Trucking company Schneider National has found a unique solution to America’s worsening shortage of truck drivers: targeting video gamers. By advertising within the popular game “American Truck Simulator,” Schneider hopes to attract younger drivers to the industry.
The game, which has sold over two million copies worldwide, simulates the experience of being a truck driver in America. Schneider’s virtual ads appear on animated billboards within the game, inviting gamers to join the company as real-world drivers.
This recruitment effort is particularly important as the trucking industry faces a shortage of approximately 80,000 drivers.
With this creative approach, Schneider hopes to address this issue and find promising talent for the industry.
“When you consider that the CDL requirements dropped from 21 to now age 18. 18-year-olds are playing video games. So, the best way to go about attracting them to your company, and potentially building some loyalty with your company is to advertise where they’re at. And they’re in the video game space. And I think it’s just a brilliant idea,” Jason Greer, the founder and CEO of Career Consulting, Inc., said.
According to Greer, the current situation is an indication of what’s to come in the future.
Unfortunately, things are expected to become even more challenging as the shortage of drivers in the trucking industry is projected to worsen. By 2030, it’s estimated that the industry will need to hire over a million drivers to keep up with demand.
“In order to keep play pace, with retirements and those that leave the industry, we need to recruit, train and get on a job about 1.2 million new drivers by 2030, just to keep pace with where the situation is today. So we definitely got some challenges there,” American Trucking Association’s Workforce Policy Vice President Nathan Mehrens said.
Compensation remains a challenge in the trucking industry as drivers often find themselves putting in exhausting, lengthy hours on the road that aren’t always appropriately rewarded financially.
Source: NewsNation
