Rig on Wheels celebrates 15 years of driver recruitment
Caleb Revill
6 min read
“Celebrating 15 years is about looking back and paving the road forward,” said founder and CEO Kameel Gaines. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)
Third-party truck driver recruiting agency Rig on Wheels is celebrating its 15th anniversary next week.
The Houston-based recruiting agency has partnered with trucking companies across the country to innovate recruitment strategies, improve driver retention and inform industry leadership.
To celebrate 15 years in business, CEO Kameel Gaines is hosting a virtual celebration on Jan. 24 where she will discuss the company’s major milestones. The event will be hosted live on YouTube and – if possible – TikTok.
Ahead of the event, FreightWaves spoke with Gaines in a phone interview about her journey as an entrepreneur in the trucking industry, her insights on driver recruiting and what growing diversity looks like in the industry.
“Rig on Wheels is more than a recruiting agency; we partner in helping trucking companies grow and thrive,” she said. “Celebrating 15 years is about looking back and paving the road forward.”
Building an American dream
A Chicago native, Gaines first started Rig on Wheels after being laid off when a school she managed enrollment for closed. Answering an advertisement for contract truck driver recruiting, she found her passion for an industry she initially knew little about.
Gaines said that entrepreneurship is in her blood – her mother had operated several of her own businesses in her youth – so she wasn’t afraid to kickstart her own business.
It wasn’t easy though. Gaines recalled a turning point early in her new business when she considered going part time so that she could work elsewhere full time.
“It made me sad,” Gaines said. “That’s when I knew I loved it. When I knew I loved it, I poured everything I had into it. I started learning. I started educating myself so much with everything in trucking … At that point I realized it wasn’t just, ‘I liked it.’ It was, ‘I love this.’”
With the help of her mentor, Larry Johnson at Sterling Recruitment Solutions, Gaines sharpened her recruiting skills. She said Johnson is like a father figure to her, and she still keeps up with him today.
“He was a strong figure when it came to mentorship – more than with trucking,” Gaines said. “He taught me a lot these 15 years … He is a life mentor.”
When asked how she manages all of these components of her business, Gaines said it helped to have a great team working for Rig on Wheels.
“My team is magnificent,” she said. “I believe that you hire people that are good at what they do, and you hire people that are smarter than you … At the beginning, you may not be able to hire the best because of money. But you hire somebody that compliments your personality so you all can work together as a team.”
Gaines also said it was important to hire workers who are multifaceted and can grow and develop skills within one’s company.
“You don’t want to get somebody that can only do one thing,” Gaines said. “That’s an AI. You want to get somebody who can operate an AI, [who] is open minded [and] works well with your particular culture of the company.”
Faces of the Road and Diversity
Rig on Wheels’ Faces of the Road Initiative started in 2024 to celebrate the diversity of America’s truck drivers with a product line that showcases drivers’ unique journeys and contributions in the industry.
“A lot of times when you see paraphernalia of things with truck drivers, it’s only an older white male,” Gaines said. “But those days are gone. Our truck drivers are white, Black, Hispanic and Asian … It’s more than just that, but typically they’re going to fall into those four categories.”
This year, Rig on Wheels has developed a calendar where every month different drivers from various backgrounds and ethnicities will share their trucking industry experiences.
“Rig on Wheels is very driver centric,” Gaines said. “We needed drivers to see themselves, and that is part of retention. I believe retention starts with recruiting, it’s not a separate thing.”
She said that truck drivers and society at large need to view trucking as a respectable career for all people. Being an African American woman and business leader, Gaines said she herself faces occasional “issues” rooted in discrimination.
“What I do is try my best all the time,” Gaines said. “And I do tell my staff that [they] are working with and for a Black woman in this industry, and we cannot afford to make mistakes. We don’t get a second chance.”
Changes in recruitment
Gaines spoke about the changes she’s seen in driver recruitment over the last 15 years.
“The driver has changed because the industry is not as respected,” she said. “There was a time when being a truck driver was more respected … It becomes a little more challenging [because of that.] Now, I do see we are changing that.”
She said over the last 18 months, carriers have started enforcing more discipline for drivers who don’t show up to orientation or lack work ethic.
“That culture has been in this industry and has just started spreading like a bad rash for years and years,” Gaines said. “But now there are carriers that are putting their foot down. Like, ‘If you’re doing this, then you can’t be hired with us for a year.’ They’re really putting their foot down and being strict about it.”
Gaines said that this change has been driven by shippers putting pressure on the carriers to present a different type of driver in the market.
“Carriers were having to compete on levels for these accounts that they haven’t had to compete on in a very, very long time,” Gaines said. “If you were at a 98.2% on time rate, you were failing.”
She said this changed the hiring discussion from “not hiring drivers with safety issues” to also “not hiring drivers that left their last company or got terminated because of attendance.”
“That is bringing some respect back into the industry,” Gaines said. “And I think truck drivers need to be respected just as much as pilots. It’s the same thing.”
