Looking to recruit drivers, trucking company advertises in video game

Recruiters at Schneider National, a trucking company, noticed a curious trend among the drivers arriving from truck-driving school to complete additional training with the company before being sent on assignments. Certain trainees were acing tricky tests, like backing up a truck and trailer.

Schneider’s instructors were surprised. How were rookies with little road experience maneuvering big rigs like they’d done this before?

“They asked these new folks, ‘Hey, you’re better than the average student graduate. Where’d you learn how to do this?’” Schneider executive vice president Rob Reich told The Washington Post. “What we heard a few times was, ‘Oh, I drive in “American Truck Simulator.”’”

So began an unlikely outreach from an American logistics company to the niche community of gamers that play simulation video games like “American Truck Simulator,” which allows enthusiasts to play out the routine of a long-haul truck driver in a surprisingly detailed recreation of America’s highways.

Those virtual highways will now feature billboard advertisements encouraging players to take their trucking skills to the real world and drive for Schneider, the video game’s developers announced last week. It could be an advertising gimmick. But in a grueling industry still recovering from a historic shortage of drivers during the pandemic, Schneider’s foray into the virtual trucking world is also an earnest attempt to attract new drivers, Reich said.

“That’s really why we wanted to get the billboards out there,” Reich said. “‘Hey, you’re enjoying this. You might enjoy the real thing.’”

The popularity of truck-driving simulators surprised even “American Truck Simulator” developers at first. SCS Software, a small video game studio in the Czech Republic, entered the genre almost by accident after players responded positively to a simple truck-driving game the company developed around 20 years ago, CEO Pavel Sebor told The Post.

The studio doubled down and now regularly updates two titles, “Euro Truck Simulator 2” and “American Truck Simulator,” that are among the most popular PC games in the genre. The active player base of “American Truck Simulator” hovers between 5,000 to 10,000 players on the PC game distribution service Steam.

The game advertises its attention to detail – “American Truck Simulator” can simulate different types of transmissions and brakes on trucks and penalizes players for breaking road rules, it boasts on Steam. Schneider is the only real-world brand to appear on the game’s billboards, which otherwise feature made-up advertisements or messages from the developers to the community.

Re-creating a job known for turnover and long, grueling assignments might seem like an odd draw for a video game. But Sebor said many players aren’t trucking enthusiasts and instead are drawn by the calming quality of the gameplay in “American Truck Simulator.” Winding down a California highway at dusk is more relaxing than duking it out in a shooter or street-racing game, he said.

“It’s a lot of time that you can spend driving into the sunset or enjoying the countryside,” Sebor said. “And I think people just enjoy it.”

In the real world, the image of the trucking industry isn’t as rosy.

The trucking industry – and much of the national economy that relies on it – has always faced recruitment challenges, said Boris Strbac, a former truck driver and the owner of a Wisconsin trucking company. Besides the challenging lifestyle, the career is often passed over by younger people because interstate commercial driver’s licenses can only be earned once you’re 21, he said.

“When you see truck drivers, how many young people do you see? Not too many, right?” Strbac said. “They’re all old guys and pretty soon … they’re all going to retire.”

Reich echoed those concerns – Schneider’s average new hire is 38, he said.

“You put all that together, and it has been a bit of a challenge to have enough diversity in industry,” Reich said.

In 2021, as the global pandemic raged, the shortage of truck drivers in the United States reached a record high of around 80,000, the American Trucking Association estimated. The group forecast a modest improvement in 2022, and Reich said Schneider has seen an uptick in entry-level applicants after supply chain issues during the pandemic highlighted the importance of the industry. But the company still has to recruit consistently to address turnover, he added.

Reich said Schneider is still waiting to see if the advertisements, which first started appearing in “American Truck Simulator” in late April, will bring in the recruits the company is hoping for. But he’s optimistic and encouraged by the idea that a community of gamers enjoys the trucking routine, even virtually.

Strbac said he’d gladly train and hire a driver who first heard of the job through a video game. Schneider’s foray onto the digital billboards of “American Truck Simulator” is a smart move to advertise the career to a younger audience, he said.

“Whoever did that, their marketing department deserves a raise,” he joked.