The Challenge
Founded in 1998 as a small collection business, Interstate Waste Services has grown into a leading vertically integrated solid waste company with a fleet of over 400 collection vehicles operating across 22 transfer stations and three material recovery facilities.
IWS continued to grow aggressively across the Northeast and Midwest, acquiring companies, expanding service areas, and increasing operational capacity. But with growth came a major hiring challenge.
The company needed to generate consistent, high-volume candidate flow across nine initial locations in New York and New Jersey, primarily for:
- CDL truck drivers
- Garbage truck helpers
- Diesel mechanics
- Sales and customer service representatives
Over time, that scope would expand to include:
- Landfill operators in Ohio
- Welders
- Equipment operators
- Corporate roles
- A digital marketing manager
Key obstacles IWS faced were:
Insufficient Candidate Volume
Despite working with a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider, IWS could not generate enough qualified candidates, particularly English-speaking CDL drivers, to meet demand.
Hard-to-Fill Skilled Roles
Diesel mechanics and certain landfill positions were especially difficult to source, even with strong compensation packages and sign-on bonuses.
Geographic Complexity
The company operated in dense urban markets such as Brooklyn and the Bronx, as well as in rural areas such as Amsterdam, Ohio, requiring highly localized strategies.
High-Frequency Hiring Events
IWS hosted three to five in-person hiring events per week, often recurring weekly in the same cities. Maintaining momentum and fresh creative assets that scale was a significant marketing challenge.
Employer Branding Gaps
While IWS offered strong compensation, union benefits, sign-on bonuses, and stable employment, these differentiators were not clearly emphasized in recruitment messaging.
They needed an adaptable, multi-channel recruitment strategy that could deliver sustained results.
The ProIQ Solution
ProIQ launched as a one-month pilot but quickly became a long-term partner as results exceeded expectations.
Key Strategy Pillars
Geo-Targeted Social Recruitment Campaigns
ProIQ began by launching geo-targeted Facebook campaigns across the nine priority markets. Locations that were geographically close, such as Brooklyn and the Bronx or Newark and Jersey City, were grouped to reduce advertising costs without sacrificing reach.
Once performance was validated, campaigns expanded to:
- Additional regional targeting
- Multi-position segmentation
Psychographic targeting layered on top of geographic targeting ensured ads reached individuals aligned with CDL and blue-collar workforce profiles.
Custom Branded, Mobile-Optimized Landing Page
To remove friction from the application process, ProIQ developed a mobile-enabled, ADA-compliant, custom-branded landing page
Instead of requiring candidates to complete a lengthy ATS application, the streamlined form asked only key qualifying questions.
The landing page was coded so that when candidates selected their preferred location, submissions were automatically routed to the appropriate recruiter, enabling faster follow-up and improved conversion rates.
As new positions were added, the landing page was continuously updated with tailored qualifying questions and messaging.
Reframing the Employer Value Proposition
Rather than focusing solely on job duties, ProIQ repositioned IWS opportunities around what mattered most to candidates.
Key differentiators highlighted in the creative assets included:
- Competitive compensation
- Strong sign-on bonuses
- Union benefits
- Multi-generational, family-run business stability
- Local routes, ensuring drivers were home every night
For newly acquired companies, such as Solterra in Ewing, New Jersey, ProIQ created dual-branded campaigns highlighting both the local identity and the strength of the IWS employer brand.
High-Volume Hiring Event Marketing
Six months into the engagement, IWS expanded ProIQ’s scope to include full hiring event marketing.
At peak volume, IWS hosted:
- Weekly recurring events in Brooklyn
- Weekly recurring events in the Bronx
- Weekly recurring events in Jersey City
- Additional rotating markets
ProIQ:
- Created branded Eventbrite registration pages
- Built custom registration forms with qualifying questions
- Designed and deployed event-specific ad creative
- Drove candidates to pre-register for in-person interviews
Running concurrent campaigns for both ongoing applications and hiring event attendance required careful audience segmentation and budget allocation to prevent overlap and fatigue.
Multi-Channel Expansion
As hiring demands grew, so did the strategy.
ProIQ expanded into:
- Physical flyers distributed to trade schools, nonprofits, and employment centers
- Geofencing campaigns targeting local trade school campuses
- Newspaper ad, including the New York Post
- Radio advertising
- Recruitment marketing for corporate roles
For hard-to-fill diesel mechanic roles, ProIQ combined:
- High-value sign-on bonus messaging
- Trade school outreach
- Geofencing to reach students directly on their devices
This integrated approach ensured difficult positions received specialized support.
Performance Results
Over the course of the partnership, ProIQ delivered sustained, high-volume performance across ongoing recruitment and hiring event campaigns.
Ongoing CDL Driver Campaigns
Platform: Facebook and Instagram
- Impressions: 6,277,405
- Reach: 564,266
- Clicks: 115,735
- Candidates Generated: 10,126
- Cost Per Candidate: $11.38
- Total Spend: $115,253.48
- Cost Per Click: $1.00
- Click-Through Rate: 1.84%
- Conversion Rate: 0.16%
Generating CDL candidates at $11.38 per applicant across major Northeast markets represents highly efficient performance in a competitive labor category.
Mechanic Hiring Events
- Impressions: 110,574
- Reach: 68,046
- Clicks: 1,300
- Candidates: 63
- Cost Per Candidate: $32.54
- Total Spend: $2,050
- Cost Per Click: $1.58
- CTR: 1.18%
Given the national shortage of diesel mechanics, these results delivered critical skilled labor at competitive acquisition costs.
Sales and Customer Service Hiring Events
- Impressions: 55,300
- Reach: 34,563
- Clicks: 874
- Candidates: 51
- Cost Per Candidate: $29.41
- Total Spend: $1,500
- Cost Per Click: $1.72
- CTR: 1.58%
All Hiring Events Combined
- Impressions: 3,641,844
- Reach: 906,242
- Clicks: 42,974
- Candidates: 1,786
- Cost Per Candidate: $31.83
- Total Spend: $56,848.38
- Cost Per Click: $1.32
- CTR: 1.18%
Importantly, these campaigns required candidates to attend in-person interviews within specific time windows during a time when people were still hesitant to attend large-scale events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a higher conversion barrier than simple online applications.
Facebook Campaign Totals
Across all Facebook recruitment campaigns for ongoing drivers and hiring events, ProIQ generated 3,563 candidates for a campaign-specific subset.
In addition, the broader ongoing CDL campaigns generated more than 10,000 candidates during the engagement period.
The Bottom Line
As Interstate Waste Services expanded through organic growth and over 35 acquisitions, hiring needed to scale accordingly.
ProIQ delivered:
- 10,000+ CDL candidates
- 1,786+ hiring event registrations
- 6.2M+ impressions on ongoing campaigns
- Highly competitive cost-per-candidate performance
- Support across 10 job categories and three states
When growth is aggressive, recruitment must be engineered. ProIQ builds scalable recruitment marketing systems that fuel expansion without sacrificing efficiency. Reach out to us today to learn how we can do the same for you.
