Log on for drivers

May 1, 2000
New Web site helps carriers and drivers link upThe phrase "Let your fingers do the walking" now applies as much to using the Internet for business purposes as it does our old friend, the Yellow Pages.Indeed, in dot-com circles, using the Internet for "B2B" (business-to-business) communications and transactions is regarded as the killer application.Consumer-oriented dot-com companies may be making

New Web site helps carriers and drivers link up

The phrase "Let your fingers do the walking" now applies as much to using the Internet for business purposes as it does our old friend, the Yellow Pages.

Indeed, in dot-com circles, using the Internet for "B2B" (business-to-business) communications and transactions is regarded as the killer application.

Consumer-oriented dot-com companies may be making a big splash with their cutting-edge TV commercials, but B2C (business-to-consumer) activity is just the tip of the Internet iceberg.

It's not surprising, then, that finding truck drivers may be as easy as pointing your browser at a relatively new portal Web site, www.supertrucker.net.

The operator of the site is Super Driver Network, a privately owned operation that says advertising support allows it to offer various online services free of charge.

Those services, many of which are clearly directed at truck drivers, include access to weather and road condition reports; mapping sites; load boards; trucking lawyer listings; classified ads; and job postings.

The latter is the one we're concerned with here. The job-posting services are actually contained within their own dedicated Web site, www.truckdrivingjob.com.

The site allows truck fleets to post driving job openings and drivers in turn to apply for those positions online.

As the site's verbiage points out, a driver will be able to choose the fleet he or she wishes to apply to, rather than seeing their applications "sold to thousands of trucking companies."

Of course, that allows drivers to focus their job search on the type of position they're most attracted to. And that means the fleet manager reviewing the posted applications can be somewhat assured they're hearing only from persons seriously interested in working for them.

As for the flip side, truck fleets can contact Super Trucker Network through the same Web site to learn how to set up their application on the Internet for drivers to respond to.

In addition, the site notes, advertisers on www.supertrucker.net are promised they will receive discounted services on www.truckdrivingjob.com.

Now is a particularly good time to check out the site. Until June 15th, fleets can have their application put up free of charge.

And, while the site builds its bank of applications, drivers are being invited to fill out a general application, which will be forwarded to interested fleets.

Now, let's take a stroll back to last month's column, which discussed a new initiative to line up qualified truck drivers from Puerto Rico with jobs going begging here in the states (FO - 4/00, pg. 16).

As predicted then, the reactions of readers have come fast and negative, but not without some very valid points.

For example, William V. Arness writes that, "... any industry that faces a 90% turnover needs to look within itself to determine what its problems are. The answer is not training foreigners [I guess he forgot Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens] to come in and work for whatever the industry wants to pay. It is a shame in this country that top businesses complain about not having qualified workers, when what they really mean is not being able to obtain workers for what the industry is willing to pay."

Keep those letters and e-mails coming, please. It's the best way I know of to keep getting educated about this ever-changing industry

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