Pay per driver · 26 US metros
A truck driver recruiting agency that gets paid when the driver starts.
Recruiters on the phone with every driver. Ready-to-hire submission packets. No retainer, no per-lead fee — half when the driver starts, half after the first 14 days.
Recruiting, not lead reselling
Most products sold to carriers as "truck driver recruiting" are lead reselling: a spreadsheet of phone numbers from drivers who filled out a form somewhere, paid for up front, with the actual recruiting — the calls, the callbacks, the ghosting — left to your dispatcher. We run the opposite model. Our recruiters talk to every driver, screen and interview them, and submit packets for drivers whose lanes and pay actually fit. We are paid on placement. The long version of that argument, written from inside the industry, is on our Chicago page.
Nor are we a staffing agency. Staffing employs the driver and bills you an hourly markup for as long as they work; we place drivers on your payroll and are paid once, per hire. If the work is temporary, staffing can be the right tool — here is when. If the seat is permanent, paying a markup for years is the expensive way to fill it.
The model, in one paragraph
An intake call maps your lanes, equipment, pay and home time; if we can't guarantee you enough driver volume, we say so then. Our recruiters screen and interview drivers against those requirements and send complete submission packets through Onboard, our own placement platform — you decide from your inbox, no portal to learn. You pay per placed driver, half at start and half after 14 days, and we stay involved past arrival because our model loses money on drivers who don't stay. The details are on Pay Per Driver.
The markets we recruit for
One page per metro: where the carriers sit, what the freight is, what drivers are paid there, and which of our offices works it. Carrier counts are active USDOT registrations based in each metro (FMCSA census); 50+ counts merge registrations that share an address. We place drivers in all 48 contiguous states — these are the markets we know well enough to write about.
Cincinnati, OH
Where I-71 and I-75 share one river crossing, with CVG air cargo, Ohio River terminals and two railroads' intermodal gates.
Detroit, MI
Just-in-time auto parts, two bridges to Windsor, and a freight market that moves to the assembly plants' shift schedule.
Indianapolis, IN
Crossroads freight: a west-side warehouse belt, the FedEx hub at the airport, and interstates that let drivers sleep at home.
Cleveland, OH
Steel coils off the Cuyahoga, iron ore on Whiskey Island, Ford chassis out of Avon Lake, and a Turnpike built to run heavy.
Columbus, OH
An inland port built around an air-cargo airport and a rail ramp, with a warehouse belt that hires every fall.
Kansas City, MO
A rail-and-river crossroads where intermodal ramps, an auto plant and a state line shape every driver's day.
Minneapolis, MN
Grain and fertilizer on the river, retail freight from Target country, and a winter that decides who stays in the seat.
Milwaukee, WI
Lake Michigan's working harbor, a brewery and machinery town, and the north end of Chicago's freight shed.
Grand Rapids, MI
Office furniture out of Zeeland and Holland, food plants down the lakeshore, and a US-131 spine the whole market shares.
St. Louis, MO
River barges, four interstates and a warehouse belt on the Illinois side: a market the Mississippi splits in two.
Dallas, TX
Rail ramps south of downtown, a logistics belt north of Fort Worth, and the Texas Triangle in between.
Houston, TX
Port drayage, Ship Channel tankers, and a dry-van market that behaves like a smaller Dallas.
Laredo, TX
The busiest land port on the continent, where a driver's week is counted in bridge crossings, not miles.
Philadelphia, PA
A reefer port, a Bucks County fleet belt, and Northeast lanes where the clock matters more than the odometer.
Newark, NJ
Port drayage out of Newark and Elizabeth, the Exit 8A warehouse belt, and a market where parking decides who stays.
Pittsburgh, PA
Coke, steel sheet, shale gas and polyethylene, hauled on heavy equipment over river hills, bridges and tunnels.
Baltimore, MD
A port town where the drayage gates, two tunnels and a missing bridge decide what a driver's day is actually worth.
Miami, FL
A dead-end peninsula where freight lands full and leaves light, fed by two seaports, an air cargo hub and a fuel farm.
Atlanta, GA
Where I-75, I-85 and I-20 meet inside the Perimeter, and Savannah's containers finish the trip by truck.
Nashville, TN
Two auto plants, a book town in La Vergne, a CSX yard by I-65, and three interstates that knot up downtown.
Los Angeles, CA
Port drayage up the 710, warehouses out the 10 and the 60, and California's own rulebook on top of it all.
Phoenix, AZ
Where I-10 freight from Southern California meets a west-side warehouse belt, a rail ramp in Glendale and two border lanes to Mexico.
Seattle, WA
Two container harbors, the Kent Valley warehouse belt, and a mountain pass that decides the winter.
Denver, CO
An inland hub with no water and one tunnel west: Denver freight is planned around the mountain, the plains wind and the Front Range.
Salt Lake City, UT
Where I-15 meets I-80, a west-side rail ramp and an inland port make a mountain valley the transload floor of the Intermountain West.
FMCSA Company Census, active carriers with an MCS-150 filed in the last 24 months, 1–20,000 trucks. Fleet sizes are self-reported.
Our numbers
No third party audited these. They're our own operating numbers, and the standard you should hold us to on a call.
- 100+
- drivers our operation places per month
- 3,000+
- lifetime CDL hires
- 50+
- carrier partners
- 24 hrs
- to first drivers for a new carrier
Carrier feedback in the carriers' own words: results. Our offices: locations.
Questions carriers ask before they call
What does a truck driver recruiting agency do?
A recruiting agency finds, screens and submits CDL drivers to a carrier, and the carrier hires them onto its own payroll. Ours works like this: recruiters talk to every driver by phone, verify the CDL, endorsements and work history against the carrier's requirements, and send a ready-to-hire submission packet. The carrier makes the hiring decision. We are paid per placed driver, not per lead and not per hour.
How much does a truck driver recruiting agency cost?
Ours is pay-per-driver with no retainer: a placement fee quoted per engagement (it depends on lanes, pay, equipment and hiring requirements), paid half when the driver starts and half after the first 14 days. Lead-generation companies charge per contact up front regardless of outcome; staffing agencies bill an hourly markup for as long as the driver works. The payment trigger tells you which of the three you are actually buying.
What is the difference between a recruiting agency and a CDL staffing agency?
A staffing agency employs the driver and rents them to you by the hour, typically at a 40–75% markup over the driver's wage, for as long as the assignment lasts. A recruiting agency places the driver on your payroll and is paid once, per hire. Staffing suits genuinely temporary work; recruiting suits seats you want filled for years. We compare the two honestly at cdlagency.com/blog/cdl-staffing-agency-vs-recruiting-agency.
Which markets does CDL Agency recruit for?
We place drivers with carriers in all 48 contiguous states. The 26 metro pages here are the markets we know well enough to write about honestly — where the carriers sit, what the freight is, what drivers are paid — with FMCSA and BLS data on each. Recruiting runs from our offices in Mundelein and Romeoville, Illinois; Lancaster, Texas; and North Miami, Florida. We don't open virtual offices to look local.
How is a recruiting agency different from a lead-generation company?
Lead generation sells contact information: drivers who responded to an ad somewhere, delivered as a list, paid for up front whether or not anyone answers the phone. Recruiting means a recruiter actually talks to the driver, screens them, matches them to a specific carrier and gets paid when the driver is placed. Both get sold as 'recruiting'. Ask who talks to the driver and when the money changes hands.
Drivers: browse current CDL-A jobs or get matched to a carrier.
Tell us the market and the seats.
We'll tell you on the first call whether we can guarantee you volume there — and if we can't, we'll say so. Prefer email? Contact us.