NATSO Announces Two New Initiatives
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — NATSO Inc., the national trade association representing truck stops and travel plazas, is launching two new initiatives to help operators and the professional drivers they serve do business better.
The association formed a partnership with CareerCo, an online recruitment firm based in Staten Island, N.Y., to assist truck stop and travel plaza operators in recruiting and hiring employees.
In addition to joining NATSO as a Chairman's Circle member, CareerCo is crafting a recruitment strategy to help NATSO members leverage a risk-free, performance-based system to recruit and hire for a variety of positions. NATSO members will receive a 10-percent discount on all CareerCo services.
"We are thrilled to be able to offer NATSO members a cost-effective, targeted solution to help them find and hire customer service-oriented workers," said Pamela Hayes, vice president of business development at NATSO. "Partnering with CareerCo will allow operators to widen their talent pool and stand out as a potential employer."
As a service-based industry, truck stops and travel plazas rely on quality employees, and NATSO board members identified the need for human resources assistance during a recent strategic planning session.
Through this service, NATSO members will be able to set specific criteria, customize postings and track applicants in real time. CareerCo manages the job inquiry and application intake so users only see job seekers who meet pre-set criteria. There are no long-term contracts and no upfront costs, and most importantly, members only pay for quality applicant prospects.
In another initiative, truck drivers who need to stop and rest will be able to use the Park My Truck free mobile app to locate an available space beginning in late summer. The initiative's leaders are the NATSO Foundation, NATSO Inc., the American Trucking Associations and the American Transportation Research Institute.
The Truck Parking Leadership Initiative was developed based on feedback from professional drivers and trucking companies who often describe truck parking availability as a critical need. Park My Truck allows any parking provider — whether public or private — to report their parking availability for free through the app.
"Federal and state governments have spent decades and millions of dollars researching truck parking and testing technology-based approaches to counting available spaces, but not one of these efforts has yielded nationwide data about parking availability," said Lisa Mullings, president of NATSO and the NATSO Foundation. "We are still many millions of dollars and years away from implementing an electronic system that can count parking nationwide. The problem is that drivers need information now. We don't want to allow our pursuit of a perfect solution to prevent us from implementing a good solution today."
The groups encourage all parking providers — truck stops, travel centers, rest areas and others — to participate in the initiative by reporting the number of spaces available in their lots.
Administered by the NATSO Foundation, Park My Truck will be accessible via the internet or through smartphone apps to all professional drivers, trucking fleets or other industry participants.