Driver Recruiter Drayage

About The Grane Companies & GIX

The Grane Companies is a fourth-generation, family-owned transportation and logistics enterprise headquartered in Chicago and operating since 1924. GIX (Grane Intermodal Express) is our drayage and intermodal division, providing port and rail container service across the Chicago and Houston markets. We are a premier drayage carrier built on long-term carrier and customer relationships, disciplined operations, and a culture that rewards people who take ownership of their book of business.

Position Summary

GIX is hiring an experienced Driver Recruiter to lead drayage driver recruitment across our Chicago and Houston operations. This is a high-impact role for a recruiter who knows the drayage driver market cold, can move candidates through the funnel quickly without sacrificing quality, and can sell GIX as the carrier of choice to owner-operators and company drivers. You will own the full recruiting lifecycle — sourcing, screening, qualifying, and handing off to orientation — and you will be measured on speed-to-hire, retention past 90 days, and the quality of the candidates that reach our seat.

We are looking for a closer, not an order-taker. The right person treats recruiting like sales: builds and works a pipeline daily, recognizes red flags on the first phone call, and does not waste the operations team's time on candidates who will not finish orientation.

Key Responsibilities

Sourcing & Pipeline Development

• Build and maintain a continuous pipeline of qualified Class A CDL drivers and owner-operators across the Chicago and Houston drayage markets.
• Source candidates through cold calling, referrals, driver job boards (DAT, Truckers Report, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, CDLLife), social media, port and terminal networking, ATS databases (Tenstreet or equivalent), and industry events.
• Develop and maintain relationships with CDL schools, owner-operator networks, and carrier-side referral partners in both markets.
• Track sourcing channel performance and reallocate effort toward channels producing the highest-quality hires.

Screening & Qualification

• Conduct thorough phone screens and follow-up interviews; use these conversations to identify red flags — work history gaps, attitude issues, equipment problems, motivation mismatches — before the candidate consumes orientation resources.
• Review MVRs, PSP reports, employment verifications, and background checks against DOT, FMCSA, and GIX-specific qualification standards.
• Confirm TWIC card status, port credential eligibility, equipment ownership condition (for owner-operators), and any market-specific requirements for Chicago intermodal ramps and the Port of Houston.
• Document candidate disposition in the ATS in real time so operations, safety, and orientation teams have full visibility.

Selling GIX & Closing Candidates

• Articulate the GIX value proposition — equipment, lanes, settlement structure, home-time, dispatcher quality, and the stability of a 100-year-old family-owned carrier — in a way that resonates with experienced drayage drivers.
• Tailor the pitch to the candidate: an owner-operator running out of the Houston port has different priorities than a company driver pulling Chicago rail, and the message must reflect that.
• Drive urgency in the candidate's decision-making and shorten the gap between offer and orientation start date.

Hand-Off, Onboarding & Retention

• Coordinate orientation scheduling with operations, safety, and dispatch in both markets.
• Stay engaged with new drivers through the first 30 to 90 days to identify retention risks early and feed insights back to leadership.
• Partner with operations leadership to translate driver feedback into program improvements — pay structure, equipment, dispatch communication, lane mix.

Reporting & Metrics

• Maintain a daily and weekly recruiting scorecard: applications, phone screens, interviews, qualified candidates, hires, time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, 30/60/90-day retention.
• Report directly to GIX leadership on pipeline health, market conditions, and competitive intelligence (pay rates, sign-on bonuses, equipment offerings) in Chicago and Houston.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of drayage-specific driver recruiting experience. General OTR or LTL recruiting experience does not substitute. We need someone who knows the Chicago and/or Houston drayage driver pool, the credentials, and the day-to-day realities of the work.
• Previous CDL driving experience. You have sat in the seat. You can have a credible conversation with a driver about chassis, ramps, port turn times, detention, and home time — and the driver knows you understand the work.
• Proven recruiting track record. Documented results in driver hires, time-to-fill, and 90-day retention. Be prepared to discuss specific numbers.
• Aggressive sense of urgency. You prioritize ruthlessly and compress the time between first contact, offer, and seat. You do not let qualified candidates go cold.
• Detail orientation. You catch issues on the phone — inconsistent dates, equipment problems, attitude, motivation mismatches — and disqualify candidates before they consume orientation resources.
• Ability to read people. You know within minutes of a phone call whether a driver is going to make it through orientation and stay past 90 days.
• Sales mindset. You can sell GIX as a premier drayage carrier to candidates who have multiple offers, and you know how to close.
• Working knowledge of DOT and FMCSA driver qualification requirements, MVR and PSP review, drug and alcohol testing protocols, and TWIC credentialing.
• Proficiency with applicant tracking systems (Tenstreet preferred), Microsoft Office (Excel, Outlook), and standard recruiting and sourcing tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct recruiting experience in both the Chicago and Houston drayage markets.

• Existing network of owner-operators and company drivers in either or both markets.

• Prior experience recruiting for a McLeod-based carrier.

• Bilingual English/Spanish.

Performance Expectations — First 12 Months

• First 30 days: Onboard with operations, safety, and dispatch in both markets. Audit the current recruiting pipeline, ATS, sourcing channels, and orientation hand-off process. Deliver a written recruiting plan to leadership.
• First 90 days: Reduce average time-to-fill measurably versus current baseline. Establish a consistent weekly scorecard. Begin filling open seats in both Chicago and Houston.
• First 12 months: Hit hiring targets for both markets, deliver 90-day retention above carrier benchmark, and build a sustainable pipeline that does not depend on a single sourcing channel.

Why GIX

• 100 years of operating history. Family-owned, financially disciplined, and built for the long term.
• Diversified Grane Companies platform — drayage (GIX), asset trucking (GTL), brokerage (GLX), and warehousing — gives drivers stability and gives recruiters a stronger story to tell.
• Direct access to senior leadership. The recruiter is a strategic seat, not a back-office function.
• Competitive base salary plus performance-based incentive tied to hires and retention.
• Full benefits package — medical, dental, vision, 401(k) with match, PTO