From Delivery Driver to Owner-Operator
If you’ve been driving a delivery truck for a company, maybe you’re starting to think bigger about your career. Is hauling soda or beer around the county going to give you the lifestyle you want? Maybe you’re thinking about long-distance trucking and...
Building Your Trucking Business Goals
Six months ago, we posted a series of blog posts about your trucking business – in particular, writing a business plan for your owner-operator trucking company. Did you do it? Setting Trucking Business Goals Are you seeing your company moving toward your...
Owner Operator Business Plans 1: Executive Summary
Start Your Own Trucking Company For many men and women, finding a job isn’t enough. They want a career. To build a business. To create a legacy. For self-reliant people, trucking can help them achieve those things. It’s not an easy career. It can take...
Owner-Operator Business Plans
Why Build a Business Plan? Aren’t business plans just for big corporations that want to get investor’s money? As you plan, keep our trucking authority terms glossary handy for the FMCSA terminology you’ll encounter along the way. No, they...
Why You Must Do the IFTA Filing
What happens if you don’t file the IFTA? Do you really want to know? The consequences to not filing start at mildly annoying and move up to painful and expensive. The citation is only the first step. Tickets costs vary from state to state, but the fines will...
QuickBooks Is Not Your IFTA Solution
QuickBooks is probably the best-known small business software out there. I hear a lot of owner-operators tell me that it’s how they manage their finances. I can understand that for those people who are running a small fleet and have a bookkeeper. On one hand,...
Mastering Trucking Record Keeping: How to Organize Your Owner-Operator Business
Every single day, your trucking company creates records. Not personal records like your personal best deadlift of a truck tire. Too bad – an Olympic truck tire lift would be fun to watch – but other records. Expense receipts Miles per state Fuel purchases...
Owner Operator Trucking Business Software: Cyber Monday 2017 Special Offer
Keep Your Owner Operator Trucking Business Going and Growing Whether you’re a long-time owner-operator or new to the field, you know that the only way to build a successful owner-operator trucking business is to have a way to keep the business end working....
CVSA RoadCheck Blitz
CVSA Roadcheck Blitz Saves Me Money I don’t want to have to worry in June about the CVSA Roadcheck Blitz. I don’t want to have to take days off the road because I’m afraid of an inspection. You shouldn’t have to, either. That’s the...
Taking Care of Yourself Is One More Key to Trucking Success
TruckingOffice Owner-Operator Trucking Success Achieving trucking success as a self-employed owner/operator means taking care of your equipment, all of it. That includes the one asset that’s more important to you than anything else in the world: your own body....
IFTA Basics for New Owner-Operators
If you’re starting your own trucking business, IFTA can sound confusing. If you’ve talked to any truckers about it, some will say it’s a huge pain. Others will say it’s nothing at all but another bill to pay. How can that be true? Actually,...
IFTA Reporting Forms: 6 Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
When you’re a kid, scary is ghosts, goblins and things that go bump downstairs after your parents go to bed. When you’re a teenager, scary is roller coasters, horror movies, going shopping with your mother, and going to bed before your parents. Now that...Owner Operator Trucking Software to Fit Your Budget
Looking at owner operator trucking software? As an owner operator, you need just a few things to get started as a trucker. You need: a cab a trailer a load a way to manage all the paperwork including dispatches, routing, invoices, late payments, factoring, IFTA,...Open Your New Owner-Operator Trucking Business
You want open an owner-operator trucking business? Welcome to the trucking world – it’s a lot bigger than you thought when you were just a driver. There’s a lot more you have to consider. Consider your maintenance schedule. Working for a trucking...Emergency on the Road – How Will You Handle It?
Forget Your Goals? Or Get Derailed By an Emergency? Keeping your focus on your goals with reminders or frequent review of your business helps move you forward, but there are days when the road to success has some expensive tolls. Emergencies crop up and we have to...Building Your Trucking Business for Success
Building your trucking business takes an eye for the long haul. Successful fleets are based on long-term partnerships with clients, not on one-time deals. Load boards may help you to find work quickly, but they can’t create the kind of steady, ongoing relationship...Here’s a Look at Recent Trucking Industry Trends
Keeping up with trucking industry trends is a smart move for any professional in our industry. So here’s a look at what’s going on in the world of transportation: Careers in Trucking Studies show the average American truck driver is in his late 40s. This points out...Beat the CVSA 2016 Roadcheck Blitz
Every year, there will be truckers who take a vacation for a few days in June… exactly the same days as the CVSA Roadcheck Blitz. What are they afraid of? Nobody likes this kind of thing. It’s a long, boring, aggravating wait for some pencil pusher who...
Quicker Shipping Invoices or QuickBooks?
