Hiring Veterans

Military vets make excellent employees.

Anyone who’s served with the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard needs those traits to successfully complete a term of service, and is likely to fit in well with any trucking company seeking to fill its ranks of drivers, mechanics and supervisors, according to people in the industry.

“Veterans make excellent employees,” says Boyd Stephenson, who heads the American Trucking Associations’ driver licensing efforts. “They’re conscientious, they’re focused, they’re responsible; they’re everything you could want in an employee.”

Veterans have learned to accept discipline and to follow and give orders under conditions that most civilians never face or could ever imagine.“Mission oriented” is one way Ed Tobon, director of recruiting at Ryder System, describes veterans who’ve been trained to get a job done no matter what. A former Navy aircraft pilot, he heads the company’s efforts to seek and hire military members.

“They have worked in a team environment, and a lot of them have had leadership roles, so they can be good as the lead in warehousing teams” and other roles. They have the potential to be better employees than someone off the street, and with training and guidance they usually are.

“We find that there is a certain amount of maturity that comes with their military experience,” says Rob Reich, vice president of maintenance operations and driver recruiting at Schneider National. “They've worked away from home and were in situations where they made decisions on their own. So they’re able to make decisions out there,” such as in dealing with customers and other people they contact while on the road.