"Drivers are available. We just need a system in place and go where the drivers are.”
~Lionel Johnston, Founder and Managing Director, Farmers Marketing Inc.
Like many trucking companies in North America, Sonwil Transportation struggled to attract and retain qualified truck drivers. In 2021, the company enlisted the help of Farmers Marketing to solve its driver recruiting problem. Working together, they developed and deployed an effective recruitment marketing system to continuously produce leads to meet Sonwil's growing demand for drivers.
Fresh off their case study presentation at the TMSA annual conference, Sonwil’s Jason Ickert and Farmers Marketing’s Lionel Johnston team up to share the details about the multi-faceted marketing program.
Attend this webinar to see how the program is delivering results for Sonwil:
- Hired 19 new drivers in less than four months
- Reduced unseated tractors to zero
- Gained $70,000 - $90,000 per week through cost avoidance and added revenue
- Provided visibility into program performance
Presented by:
Lionel Johnston, Founder and Managing Director, Farmers Marketing Inc.
Lionel has several decades of sales and recruitment marketing experience, recruiting sales reps, franchisees, and thousands of truck drivers. In his last corporate role, he led marketing for Bison Transport and its two subsidiaries for seven years. This included all aspects of internal and external communication and marketing. He increased Bison's permission-based audience from zero to 50,000+ and was responsible for attracting hundreds of driver recruits per year. Bison Transport is widely recognized as an industry leader and one of North America's fastest-growing, and safest fleets.
Currently, Lionel is the Managing Director of Farmers Marketing Inc. They help businesses increase revenue by building a modern marketing machine that consistently produces leads and customers/new hires. This transformation through marketing is delivered through coaching, courses, and/or fractional CMO services. Farmers Marketing specializes in driver recruitment marketing, and they are an official HubSpot Solutions partner.
Jason Ickert, President, Sonwil Logistics
Jason is a member of the TMSA Board and has served on the education, marketing, and membership committees. He has more than 25 years in global logistics, primarily in commercial leadership roles. In the last 15 years, he has been hyper-focused on North American trucking and freight brokerage. In addition to revenue generation, Jason has held responsibility for freight brokerage cold starts and P&L performance.
In 2021, Jason joined Sonwil Logistics | Sonwil Transportation in Buffalo NY where he assumed leadership of their freight brokerage and trucking divisions. In this role, Jason owns operational execution and compliance, asset development, logistics and transportation finance, commercial success and profitability, human resource allocation, logistics technology and real estate.
Sonwil is a 4th generation family owned 3PL offering warehouse, distribution, fulfillment, logistics, transportation, technology and real estate services operating in New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Texas, Nevada and California.
