Growing with Groendyke: Gaining ground in driver recruitment — Taking The Hire Road

On this week’s Taking The Hire Road, Jeremy Reymer, CEO and founder of DriverReach, is joined by a close friend, as well as a DriverReach customer, Amanda Glidewell, recruiting manager at Groendyke Transportation, one of the nation’s largest tank truck carriers.

Glidewell first caught the “recruiting bug” when she worked at a staffing agency around nine years ago. She brought that passion to the transportation industry, joining Groendyke in an HR generalist role before her focus shifted to recruiting. 

With Groendyke, she found her “why” — she loved driver recruiting and doing her small part to help push the country forward.

At Groendyke, there’s plenty of opportunity for her to do just that. Now nearing 900 drivers, the company is proving it’s delivering on one of its core values of growth.

Focusing on drivers that fit in well with the company’s goal plays a large role in its ability to attract and retain the right drivers, especially in regard to safety as a top priority. 

Glidewell acknowledged that the company isn’t a good fit for every driver, just as every driver isn’t a good fit for the company.

“[We’re] really making sure we’re finding drivers that fit within the mold — minimal accidents and incidents, things of that nature  — to make sure they fall within what Groendyke is expecting of them. It’s not an easy job to do and it’s not for everybody,” Glidewell said.

With more than 90 years in business, Groendyke has had plenty of time for trial and error. It’s not afraid to improve on inefficiencies and make the changes needed to continue to be one of the safest carriers in the industry, Glidewell said.

For example, Glidewell said that when it comes to technology, the strength of the systems the company uses for background screening, applicant tracking systems and internal systems are all important. Sometimes systems don’t work out — and it’s OK.

“If we’re not changing, we’re not growing. We’re constantly looking at where our inefficiencies are, how we get better and how we continue to grow by change. We’re definitely not scared of changing to make sure that we’re growing well into the future,” Glidewell said.

To learn more about Groendyke Transportation, click here.

More from Taking The Hire Road:

Digging into Seiza’s Annual Driver Survey Report

Redefining the value of trucking’s newcomers

WIT’s barrier-breaking mission continues under new leadership