Monthly Archives: September 2011

Major Trucking Industry Trends and Issues

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Every year, the American Transportation Research Institute releases a
survey of the biggest trucking industry trends and issues truckers encounter. After polling hundreds of workers,managers, and owners of trucking companies, the ATRI ranks and files all of the responses. The subsequent report notes not only the largest
concerns but strategies to overcome major issues. Some of the trucking industry trends come at no surprise: they follow national trends that affect everyone. Others seem a little inappropriately ranked, but the data explains them all.

 

  1. For the second year in a row, the economy has been the largest concern for the trucking industry.  Because trucking relies so heavily on consumers, any change in buying habits will affect the need for shipping. That said, only 35% of respondents ranked the economy as their number one issue, a 16% drop from
    the previous year. Like other economic indicators, it’s a sign of national improvement.

 

  1. Considering that the Comprehensive Safety Analysis recently debuted, it’s not a huge surprise that a quarter of respondents considered the CSA the biggest issue of the year. Any new safety regulation can be a frightening thing, especially in the beginning when both the government and truckers are learning its methods of implementation. The standards involved with the CSA aren’t unreasonable, but they’re new, and no one’s sure the effect they will have on other trucking industry trends.

 

  1. Similar to the CSA, many trucking officials ranked the broader category of “government regulation” as their top concern. Though for years most standards have been imposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, more and more local counties and agencies are applying their own regulations. These standards and impositions have dramatically raised compliance costs. Because new regulations appear all of the time, they bring about huge shifts in trucking industry trends, since truckers are often scrambling to meet new standards that rarely (or worse, detrimentally) affect their workers’ safety or productivity.

 

  1. The government has for years regulated commercial driver Hours-of-Service (often shortened to HOS), and periodically they change their standards. Driver fatigue and resulting fatalities are huge concerns of both the trucking industry and the federal government, but constant alterations of HOS rules put the
    trucking industry into a tailspin. Since the first change in 2004, the
    industry has seen a 33% drop in fatalities. Few people will argue that
    these regulations aren’t good for truckers, but almost everyone in the
    industry points to this huge drop and thinks, “If the system’s not broken
    anymore, why fix it?”

 

  1. When the recession was at its worst, hiring and entry-level training dropped in just about every industry, so of course trucking industry trends followed suite. As the economy begins to improve, and demand for trucking increases, companies are finding a driver shortage—to such a degree that it’s among their top five biggest issues. Many managers have to focus on mass recruitment and training to compensate for the last few years of slowed hiring. It’s a positive sign for the economy as a whole, but the trucking industry has to work hard to meet these growing needs.

 

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Small Fleet Owners Need To Be Organized

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Don’t jeopardize your livelihood.  Get organized and stay organized with TruckingOffice.


I understand how exciting it is to add more trucks to your small fleet.  When you go from 2 trucks to 3 or 4 or 5 it is exciting to start bringing in that additional income.  I also understand how many problems come with that increase in business.  Small fleet owners like you are the real reason we designed TruckingOffice.  I went from owning 2 trucks to 6 trucks in just a few quick years.  At first I was making really good money, but after a while the problems really started to stack up.  If you have owned a small fleet for a while then you know what I am talking about, and the time to act is now.  TruckingOffice has common sense solutions for you that you will appreciate right from the beginning.  If you are just starting to grow then my hope for you is that TruckingOffice will help you avoid some of the problems that I ran into.  The majority of my problems could ultimately be tracked back to organization and keeping good records.  At TruckingOffice you will have the opportunity to set up your own trucking office.  You can use TruckingOffice as a tool to fix a variety of problems.  You should start solving your biggest problem first.  You could start by using the dynamic maintenance planning and tracking features.  You could start by focusing on expense tracking and reporting.  Or you could start like I did by getting a handle on tracking all your dispatches and invoices.  Now matter how you get started I believe that in the end you will agree that TruckingOffice has the solutions to your problems.  Whether it’s tracking your dispatches, miles, and invoices….  or create better pay-roll reports for your drivers…. or developing an effective maintenance plan and tracking all your maintenance records….   or being able to organize all of your customers information in a way that is quick easy and effective…. or having critical management information to make those critical decisions.  I think that you get the idea.  I can not possibly tell you all the things that TruckingOffice can do for you in this short message, but I can tell you that we will be there to help you along the way.  We don’t just want to sell you a software package and say “good luck”.  We want to develop a long term partnership with you.  We understand that our success depends on your success, and so that is our commitment to you – to be there to support you in your effort to get organized and stay organized.

