What is slow hiring costing you?

    Two things cost money when a seat stays open: the recruiter hours spent chasing drivers, and the truck that is not moving. Put your own numbers in - the ones below are starting points, not claims about your fleet.

    Your fleet

    $

    Advertising, job boards and recruiter time - your recruiting spend only. For scale: UGPTI's study of 1998 carrier data put the FULL cost of replacing a driver at $8,234, ranging from $2,243 to $20,729. That figure is a superset - it also counts the idle truck, which this page works out separately below - and it is old, so treat it as a ceiling and put your own number here.

    days
    $

    What one truck earns when it is moving.

    %

    What a mile actually leaves you. ATRI's 2025 operating-cost data puts fuel, driver wages and benefits, maintenance and tires at about $1.78 of every mile - so roughly 30% of revenue is what an idle seat really costs you.

    hours

    Calling, texting, chasing paperwork.

    $

    What you expect to change

    Instant replies, screening questions and document chasing are the hours that come back first.

    days

    Answering a lead in seconds instead of hours is where most of this comes from.

    $

    Put in the quote you were given. Leave it at zero and the page shows savings only - there is no return to work out without a price.

    Estimated annual impact

    Total estimated saving per year

    $154,800

    Add what you would pay per month to see the return on it.

    Trucks back on the road sooner

    $144,000

    Time to fill: 21 to 16 days

    Recruiter time returned

    $10,800

    360 hours a year

    What you spend on hiring today

    $720,000

    120 hires a year at $6,000 each

    How this is worked out

    • Trucks back on the road sooner = hires per year x days cut from time-to-fill x revenue per truck per day x your margin. Margin, not revenue: while the seat is empty you are also not paying that driver, that fuel or that per-mile maintenance, so the loss is the difference, not the gross.
    • Recruiter time returned = hires per year x recruiter hours per hire x the share automation takes back x hourly cost.
    • Return = total saving divided by what you pay. If that comes out below $1 the page says so - a calculator that cannot show a loss is an advert.

    Where the starting numbers come from

    These are estimates built from the numbers you entered. They are not a forecast, and no figure here is measured from your fleet. Sources for the starting values: UGPTI, The Costs of Truckload Driver Turnover for cost per hire, and ATRI's Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking (2025 data) for the margin figure.