Driver Onboarding: How to Automate It

Learn from Brad Hackett, Director of Recruiting & Safety at Jett Express, how automation transformed their driver onboarding process. By digitizing applications, automating document collection, and ensuring compliance, Jett Express reduced errors, accelerated hiring, and improved the driver experience. Discover how Brad leveraged technology to streamline workflows and optimize their recruiting operations.

What is Driver Onboarding?

Driver onboarding is the process of integrating new drivers into a fleet, ensuring they meet all necessary qualifications and are fully prepared to start their roles. This includes verifying documentation, conducting background checks, ensuring DOT compliance, and familiarizing drivers with company policies and expectations. A well-structured onboarding process helps logistics companies minimize turnover, improve safety, and accelerate time-to-productivity for new hires.

Traditional onboarding often involves manual paperwork, lengthy approval processes, and compliance risks. However, automated driver onboarding simplifies these steps by digitizing applications, streamlining document collection, and enhancing workflow management—making it easier for fleets to hire and retain professional drivers efficiently.

Tired of the Paperwork Pile-Up?

As a Recruiting and/or Safety professional, you know the pain of a manual truck driver onboarding process. From the initial application to the final paperwork—plus all of your internal requirements—it’s a time-consuming and error-prone task. Managing commercial truck drivers means handling countless documents, compliance checks, and training requirements, all of which take up valuable person hours and slow down hiring.

But what if there was a way to streamline this process, reduce paperwork, and improve speed, flexibility, and cost-efficiency—all while enhancing the overall driver experience?

With the right tools in place, fleets can manage onboarding more effectively, reducing administrative burdens while ensuring new hires are fully prepared. Automated solutions allow companies to handle training, documentation, and compliance with ease, while also integrating with route planning systems to get drivers on the road faster. By optimizing the truck driver onboarding process, fleets can significantly cut hiring delays, improve efficiency, and reduce overall costs—ensuring a smoother experience for both recruiters and drivers.

Enter: Automated Driver Onboarding with your Applicant Tracking System

By automating your driver onboarding process with an applicant tracking system (ATS) like Double Nickel, you can revolutionize the way you hire and onboard drivers. At Jett Express, we were able to digitize our driver onboarding experience all the way from the driver’s application, to collecting the important documents needed for qualification, all the way to our internal and government-required onboarding documents needed for drivers!

Here's how:

1. Digital Driver Applications:

• Eliminate paper applications and streamline the hiring process with a user-friendly, digital DOT application.

• Collect essential information, including driving records, medical certifications, and other required documents.

2. Automated Document Collection and Storage:

• Use an eDoc solution to securely collect and store important documents like DOT medical certificates, drug test results, internal process documents, and licenses.

• Reduce the risk of lost or misplaced paperwork.

3. Efficient Workflow Management:

• Create customizable workflows to guide the onboarding process from application to hire.

• Set up automated reminders and notifications to keep track of deadlines and ensure timely completion of tasks.

4. Enhanced Compliance:

• Ensure compliance with DOT regulations and other industry standards.

• Automate compliance checks and generate reports to monitor compliance status.

The Benefits of Automated Driver Onboarding

• Faster Time-to-Hire: Accelerate the hiring process and get drivers on the road quicker.

• Improved Driver Experience: Create a positive first impression with a streamlined and efficient onboarding process.

• Reduced Administrative Burden: Minimize paperwork and manual tasks, freeing up time for more strategic initiatives.

• Enhanced Data Security: Protect sensitive driver information with secure digital storage.

• Increased Compliance: Ensure adherence to DOT regulations and other industry standards.

By embracing automated driver onboarding, you can transform your fleet operations and gain a competitive edge.

Ready to streamline your driver onboarding process? Contact us today to learn more about how Double Nickel can help.