4 min read · Updated September 26, 2026
How to measure driver recruiting so the numbers stop lying
Lead, candidate, hire and seated driver are four different things. Count them separately and the funnel tells you what to fix.
Most recruiting reports mix four things that should never be mixed. Once they are separated, the funnel starts telling you where drivers are lost and why.
Four words, four numbers
- Lead: a driver in the system. Maybe never contacted, maybe not qualified.
- Candidate: meaningful contact has happened and they are in qualification or hiring.
- Hire: completed your requirements and was taken on.
- Seated driver: started work, first dispatch done. This is the only one that moves a truck.
A source that produces 200 leads and 2 seated drivers is not better than one that produces 30 leads and 5 seated drivers.
Funnel or pipeline: label it
A funnel counts a period: how many drivers moved from stage to stage last month. A pipeline counts right now: how many are in each stage today. The same word for both makes every chart wrong. Every number in our reporting says which one it is.
Every drop-off has a reason
When a driver declines, or you decline a driver, a reason code is required. Pay, home time, location, equipment, experience, MVR. Without reason codes, drop-off analysis is a guess. With them, you know what to stop advertising and what to change in the job order.
Time in stage
The days a candidate waits in each stage is where your hiring speed hides. A stage that waits on a carrier decision gives a driver time to take another offer, which is why every decision you owe lands in one inbox with the hours it has been waiting.
What an empty seat costs
Use your own revenue per truck per week, not an industry estimate. Multiply it by parked trucks. That number, in your own figures, is the one that should set the pace of your recruiting.
Hiring right now?
Tell us the position, the markets and the timeline. A recruiting specialist calls you back with a plan.