Ben Bodin

A Finance Mind in a Trucking World

Ben earned a finance degree from the University of Minnesota, then chose a private company over corporate America, joining a 10,000-person healthcare technology firm as an implementation consultant. The work had little to do with finance and nothing to do with recruiting. When COVID hit, he took stock and realized it was not where his interests lay. He spent a stretch in the golf industry, a sport he still loves.

A referral from a high school peer opened the door to Right Turn Recruiting in March 2021, a moment when the job market was rough and the workplace itself felt unsettled. Ben started on the front lines, calling truck drivers directly and absorbing a steep learning curve. He readily admits he had no desire to wind up in truck transportation recruiting. Today he directs it.

Lessons From a Small Leadership Table

In a compact organization, Ben's mentors have been the people down the hall. Doug Drier, founder and CEO of Drivers 1st, has been highly influential in his early career trajectory, first and foremost by giving him a chance at a leadership role. Ben believes he has used that seat at the table well, and the experience informs how he thinks about opportunity today.

From Nick, who runs marketing, Ben learned that recruiting in his company's model is essentially sales, and that sales and marketing naturally collide: sales always wants more leads, while marketing lives within a budget. Understanding that tension reframed the relationship for him. "We've got numbers, we've got dollars, and we have to produce dollars, so how can we work together?" he says.

Dustin, who manages the second half of the funnel, was the company's highest performing recruiter for about three years before moving into leadership. His hands-on trucking company experience has taught Ben a great deal, and it is a big reason Ben stays in the office. He wants to hear what is happening and pick up on things as they unfold.

Agents on Agents

Ben uses Claude all day, every day, and almost never for simple word processing. His focus is agentic. "I've got agents on agents," he says, with AI reviewing calls, creating and updating his dashboard, and reviewing some candidates.

Trucking presents its own wrinkles. The industry relies on a single dominant applicant tracking system, Tenstreet, which does not allow outside agents to access its database. Ben acknowledges the logic, since the system holds personal information, even though that is where much of the value from AI would be expected to come. More broadly, he sees an industry built on family businesses, and his one frustration is how much old school thinking persists.

So far, Ben has not had to repurpose anyone's role on his team. Instead, AI has let people optimize how they spend their time, try new projects and learn new things. He counts himself firmly in the pro-AI camp, with a caveat. "There's lots of great use for it; however, it demands responsible usage," he says. In his view, professionals will ultimately have to adapt or reach the end of the line.

Why the Driver Stays in the Seat

Outside recruiting, the AI conversation in trucking centers on autonomous vehicles. Autonomous trucks are already running routes in Texas, and Ben does not rule out opportunities there. But he points to Waymo's driverless cars in Phoenix, where a sudden deluge after months of dry weather sends the vehicles into accidents and causes problems for pedestrians and traffic.

Scale that to an 80,000-pound rig carrying millions of dollars in cargo, and the case for a skilled human driver becomes clear. A driverless solution, Ben argues, is not going to guarantee safe transport. He does not expect AI to create much disruption in his space beyond the recruiting process itself.

Advice for Talent Leaders: Take a Chance on Talent

As a fairly recent graduate himself, Ben sees how difficult today's job market is for people coming out of school, and he believes many extraordinarily talented people in their early 20s simply need a shot. With leadership seats opening up everywhere, his advice to fellow talent leaders is direct: pay a recent college grad $85,000 a year and see what they can do over two years.

"Bet on human talent, bet on human capital," he says. It is a conviction rooted in his own career, from a timely referral to a leader willing to hand him real responsibility. Ben has seen firsthand what that kind of trust can produce, and he wants more leaders to extend it.