You can buy a bunch of different programs to manage your trucking business.
- Dispatch software is vitally important software in today’s quick bid load board sites. You’ve got a window to get in and get that great load, but if you’re spending time finding out if you’ve got an available truck and an available driver – you’re sunk.
- Routing software because not everyone is within ten miles of the interstate system. Finding a shipper in Louisiana who’s got a load to go to Maine and neither town is a place you’ve ever heard of can lead you to accept a load that will destroy your profit. Lots of people depend on Google Maps to help them out and it’s a better tool now that you can see where the road work is being done. But how do you record your miles?
- Billing software – how you’re tracking your income is critical to the success of your business. Miss sending out an invoice or not noticing that an invoice still hasn’t been paid hurts you and your business. When you’re not paid, you can’t grow your business. You might not even be able to pay your fuel bill. A good billing software is also going to provide reports to show how the business is doing – where the money is going, where the money is coming in, and where the losses are. A cost per mile report is very important, and so is a revenue per mile because those two numbers will tell you the true state of your business. A profit and loss statement is for the accountants – a company overview report that examines every truck in a fleet is far more valuable to a fleet manager. Does your billing software give you that?
- IFTA filing software is probably the software that most truck drivers tell Santa they want for Christmas. Who wants to think about spending hours in January over log books, trying to make the numbers jive? If there’s a quick and accurate way to complete the IFTA – and the IRP – then a trucker wants and needs it. The time working on the IFTA could be spent hauling more freight and earning more money, right?
- Reminder software There’s nothing wrong with using your smart-phone to set up a reminder of due dates that aren’t dependent on mileage. After all, you use your phone calendar to remember your mother’s birthday – a reminder to send in your IRP or 2290 form isn’t that different. But is it time to check the brakes or replace the tires? How many miles until you need the next oil change?
There are plenty of options out there in the cyber world. Some things you can get pretty cheaply or even use Google Docs and Spreadsheets to manage. But is that the best option?
Trucking Management On the Road
Many drivers aren’t so clear-sighted about the price for the software. They think that by doing it all by hand saves money.
Not when it’s keeping the trucker from earning more money by being on the road.
For owner-operators in particular, who may spend weeks on the road before coming home to a computer on their desks, a computer system that doesn’t travel with you isn’t a great investment. Billing will slow to a crawl if you can’t print out your invoices until you get home. Billing can come to a dead stop if there’s a problem, and the payment gets delayed further and further waiting for you to get home to open your mail. Lose track of your IRP and lose your license plates. Forget to pay a driver and forget getting that driver again and learn what social media can do to a fleet manager’s reputation in less than 140 characters on Twitter.
Using a variety of different programs, some of which can’t share data between them, means you’re spending more time typing the same numbers again and again. What’s the point of an IFTA filing program if you have to it all again for the IRP? Can’t your routing software keep track of that for you? Not if you’re using Google Maps.
There’s got to be a better way.
An integrated software program, written under the direct guidance of a trucker and fleet manager that handles all of these things would be worth it, right? Enter a dispatch and get the route, the mileage, the driver settlement and the invoice set up all at one time?
How much would that be worth to you?
Would it be worth a free month for you to find out?
You don’t want to spend your time at home this holiday on a computer when there are kids to play with, spouses to snuggle, and games to be watched. Ideally, you could manage all of this during those downtime hours while you’re on the road. Since you wouldn’t have to enter a dispatch into a spreadsheet, the miles into another one, an invoice in Quickbooks and a figure out your IFTA by hand, it wouldn’t take as long.
Consider this our gift to you. One free month of TruckingOffice software for you to use on the road. Enter last month’s loads. Play around with our great reporting features that will show you exactly how much money you made last month – and where you could have saved more by losing less. We’re so confident that once you’ve put in just a few dispatches and seen the power of TruckingOffice trucking management software and what you can do from your truck cab that you’ll put all those others away and stick with us.
We’ve made it simple and we’ve made it absolutely risk free. We won’t even ask for your credit card for the first 30 days.
As a bonus, TruckingOffice trucking management software’s Maintenance Scheduler. This additional module can track all the service, repairs and scheduled maintenance on your trucks. No more wondering if you took care of the air tanks before a sudden freeze tells you that you didn’t. You’ll know how long your tires lasted or when your last oil change was. Keeping your rig in the best possible condition just got easier.
As a second bonus, you can also get the Load Development Worksheet. LTL shipping is a tough gig but immensely profitable. Our Load Development Worksheet is designed to help you create the most profitable loads and manage the complexities of the billing and fuel charges without additional headaches while you’re still out on your last delivery.
Bonus #3: Driver Settlements for the fleet manager to make sure those drivers get paid fairly and on time. No more searching through your check book or trying to locate a check on your bank’s online site when there’s a question if the payment was made or what was promised when the driver was assigned the load.
TruckingOffice makes it easy – just click on the link and you’ll go to the registration for the one software that does it all.
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