A fleet running 800 driver leads and 20 hires a month on an $80,000 budget pays for 9,360 drivers a year it never hires. That is $936,000 in truck driver recruiting spend with nothing to show for it.
Most recruiting teams track cost per hire. Far fewer track the cost of the drivers who applied, stalled and went quiet. Those drivers are not lost to a shortage. Tenstreet data shows carriers that respond within five minutes hire at nearly double the average rate (DC Velocity), so many of them are lost to slow follow-up.
The free ghost calculator puts a dollar figure on that gap in about 20 seconds. This article explains how it works, where to find your numbers and what to do with the result.
The calculator needs three monthly numbers and returns your ghost count, wasted spend, cost per lead and cost per hire.
| Input | What it means |
|---|---|
| Driver leads per month | Every click, form fill and application your ads produce |
| Drivers hired per month | Drivers who made it all the way through to hire |
| Monthly recruiting ad spend | Job boards, social, paid search and any other paid source |
From those, it works out four results:
With the example fleet, (800 − 20) × 12 = 9,360 ghosts. Cost per lead is $80,000 ÷ 800 = $100 and cost per hire is $80,000 ÷ 20 = $4,000. Wasted spend is 9,360 × $100 = $936,000.
Free ghost calculator
Try it with your numbers.
Three inputs, instant results. No email required.
Count My Ghosts →Your recruiting team likely has all three numbers already. Use a recent three-month average so one odd month does not skew the result.
If your ATS cannot split leads by source, that is a finding in itself. You cannot shift budget to the sources that produce drivers if you cannot see which ones they are.
Wasted spend grows with lead volume. At the same 2.5% hire rate and $100 per lead, a fleet with 1,000 leads a month loses $1.17 million a year to drivers it never hires.
At 1,000 leads a month, ghosted drivers cost over $1 million a year
Yearly ad spend on drivers never hired, at a 2.5% hire rate and $100 per lead (illustrative)
| 200 leads / mo | $234K | 2,340 ghosts | |
| 500 leads / mo | $585K | 5,850 ghosts | |
| 1,000 leads / mo | $1.17M | 11,700 ghosts | |
| 2,000 leads / mo | $2.34M | 23,400 ghosts |
Your own hire rate and cost per lead will differ, which is why the calculator is worth the 20 seconds.
You do not need to recover most of your ghosts to change your numbers. For the example fleet, winning back just 1 in 100 adds about 94 hires a year on the same budget and takes cost per hire from $4,000 to about $2,874.
Winning back 1 in 25 ghosts cuts cost per hire from $4,000 to under $1,600
Cost per hire on the same budget, example fleet: 800 leads, 20 hires, $80K a month (illustrative)
| Today | $4,000 | 240 hires a year | |
| Win back 1 in 100 | $2,874 | +94 hires a year | |
| Win back 1 in 50 | $2,248 | +187 hires a year | |
| Win back 1 in 25 | $1,564 | +374 hires a year |
The calculator lets you toggle between 1 in 100, 1 in 50 and 1 in 25 to see the same effect on your own fleet.
The fastest way to lower your ghost count is to respond faster and follow up longer, not to buy more leads.
CDLConnect's Driver Journeys automates steps 1 through 5: it spots when a driver goes quiet and sends follow-up tailored to where they stalled, inside the ATS you already run. Customers have seen 60% of drivers recovered, a 145% increase in hires and a 17% lower budget.
Looking for more ways to fill seats? Read Truck Driver Recruiting: How to Find Drivers.
Driver ghosting is when a truck driver applicant starts the hiring process and then stops responding. It usually happens after a slow or missed follow-up, often because another carrier reached them first.
Subtract monthly hires from monthly leads and multiply by 12 to get ghosts per year. Multiply that by your cost per lead (ad spend divided by leads) to get wasted spend.
It varies widely by fleet size, region, freight type and experience required. The most useful benchmark is your own: track it monthly and by source, and watch how it moves as you re-engage ghosted drivers.
No. The calculator shows your results instantly with no email required.
No. They are illustrative and based only on the numbers you enter. Real results depend on your funnel, lead quality and follow-up process.
You already know three numbers. In 20 seconds, they will tell you how many drivers you paid for and lost.
Free ghost calculator
Count your ghosts, then go get them back.
See your number in 20 seconds, then book a 20-minute demo to see where your drivers drop off and how Driver Journeys brings them back.
Run My Numbers →