No question about it, QuickBooks is the current gold standard for small business’s accounting processes. There’s hardly a bookkeeper out there who hasn’t gotten proficient at it in the last five years. Now that QuickBooks is in the cloud and...Small Trucking Company Software: Just What You Need
Nobody is managing a truck fleet with pencils and paper anymore, are they? Sure, 30-40 years ago, a lot of us started out with multi-page bills of lading, hand-written log books and notes written in little flip spiral-bound notebooks. We graduated to Lotus 123 and...The Key to Build Up Your Trucking Customers
It’s all about the customer. Bet you wish you had a nickel for every time you heard that. As an owner operator, especially in days when the loads are small and not too many around, you need a way to make sure your trucking customers remember you. Getting people...Owner Operators Can Reduce Bookkeeping
We can’t get away from the accounting. We can’t let the accounting get away from us. When we become an owner operator, we take on a lot of extra roles as well, especially bookkeeper (unless you’re lucky enough to have one in your family!) What do...Is Your Accounting Software for Trucking Business Everything You Need It to Be?
Not that we don’t like QuickBooks. But do owner operators need it? Accounting software for trucking business is a necessity for today’s transportation professionals. This is true whether you own one truck or 1,000. It’s also why we built important bookkeeping...What’s an Owner Operator’s Biggest Fear?
Gus loves driving. Every minute he’s on the road, he’s happier than a pig in mud. Becoming an owner operator was a dream come true for him. Gus hates every minute he spends at the computer, trying to manage his books. He’s organized. He’s...
QuickBooks Trucking Software Versus TruckingOffice: Which Is Best?
What Is QuickBooks for Trucking Software? There is no dedicated version of QuickBooks for trucking companies. QuickBooks is accounting software that can be used by many types of businesses. It’s practically the standard for small businesses. An integrated tax...Owner Operators: How Are You Doing?
Owner Operators – How are you doing? Running your own business as an owner operator requires a lot of attention. Brian likes to think he’s got it under control, but the fact is, he feels like he’s sinking fast. He can’t remember the last time...
Decide How to Manage Your IFTA Audit – Before It Happens
A recent discussion around the TruckingOffice office water cooler: Who are you going to call if you’re notified you’ve got to deal with an IFTA audit? First guess – an attorney or an accountant. Which would you pick? How would you find someone who...
Organizing Your Profits with the Company Overview Report
If you’re an owner-operator or running a small truck fleet, trying to figure out if you’re making money and where you’re losing it is not a simple process. Normal business accounting programs just don’t cut it. That’s why you need a...HammerLane IFTA Tables Shutdown
TruckingOffice has been maintaining the old HammerLane IFTA tables for the last few years because we knew there were a few users who still used the program. We can’t find them since the software was sold on disks – nothing online except the tables. This...Why You Should Be Looking at Your IFTA Report Now
And it’s not about getting it done early this time. Checking your IFTA report a month before the end of the quarter lets you know what states you’ve gone through and what states you’ve purchased fuel in. If you’ve been through a state a number...
New Entrant Safety Audit: How to Organize Your Records
Once you get your trucking authority, the next step is to pass your New Entrant Safety Audit. What is a New Entrant Safety Audit? A New Entrant Safety Audit is an FMCSA review of a new motor carrier’s records and safety management controls. Once a new motor...
MyTruckingCo.com – Do I need a website?
Hey, Allen, I could use some advice. I’m starting out as an owner operator and I see other trucks with websites on them. Should I get my own website? Do I need a website? Good question. You see a lot of trucks and trailers with a website on the...Selling Your Customers on You
I can’t argue with how easy it is to use a load board. You’ll find customers there, sure. But is it the best way? Depending on who you ask, we either have too many trucks on the road for the amount of shipping needed, or we don’t have nearly enough....What Every Trucker Should Know About IFTA Filing
What happens if you don’t file the IFTA? Do you really want to know? The consequences to not filing start at mildly annoying and move up to painful and expensive. The citation is only the first step. Tickets costs vary from state to state, but the fines will...QuickBooks Isn’t Your IFTA solution
QuickBooks is probably the best-known small business software out there. I hear a lot of owner-operators tell me that it’s how they manage their finances. I can understand that for those people who are running a small fleet and have a bookkeeper. On one hand,...3 Things Owner Operators Can Organize in the New Year
Making New Years Resolutions to Get Organized? As an owner operator, you’re responsible for all of your paperwork and compliance to all the laws. I found I could get snowed under really quickly if I didn’t get organized and take care of my paperwork. If...IFTA the Fast Way: IFTA Forms Upgrade Now Available
Estelle and Leon have been on the road for a few years, and alternated sweating out the IFTA tax forms. She’d do them one quarter and he’d check them, and the next quarter, they’d switch. Let’s just say that one of them is not so good at...
NEW Quickbooks and TruckingOffice Together
We get asked – a lot – how to use TruckingOffice with Quickbooks. Until now, there simply wasn’t a good answer for them – and we lost a fair bit of sales because of it. For us, TruckingOffice did just about everything that an...How Owner Operator Trucking Software Helps You Compete
Want to know how our owner operator trucking software can help your business? Big companies had the resources to develop software that was dedicated to the specific need of a trucking company. They knew what they needed and could pay the programmers to build it....Free Load Profit Calculator for Truckers
How To Get Your Own Trucking Authority
Get Your Own Trucking Authority
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