the mile delivered by freightworks we're gonna hit our 100th episode here shortly and uh it's a joy for us to come and bring you stories and insights from people like isaac now you are part of the family but but you also get a gift so you get to pick between these two hats here this is the life of the mile hat that went over so well at mats by the way and uh the other is a kind of our freightworks one logo so pick one of those hats this one's nice great that went over really well it's got that leather patch on it it's got the patriotic theme uh in the back and uh you know what it just put it up on your shelf and find times to wear it i will thank you so much you're you're welcome this is life of the mile delivered by freightworks we come to you two times every week we've got a number of short videos that we also post check out our youtube channel if you happen to be a driver that's interested in coming to freight works and you call and talk to isaac we've had reg on before this is isaac he's the real deal he would love to take your call and uh keep coming back every week we post twice a week and we just look forward to you becoming more aware of trucking and logistics in america but even beyond that the unique thing we call breakworks thanks so much thank you

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