 

Take a closer look at our features.

Pricing and FREE TRIAL.

 

 

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Trucking Fleet Management Can Be Problematic

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Owning a fleet of trucks can be very problematic.  If you have owned a fleet of trucks for a while then you know what I mean.  Every day it seems like there are just multiple problems all day long.  Everything from driver issues to customer related issues to sales problems.  Some days everything is going wrong: drivers are running late, loads are being cancelled then other customers are adding loads – and just when you get all of that under control one of the trucks breaks down far from the home terminal.  Managing a fleet of trucks is a very challenging juggling act sometimes.  So it’s understandable that in the daily grind it is easy to neglect the big picture.  Things like IFTA, preventive maintenance, DOT compliance, driver pay-roll, and taxes are often the difference between success and failure.  As with most problems better management will equal better results.  Truckingoffice provides the tools to better manage all of these daily problems, so that the big picture will take care of itself.  Whether you have a small fleet and manage it solo, or a large fleet with a staff to help TruckingOffice puts all the pieces of the puzzle together.

 

IFTA management – automatic miles provided by PC*Miler

 

Dispatch – track everything from every trip: customers, drivers, trucks, shippers, consignees, and all the fees

 

Invoicing – one click invoicing tied to dispatches for easy editing

 

Expenses – track expenses for taxes – formatted fuel expense for IFTA gallons by state

 

Maintenance Plans – Scheduled maintenance is cheaper than roadside repairs

 

Networking – effortless – you can have as many terminals as you want – no additional cost

 

Users – as many as you want – no additional cost

 

 

Managing all of these problems in one location will get every one on the same page and reduce stress.  It will also improve DOT compliance, IFTA management, driver management, and tax records.

 

If you are just starting to build your fleet of trucks then those of us that are a little further down the road would like to tell you to get started on the right foot.  The small price that you will pay for trucking management software is pennies on the dollar to what you will spend in over payments on your IFTA tax forms, DOT fines, vehicle maintenance, and other taxes.

 

Get started now.  Free Trial.

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IFTA Software Takes Care of Everything for You!

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No one likes doing taxes. April looms
for every citizen, and countless blogs and editorials have bemoaned the
unnecessary complications that the IRS imposes with its forms. Anyone in
the trucking industry reads those complaints every year and scoffs, because
ordinary citizens don’t know how easy they have it. Standard tax documents seem
to be a pain to fill out, but really, with all the records and fuel reports
demanded of licensed truckers, filing regular taxes is a cakewalk. If you’re in
the trucking industry, you can get muddled down for weeks trying to organize
tax documents, or you can let IFTA
software do it for you.

 

Tax software has been around since
the first personal computers, but it varies in its levels of assistance. Some
of them simply serve as record holders; others are just databases to input all
of the receipts you’ve saved throughout the tax period. IFTA software doesn’t just organize and manage the records you have
to keep, it calculates IFTA taxes, which can be some of the most complicated in
our nation.

 

Nothing from the IRSis user friendly, so it’s no
surprise that IFTA forms and policies are difficult to decipher. Fortunately, IFTA software is user friendly with clear directions and a logical structure.
Bureaucracies demand absolute precision in the files and documents they
receive, so even if you spend weeks organizing and calculating your taxes, the
IFTA could penalize you for a single error. That’s a big risk after so much
work; but you can avoid it (and endless hours of organizing and calculating) by
letting IFTA software take care of
everything for you.

