DIEPPE, N.B. — When you see Midland Transport Driver Jason Ling on the tube talking about why it’s so great to work for this Atlantic Canada carrier, his slight Maritime accent and grin make you want to believe everything he says.

“My only regret about working at Midland,” he says, “is that I didn’t come here sooner.”

Ling is just one of five Midland’s drivers involved in this carrier’s unique new driver recruitment-and-retention campaign called “Just Ask Our Drivers,” launched on local TV on Superbowl Sunday.

Midland’s Jason Ling likes his company and
has gone on TV to tell anyone who’ll listen

The idea? Use drivers to lure other drivers.

While it’s too early to tell how effective the campaign is, everybody in trucking knows that the truckstop and the CB-radio grapevine are probably the most critical forms of information gathering for drivers.

So Midland, in concert with its advertising agency Hawk Communications, started “Just Ask Our Drivers” and brought those grapevines to the airwaves during arguably the most watched TV event of the year — yes, even in these parts when New England isn’t playing.

According to Midland’s General Manager Brian Bitcon, the company “wanted something unique to Midland that moved from the industry’s traditional driver recruitment methods.”

The campaign uses five drivers. They’re not actors and neither, says Bitcon, are they reading from scripts. “They were simply asked questions during the filming and they put it in their own words.”

Along with the TV commercials, the other major element of the campaign is a very entertaining website called “justaskourdrivers.com” which features the same drivers as well as a wealth of other information about Midland, trucking, and photos from life on the road.

While the campaign has no specific recruitment target, Bitcon said it is an important campaign both for Midland and for the industry. “The transportation industry is faced with an aging driver work force and fewer young recruits entering the industry.

“Every company is going to be facing this challenge in the future. I see this campaign as being a great thing for Midland but hopefully it will help younger people looking at career choices see our industry in a different way.”