The trucking business is just as prevalent now as it always has been, so new and small trucking businesses are consistently opening their doors and getting to work because their services are in high demand. As the owner of a small trucking business, you have all kinds of room to grow and expand, and the potential to make a great business model. However, this must be done correctly or you could end up with little profit and problems that affect your growth potential over the long term. Take a look at some of the biggest reasons small trucking companies struggle to operate as efficiently as they should.
They fail to utilize modern technology with record keeping.
Logging driver hours, logging company expenses, logging interactions with the DOT—all of this should be properly documented by drivers during a run. However, if you are still doing things the old-fashioned way with paper and pencil, it is easy for a driver to forget to jot down something important. Plus, paper records are easily damaged and lost. There are many great new technologies available to simplify the record-keeping processes that are associated with the trucking business. Therefore, by not making use of these newer technologies, you are really making it harder on yourself and your drivers.
They fail to pay enough attention to scheduling as they should.
Improper scheduling can leave you with missed deliveries, missed pickups, and over-staffing issues that can cost your company a lot of profit. For this reason, it is best if you make use of available scheduling software platforms so you can eliminate issues with human error in your scheduling processes. Most good small trucking company software has integrated scheduling platforms that are easy to use but streamline the scheduling process so all trucks are filled, all loads are delivered, and you don't miss a single run.
They fail to vet drivers during the onboarding process as they need to.
The onboarding process in the trucking industry is something you really cannot afford to skimp on. However, too many small trucking companies hire drivers based on word of mouth alone or who don't have a lot of credentials. Unfortunately, this can mean you have a higher than usual turnover rate, which always ends up costing the company more money. The best solution to proper hiring processes is to take advantage of the resources available to properly vet those interested in applying for a job.
Contact a company, like Nastek National, for more help.
Share24 February 2018
After I started having problems following other technologies, I realized that I needed to work harder to stay on top of new information. I began focusing more seriously on reading different literature about technology, and it was really cool to see just how much different companies could help. We updated our software programming and installed some new equipment, and it was nice to see how much of an improvement things made. I wanted to start this website to help other people to understand and apply new technology each and every single day. Read more on this blog to find out what you might have missed along the way.