Acquiring the right talent is hard.

It's one of the biggest challenges for managers in any industry. As usual, transport is no exception.

In fact, you could argue that hiring in transport is even trickier than it is in most sectors today. As for the reasons why, several spring to mind. For example:

The worsening skills shortage;

The high turnaround of staff;

Super-strict deadlines, and

Urgent quotas.

In fact, in the high-stress logistics environment, a Transport Manager would be forgiven for allowing a bit of leniency in their hiring process, especially when they have 5 positions to fill so that they can meet a contract deadline by 10am tomorrow.

Demands such as these can force a TM's hand, which in turn can allow a lot of sub-par candidates to slip through the net and onto the payroll.

And let's face it - it's not just the logistics industry specifically that needs drivers. Maybe you're hiring for a scaffolding firm, and you're looking to get a competent, experienced driver-labourer on your books. While transport is so often seen as a secondary concern in the wider construction industry, as a Transport Manager in scaffolding you still need to be fully up-to-speed with such areas as restricted licence responsibilities and domestic regulations, and employing a wagoner who knows something about scaffolding regulations could add serious strength to your operation.

In an ideal world, of course, we'd all be given plenty of time to ponder and deliberate the qualities and skill-sets of each candidate. But transport, as we know, is not such a world.

Despite this, there are changes you can implement now to the way you make hiring decisions; changes that'll cause minimal disruption to the fleet.

What's more, because these changes will help ensure you get the right drivers both for the immediate job at hand and for future contracts, they will have an instant and lasting impact on the kind of applicants you allow in your ranks.

1. Always carry out driving assessments

Some TMs are resistant to this idea. 'I don't have time to babysit a driver and go through a long tick-box exercise with them'. This is a common complaint. But there are two immediate counter-arguments to this: one, an effective assessment needn't take any longer than 20 minutes; two, you can delegate the assessment to any qualified and trusted member of staff, for example a supervisor, or your lead driver.

Given the rate at which the industry's changing, you can be sure that the number of new demands placed on TMs is equal to the number placed on drivers. The rules of the road, and of enforcement, have changed - and you can bet some drivers, regardless of age or experience, are simply not up to speed with the new challenges of life behind the V8, no matter what their licence states.

Top Takeaway: observe your potential recruits in action, and test their understanding of the role.

2. Check their licences - properly

This one I can't stress enough. Of course, no TM in charge of hiring new drivers would fail to look at each applicant's licence. But I've encountered it time and again - some TMs will give the licence a cursory glance - 'Yeah, Class 2, that'll do', and leave it at that. As I'm sure you can guess, there are any number of problems with this approach. For starters, if this driver turns out to be someone other than their supposed to be, that exposes you to massive liability down the line.

So, what's the solution? In short: do like the agencies do. When a budding trucker interviews at an agency, the interviewer will call a licence-checking service (or ask the driver to do so) and run through the full gamut of the driver's eligibility.

The process takes between 5 and 10 minutes, and at the end of it they know for certain whether the person sitting in front of them is legally able to undertake the work they've applied to do.

No, there's no call queues or being left on hold for a half hour. The process is quick, and there are numerous parties that offer the service. Gov.uk are of course one of them.

Top Takeaway: Don't leave eligibility to chance - it's a fast-track to regret (and a load of legal issues).

3. Conduct a thorough Q&A

It doesn't really matter how you do it - give them a paper questionnaire, have them do it interactively, or ask them verbally and write down their answers - the important thing is that the interview is more than just a chat about how long they've been on the road and which football team they support. To ensure you pick the best of the bunch, certain questions need to be answered.

You need to know all about their professional experience, their working habits, how they interact with colleagues and superiors, and how they handle certain circumstances.

A few questions that should be asked at every lorry driver interview are:

• Did you pass in an automatic or manual vehicle?
• Have you carried out any manual handling work?
• Do you have experience in using a digital tachograph?

To name only a handful.

 To maximize the information you get from the Q&A, be sure to include questions on drivers' hours and the Highway Code. 

Top Takeaway: an interview should be something a driver has had to prepare for. Make sure your Q&A yields all the answers you need to make an informed decision.

4. Personality - don't underestimate its importance

Besides the technical competence and eligibility issues, there's another often-overlooked component in selecting recruits - character.

As we talked about at length in a previous post, probably the best personal quality an HGV driver can have in their armoury today is adaptability.

We know the hours are long, the scenery's repetitive, the job gets monotonous sometimes. Because of this, drivers can often run on autopilot.

It's a way of coping with boredom. This coping mechanism doesn't do anyone much good, however, when you're barrelling down a country incline and a tractor pulls out at the crossroads.

You need drivers who can remain switched on, flexible - they need to be able to anticipate events, make contingency plans, and adapt to changes on the road.

Conduct your interviews with this in mind, and you won't go far wrong.

Top Takeaway: Having a fleet full of autopilots is asking for trouble. Assess your applicants in terms of aptitude - with adaptability as the keyword.

So there you have it. Four practical tips that you could add to your interviewing process to make sure the drivers you hire are the cream of the crop.

Do you have any more tips to suggest? What methods have helped you get the best wagoners through the door?

Hit us up in the comment sections below.

Of course, when you're hiring HGV drivers, it also pays to know which applicants are up-to-speed on Earned Recognition. That the biggest thing to happen to roadside enforcement in 30 years is upon us shouldn't have escaped their attention.