A flurry of executive-level personnel changes in the trucking industry in recent months exceeded recruiter Jon Fricke’s expectations, particularly amid declining demand.
The moves have come across different industry segments. C.H. Robinson replaced CEO Bob Biesterfeld on New Year’s Eve. ArcBest announced last month that CFO David Cobb will retire in October. Daseke hired Pilot Thomas Logistics executive Aaron Coley as its next CFO.
Fricke is vice president of High Road Partners, a Bentonville, Arkansas-based recruiting company that serves mid- to large-sized trucking fleets and 3PLs. His clients’ motivations in shaking up their C-suites vary. But a desire for fresh leadership has increasingly gripped the industry, he told Transport Dive in a phone interview.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
TRANSPORT DIVE: How is the demand for your recruiting services?
JON FRICKE: We initially thought that this was going to be a slower time for change. But it's been just the opposite for the last 90 days. We see that continuing, whether it be companies upgrading their talent, or unexpected growth, where they need stronger talent. But this has been the busiest time I've found as an executive recruiter, headhunter, in the last 18-and-a-half years.
We've had one down year, which was 2009. And so we anticipated this would be a down year. But the last three months, and what we have on the books, it's showing all systems go.
Are company boards replacing executives to calm investors in a challenging time? What other motives do you see?
FRICKE: It’s hard to know each company’s reasons. But the end result that we're seeing is an uptick in search requests and placements. We focus on the mid to upper placements. So, in the mid to upper, our clients are asking for help more than previously.
What’s the top quality trucking company boards want in their next leaders?
FRICKE: They want the specific talent from one of their direct competitors who has the experience where they can hit the ground running without having to take time to train in the specific duty.
That must make your life easy.
FRICKE: Actually, not. Because, unfortunately, there's so many candidates that are reluctant to make a change, for whatever reason. Recruiting is the only market where the product, if you want to call the candidate the product, says ‘I don't want to be sold.’ That's what we hear quite often.
So, have more in the trucking industry settled down since the Great Resignation of 2020?
FRICKE: We're seeing change, but being able to find the quality candidate is the difficult part. Companies are not willing to hire someone just to hire someone. They want to hire that quality candidate that's going to be an improvement to their team.
