Trucking company places job ads in truck simulator video game

Desperate times call for creative measures. Trucking company Schneider National has placed in-game job ads in the single-player video game American Truck Simulator, hoping it would help hire more truckers.

Eureka moment
Schneider’s media relations manager, Kara Leiterman says the company got the idea of posting ads in the video game when some of the drivers in their training program “showed skills above their experience level” and credited it to the game.

The job recruitment ads appear on billboards as players drive by or make a pit stop. The game has 5,000 to 10,000 active players on PC game distributor Steam.

It is too early to say if the advertisements help increase recruitment.

Trucker shortage in US
America faced a record-high shortage of nearly 80,000 truck drivers in 2021. The numbers would reach 160,000 by 2030, per the American Trucking Association.

Schneider’s executive vice president Rob Reich says the average age of their new hire is 38. Truck drivers are an aging population. Most of them will be retiring soon.