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Online Trucking Software Is the Way To Go

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TruckingOffice is sold as an online monthly subscription. This is done for several reasons.

For starters there are no up front costs. If you purchase a program to install on your computer then you have to pay for the whole thing up front and install it on your computer. Even if you don’t mind the upfront cost it could be problematic to have your data stored on your computer. Have you ever gotten a virus that caused you to have to format the hard drive? Even if this hasn’t happened to you I am sure that you know someone who has had this problem.

What if you want to put the program on more than one computer? Other software programs charge extra to put it on more than one computer, then you have to be able to set up a network to keep all the records in sync.  TruckingOffice can be easily accessed from any computer with an internet conection at no additional cost.

What about the upgrades and new versions of the software? Software companies continue to develop new versions that they plan to sell to you. So even after you pay for the software upfront and figure out how to network all of your computers together so that you can keep all your records in sync and make sure that your computers are safe from viruses, natural disasters such as fires or theft, with other software programs you will eventually have to buy the updates for your fancy software that is already difficult to use.

What about when you buy a new computer? With other software programs you will have to figure out how to transfer all of the software and all of your records to the new computer. Then what if the old software does not work with the new computer.  What a hassle! I think that you and I both know that the last thing you need are more hassles!

What if there was a better way? What if you could store all you records in a safe secure online website? What if you could access it from any computer anytime from anywhere? What if you could have as many users as you want to for no additional cost? What if there were no up front costs at all… no purchase fees… no set up fees…. What if you could just pay as you go and get all your updates and upgrades immediately and for no additional cost? TruckingOffice delivers all that and more. At TruckingOffice we not only deliver convenience and versatility, but we also guarantee the safe secure storage of your data. At TruckingOffice we not only deliver an easy to use common sense solution to your management problems, but your satisfaction is guaranteed!

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Not Your Accountant’s Software

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Most trucking software is written from the accountant’s point of view. I always found this to be very confusing. Basically they take an accounting program and modify it to work for trucking companies. If you don’t have an accounting background it is very difficult to follow. Other trucking software programs are written from the computer programmer’s point of view. They make very technical software, and it usually takes some computer savvy to install and use these types of programs. TruckingOffice is written from the truck owner’s point of view. Trucking software won’t solve your problems unless it is easy for you to use. I have been in the trucking industry for more that 15 years and I have owned my own trucks for more than 10 years. TruckingOffice was originally created to solve my problems, and in the process we realized that it could solve your problems too. TruckingOffice is a common sense approach to organize the common problems that we all face in managing a small fleet of trucks. It is also very easy to use. If I can use it then you definitely can do it.

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The Effect of Fuel: Trucking Industry Statistics

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Rising fuel costs are often at the top of trucking industry statistics because they have such a broad effect on the economy. Ordinary citizens just about take to the street whenever gasoline jumps ten cents a gallon, but compared to a trucker’s dependency on fuel, paying an extra quarter to drive to the grocery store is nothing. Few people notice the trends in diesel prices, but anyone in the trucking industry does. They’re rising steadily, which makes even daylong hauls expensive, which is a cost that threatens the survival of many trucking companies.

 

Just two and a half years ago, a gallon of diesel cost around $2.50. Today, that number has increased almost 65%, easily one of the largest expenses trucking companies have to deal with. Depending on their loads and equipment, truckers can only get between six and eight miles to the gallon. That means a two-hour trip would’ve cost $90 in 2009; today, truckers can expect to spend over $200 for the same trip on fuel alone.

 

These are trucking industry statistics everyone should watch, because eventually these costs trickle down to ordinary consumers. Everything in our economy moves on trucks, so retailers, farmers, and other citizens will eventually see these diesel costs translated into higher price tags on the products they buy. The translation isn’t immediate, though. Trucking companies can’t hike their prices as quickly as fuel costs, so they’re often forced to bear the brunt of these expenses. Smaller companies face the risk of bankruptcy, a loss of competition that will similarly affect all consumers. The larger companies can usually weather the storm, but it’s a storm that everyone has to face in one way or another.

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