“I’ve always done it this way” may be the most destructive words to a business. When it comes to a task like the IFTA, I’m sure it is.
Welcome to the 21st Century
Driving a truck looks like it isn’t any different than it was 20 years ago… unless you’re a trucker and you know better. The roads are the same, sure.
But how we get loads, how they’re managed, how they’re billed – just like every other business in the world, we’ve moved into an electronic system that is supposed to make our lives simpler.
Remember 55 MPH Speed Limits?
One of the best parts of the 21st century is not having that 55 MPH speed limit. What a disaster that was!
Now we’ve got IFTA. Maybe you don’t remember what it was like back in the day before we had the IFTA. We had walls of license plates on the backs of our trucks for every state we drove through. We’ve got it a lot easier now with one apportioned tag.
That’s what I tell myself when I sit down to handle an IFTA filing. This is better than it used to be.
IFTA Speed Limit
But we still have to pay the taxes.
That one task has the ability to pull us off the road for days trying to get it done right.
Like a speeding ticket, doing it wrong can cost us big. I used to spend hours trying to make numbers make some kind of sense, but then I’d take it to the local IRS office and hope I’d gotten it right. And once I submitted it, there was still this haunting feeling that maybe they’d come back at me later. I’d done the best I could, but I never felt like I’d done it the best I could have.
Then we created TruckingOffice especially for owner-operator truckers like you and me. It was like moving out of a parking lot full of speed bumps and onto a clear four-lane highway. I could get it done in a matter of minutes and have confidence that it was done right. I had documentation that the IRS could see if they called me back for an audit.
“We’ve never done it that way before” or “I’ve always done it this way” are another kind of speed limit we put on ourselves.
“I don’t need to use a computer program that’s going to take me longer to learn than just doing the IFTA the way I always have,” is self-defeating talk.
First, all new things take time to learn. Whether it’s how to use a new strapping system or figuring out just how hard to push down on the pedal after a new brake job… learning is part of life.
I get it about software. Every single time that Windows updates, I have to learn all over where they’ve put my files and how to access them. I understand the thought of learning a new software is intimidating and maybe not worth the effort – especially if you’re only going to forget everything you learned because you won’t use it again for another 3 months.
Since TruckingOffice isn’t just an IFTA filing program, you don’t have to worry about forgetting it.
Instead of asking you to fill in all your data every quarter, TruckingOffice lets you enter your data when you accept the load and create a dispatch. We can help you create a route with PC*Miler (the government standard for mileage – important to know when talking about mileage and fuel taxes) and set up your billing. You can send your proof of delivery and your invoice from your cab.
And then when it’s time to file that IFTA – the data is already there. No more entries. Keep your data up to date and you won’t have to enter another single thing. You’ll press the IFTA Report button and within two minutes, your report will be done.
Suddenly, the speed limit just got unlimited. Not only for the IFTA, but for your billing.
What’s it worth to you? An IFTA in less than 2 minutes, plus
- creating a dispatch and routing with PC*Miler, the government standard routing program
- submitting your signed bill of lading with a permanent image storage system with our FileSafe™
- managing your invoices from your cab, not a desk back home
- keeping control of invoice late pays
- tracking customers to develop relationships for future business
- maintaining maintenance records and scheduling
- providing trucking-specific reports to show how well the company is doing.
Any other IFTA filing program that doesn’t do all of this for you is limiting your speed. To prove it, we’ll give you a month for free. You can sign up today and enter all those trips you’ve hauled since June 1 and do your IFTA all on us. We’re pretty sure you’ll find that we’ve got the goods that you’ll be glad to keep us on for the next quarter too.
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