By Reagan Payne

Tim Norlin, Vice President of Driver Employment at Roehl Transport, was recently named Transport Topics’ Recruiter Professional of the Year; he attributes this success to TeamRoehl.

After finishing his Bachelor’s Degree of Business Administration in Transportation and Logistics at Iowa State, Norlin moved on to work as administrator of driver training at US Xpress and later recruiting at Marten Transport. All these experiences culminated in a successful career with Roehl Transport.

Norlin now oversees a team of recruiters and works to help them stay at the top of their game in a driver shortage and turnover environment. His experience is invaluable in obtaining and keeping drivers.

In his off time, Norlin enjoys maintaining and hunting on his 20-acre wooded property in Wisconsin.

Interview

HireMaster: You wrote in a LinkedIn comment that you clear the roadblocks for your team and provide them with the right tools, right? What specific practices would you say help you be the most successful?

Tim Norlin: I think roadblocks are one thing for us, but you know for a recruiter to be successful, like the big thing that I preach to all my recruiters and always have is, “Be honest with the drivers and be realistic in the expectations for the drivers.” Many times we've heard the horror stories of recruiters that will say whatever they need to say to land a driver. And then, the driver gets to that carrier and finds out that what the recruiter told them wasn't what it turned out to be. And that just leads to turnover, so we really stress being honest with the drivers and setting those realistic expectations so that the driver has a good experience when they join us.

HM: What would you say separates your company, Roehl, from others? What are your key selling points for drivers?

TN: The big thing for us right now is home time. We are listening to the drivers and we are building more and more jobs that provide more frequent home time. Our drivers can choose, you know, how often they want to be home. We have home-daily jobs, we have home-weekly jobs, and we have jobs where they can stay on the job for 11 to 14 days at a time. So, you know, a variety of options for drivers.

Especially in 2020 with COVID, home time became a real priority for drivers again. We sat down as a team and said, “Okay, how can we help the drivers out? What can we do within our existing freight structure to provide more home time?” And we came up with over 100 positions that allowed us to get drivers home daily. They are doing the same thing they were doing, but now they're home daily, running a regional market but being able to be home every day and sleep in their own bed. That's just been huge for us. 

HM: What draws your eye to a specific applicant? What makes them the most recruitable to you?

TN: The big thing we're looking for is stability and the driver’s employment history. We can tell if drivers give employers a chance to work through problems. Unfortunately, our industry has set itself up to be one where if a driver gets upset with a fleet manager today, they can be doing the same thing for someone else tomorrow. It’s literally that fast. And so there's no incentive for the driver to work through a problem and it's easier to run from a problem. So we're looking for drivers that stick with an employer and have a good, stable work history because we know those drivers are going to work through those issues.

Unfortunately, not every carrier is perfect; nobody's perfect and issues are going to arise. This is trucking, we have weather delays and customer delays and traffic, etc. There are going to be times where things or plans just don't come together. We want drivers that are willing to work with us through that so that we can make it better for them and provide them a good work environment.

HM: I wanted to ask about your time with US Xpress. The driver training center, right? Did you find that working with the drivers in that way, training them one on one, did you find that it better prepared you to recruit them in the future?

TN: They had their own driver training school and I did that for a number of years, and it really solidified in my mind the foundation for starting off in a career in trucking and what a driver did to be successful.

HM: Would you say that experience was integral to how you operate now?

TN: I think what really set me up for success in my recruiting career was what I did prior to that. I was in operations and sales; I was on the other side of the business. And I was one of those folks that always went to the recruiter and said, “Give me more drivers, come on it's got to be easy! Give me more drivers!” And someone challenged me and said, “Well if you think it's so easy then come over here and do it.” I took the bait. So, I've been recruiting ever since.

It is a real challenge, it really is. Drivers are looking for careers and they're looking to better their earnings. I think having the knowledge of the flip side of what operations are trying to manage and trying to do helped me recruit drivers and match up what drivers are looking to do with the realism of what the job entails and what we can provide.

HM: How would you compare your previous experience in driver training with the facilities your company has now?

TN: Here at Roehl transport with our nationally acclaimed driver training program, we're hands-down one of the best in the industry. We receive accolades all the time. And even drivers will tell you, “You want good training? Go to Roehl Transport to get that.” We have great foundations here for entry-level drivers to get in. But the thing that brought me to Roehl is to also make Roehl a career destination for experienced drivers. Everything we've done has transformed the company over the last three years.

HM: And it would seem a lot of those who come to you stay for, pardon the pun, the long haul.

TN: While Roehl is really good at training entry-level drivers, they've kind of not paid attention to the fact that many of our drivers have been with us for years and years and years. They start their careers here and they stay here. We have several million-mile drivers; we have one driver who's been with us for 5 million accident-free miles. There are very few carriers out there that have a 5 million-mile driver.

HM: What would you say your primary focus has been since getting into your position at Roehl?

TN: My focus here recently has been on making Roehl known to professional drivers, experienced drivers. We’re a great place to come if you want to round out your career with a carrier that makes safety number one.

Safety is our cornerstone value. Everything we do revolves around safety, and there's a lot of drivers out there that have been doing this for a long time and they realize shortcuts only get you into trouble. They want to go to a carrier that's safe, and the driver is in control of that truck. If the driver feels unsafe to operate, by all means, they have the ability to shut that truck down and park in a safe haven and wait for road conditions or traffic to improve.

HM: You mentioned earlier that you receive accolades often, what are some of those that are related to safety?

TN: Our safety record reflects that it is our cornerstone value. We have been one of the safest carriers and have received the ATA Safety Award, many, many times over the past 20 years. We are always one of the top three finalists for that award and have won it a number of times.

Is there are member of your team you'd like to highlight for a job well done, a particularly successful month or a unique practice that enhances your recruiting efforts? Drop a line to Wright Media staff writer Reagan Payne with their name, contact information and a brief description of what made them success at rpayne@wrightmediacorp.com