Hiring guideRead at source, 30 September 2026

How to Recruit Log Truck Drivers: Where to Find Them and What to Say

To recruit log truck drivers, reach local CDL drivers within commuting distance of your yard: people hauling logs for another contractor, and farm, gravel and construction drivers you can train. Most are employed and not searching job boards, while Facebook and Instagram reach them at home. Lead with home time and slow-season pay, keep the form to three questions and call back the same day. In Boostpoint's 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, the CDL truck driver family ran a median $26.86 per applicant; log truck drivers are not reported separately.

Where to find log truck drivers, channel by channel

BLS does not count log truck drivers separately. They sit inside heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (SOC 53-3032), with about 214,500 openings a year projected for 2025-35. Your pool is much smaller: CDL holders within driving distance of your yard and landings, and most of them are employed rather than searching job boards.

• Drivers already hauling logs, chips or pulpwood for another contractor or mill. They move for steadier work through the slow months, pay structure and equipment.
• Local CDL drivers in farming, gravel, construction and grain hauling. They know rural roads and heavy loads; what they lack is log securement and forest-road driving, which you can train.
• Logging crew members and equipment operators who hold a CDL. They already know the landing and the loader.
• Seasonal drivers. Farm and construction drivers whose own busy season falls at a different time of year from yours.
• Your drivers' referrals. In a small community, every driver knows the others. Pay the bonus after 90 days.

Rural hiring works differently on social media: the pool is small, so the same people see your ad again and again. Our rural hiring guide covers radius, frequency and events, and our CDL recruiting guide covers the wider channel picture.

What log truck drivers earn (BLS OEWS May 2025) and what they compare you on

BLS publishes no pay figure for log truck drivers. The table shows the occupation they belong to and the rural jobs competing for the same people.

Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35; BLS, May 2025 median annual wage.

A log truck driver compares you on four things:

• Year-round pay. Whether you keep drivers paid, or find them other work, when hauling slows.
• Pay structure. Per load, per ton, hourly or percentage, with the range, and whether waiting at the landing or mill is paid.
• Home time. Most log hauling is daily round trips; say so.
• Equipment. Truck and trailer, whether it is a self-loader, and who maintains it.

The job ad that works (sample Facebook ad)

Lead with home time and how you handle the slow season. Where a pay-transparency law applies, the range in the ad must be the range you pay; see pay transparency laws by state. Our CDL driver job description has a template for the full posting.

Employment ads on Meta run in the Special Ad Category, which removes demographic and ZIP-code options and uses a 15-mile minimum location radius; see Meta Special Ad Category, explained. In a rural market, set the radius by how far a driver will commute to your yard.

Screening: knockout questions for a one-minute apply

• What CDL class do you hold? (Knockout if the truck needs Class A.)
• How many years of verifiable CDL experience do you have? (Knockout at your insurer's minimum, not above it.)
• Have you hauled logs or driven loaded on unpaved or forest roads? (Informational, not a knockout, if you train.)
• Name and mobile number.

Everything else waits for the call. Don't make a photo of the medical card part of the form either: since 23 June 2025, a CDL or CLP holder with a current medical examiner's certificate no longer has to carry it (49 CFR 391.41(a)(2)(i)(B)), so many drivers won't have it on them. For context, the CDL truck driver family in Boostpoint's 2026 benchmark had an 8% apply rate, and every extra field works against it. See pre-screening questions.

Role-specific: rural, seasonal logging and off-road experience

Log securement is its own federal rule

49 CFR 393.116 sets specific securement requirements for logs. Logs must travel on a vehicle designed, built or adapted for logs, fitted with bunks, bolsters, stakes or standards that cradle the logs and prevent them from rolling. The aggregate working load limit of the tiedowns on a stack on a frame or flatbed vehicle with bunks, bolsters or stakes must be at least one-sixth the weight of the stack, and each outside log must touch at least two stakes, bunks, bolsters or standards, with the exceptions the section sets out. Drivers from grain or gravel have not done this; say you train it.

Hours of service

The federal hours-of-service exceptions in 49 CFR 395.1 include none written for log hauling, so the general rules apply. The short-haul exception at 395.1(e)(1) exempts a driver from keeping records of duty status and supporting documents (395.8 and 395.11) when they stay within a 150 air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location, return and are released within 14 consecutive hours, and have 10 consecutive hours off between shifts, provided the carrier keeps time records for six months. Daily round trips from the yard often fit; check your routes.

Seasons and state weight rules

Hauling depends on ground conditions and state weight rules, so check your state. Minnesota is one example: it raises truck weight limits by ten percent in winter between dates the transportation commissioner sets (Minn. Stat. 169.826), and during the seasonal load restriction period, whose dates the commissioner sets each year, it limits single-axle weight to five tons on unpaved roads and ten tons on paved ones unless a road is posted otherwise (Minn. Stat. 169.87). Recruit before your busy season, and tell drivers in the ad what happens during the slow one.

Off-road experience

Forest roads, landings and loaded grades are learned, not licensed. Ask about them in the call, pair new drivers with an experienced one for their first runs, and put that ride-along in the ad.

Speed and the first 90 days

Rural drivers talk to each other, and a slow callback travels. Text within minutes and call the same day. Our recruiting text message templates include first-touch messages.

Federal rules set the order, and none of it has to come before the phone call. Before a new driver performs any safety-sensitive function, you must run a pre-employment Clearinghouse query (49 CFR 382.701) and have a verified negative pre-employment drug test result (382.301). Within 30 days of the start of employment, you must request the driver's motor vehicle record from every state that licensed them in the past three years and investigate their safety performance history with DOT-regulated employers (391.23). Our driver qualification file checklist lists every item.

What it costs to recruit log truck drivers (nearest benchmark role family)

In Boostpoint's 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, the CDL truck driver family had a median of $26.86 per applicant, with a middle half of $17.00 to $42.31 and an 8% apply rate. Boostpoint does not report log truck drivers separately; the CDL truck driver family is the nearest family. Small rural audiences also see the same ad often: across all roles in Boostpoint's benchmark, the median cost per applicant was $11.48 at a monthly frequency of 1.5 to 2.0 and $13.39 at 2.0 to 2.5, but $18.76 at 3.0 to 4.0 and $26.78 above 4.0. Change the creative or widen the radius once frequency passes 2.5. Full data is on the benchmarks page. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 (SOC 53-3032, 45-4022, 47-5022, 53-7081); BLS, May 2025 median annual wage; 49 CFR 393.116, 395.1, 382.301, 382.701, 391.23 and 391.41 (eCFR); Minnesota Statutes 169.826 and 169.87; Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark. General information, not legal advice. Read at source 30 September 2026.