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4 Step Guide to Hiring and Training Retail Delivery Drivers

When you have positions to fill, you want to make sure you find candidates that are most suited for the job. You need employees that have the skills and knowledge to help your company grow. If you accidentally hire slow or untrustworthy retail delivery drivers, your business will suffer.

How to Hire The Best Retail Delivery Drivers for Your Business

It isn’t always easy separating an average delivery driver from an incredible one, but if you follow these steps, you’ll be able to attract, train, and onboard the right candidates.

Step 1: Research What Skills You Need

The process of doing retail deliveries sounds simple, but the person you’ll need will depend on what you’re delivering. It’s simple to ship most retail goods, like clothing and plastic items, but if you’re handling large furniture, glass, or anything temperature-sensitive, you’ll need an expert.

If you plan on handling produce or medical equipment in the near future, your drivers have to be food-safe or HIPAA compliant. Hiring unlicensed drivers to handle these items is against the law.

Whether you stick with retail or branch out, find a driver that’s:

  • Able to deliver products to customers in a timely, safe, and courteous manner.
  • Able to establish and maintain a great relationship with your customers.
  • Able to review and verify purchase requests and invoices for accuracy.
  • Capable of contacting customers to confirm delivery details.
  • Capable of inspecting delivery vehicles to ensure item and employee safety.
  • Capable of maintaining shipping records and logs.

The drivers you hire should have a GED or a high school diploma, a clean driving record, a valid driver’s license, and familiarity with your products to answer customer questions.

Step 2: Create an Incredible Job Posting

Writing an effective job description is the first step to attracting the right candidates. You already know what you want from your drivers; now, you’ll have to populate this information into your job posting. The more accurate your description is, the more likely you are to find the right hire.

Every great job description should have the following:

  • Position title
  • Information about your company
  • A detailed job description
  • Driver schedule and job status
  • Vehicle information
  • Whether you’re performing background checks
  • Starting pay
  • Items you’re delivering
  • The benefits of working with you
  • Qualifications
  • How to apply

Make sure you use the right recruitment tools during this step. Online job boards, social media, advertising, employment agencies, and your website can all be used in the recruitment process.

Step 3: Start The Interview Process

If you completed the first two steps correctly, you should start seeing offers pour in. To narrow down your options, you should pre-screen candidates. You should always email or phone your candidates to ask qualifying questions because it ensures they’re actually interested in the job.

After the pre-screening stage, you should draft a series of behavioral and situational questions

Behavioral questions help predict future behavior and lets you evaluate a person’s creativity, self-confidence, and problem-solving skills. For example, you could ask, “Give an example of a goal you didn’t meet or a deadline you missed. Explain how you handled the situation.”

Situational questions present the applicant with an on-the-job scenario they’ll likely face. These questions assess personal skills and knowledge. For example, you could ask, “We have two urgent deliveries, but you can only deliver one on time. What would you do in this situation?”

Alternatively, you can pay your candidates a flat fee to take a test. Simply watch each driver make a day’s worth of mock deliveries to determine the best employee for the job.

Step 4: Onboard and Train Immediately

Finding the right employee is a great start, but you still need to onboard and train your new hires if you want them to succeed. Here’s what every retail delivery driver should know:

  • How to provide excellent customer service
  • How to use your company’s delivery software
  • How to load and unload their vehicle
  • How to navigate their routes in real-time
  • How to keep themselves safe and healthy

To make sure the training process goes smoothly, create a checklist that includes all of these training milestones. That way, your drivers will know what to expect from your onboarding schedule. Plus, you’ll have a visual representation of where they excel or need to improve.


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