The trucking business is notorious for being slow to adopt the newest in technologies developments. Even so, for those who are not afraid of becoming early adopters, the rewards of adopting new technology can be tremendous.
If you had been to walk into any trucking small business office and look around, in addition to a personal computer you will see the following items in plain view: a fax machine, file cabinets (normally many) and most probably a white board. To the typical visitor, these items might be simply accepted as “tools of the trade.” The vital small business tools to get the job completed. The exact same opinion may be held by most transportation pros, “these are the identical products in my office, why need to theirs be any unique.” The reason why it need to be diverse is because each and every of these items has been converted in the digital age to some other electronic tool, and continuing to use the old tools fosters inefficiency.
Fax machines have been replaced with e-mails and document imaging. A dedicated fax line expenses $35/mo, plus the lengthy distance which can quickly be a further $35/mo, for a total of $70/mo or $840/yr. Document imaging is included on most late model fax machines that double as printers, but can also be bought with a scanner for $300 or significantly less. E-mail is free, and an online fax accounts are $15/mo (or much less) with no cost extended distance. Even if you had to purchase a scanner, converting to e-mails and document imaging would save $360 the 1st year, and $660 each and every year just after that. This does not even aspect in the savings of paper not used.
What about the file cabinets? Effectively, if document imaging was implemented as described prior to, the use of file cabinets would drop by 90%. Driver DOT files can be scanned, as can signed Bills of Lading. So not only can one lower the number of file cabinets getting made use of, but the amount of floor space occupied by file cabinets is also decreased. These are nominal savings at most effective, but the significant savings comes in how significantly time it takes to file something, or look for it in those cabinets. As soon as documents are digitized, they are significantly a lot easier to store and find on computers. What may well take 3 minutes to find in the file cabinet would take 30 seconds or much less on a pc. That is a six-fold labor reduction for a activity that gets completed 20 occasions a day or a lot more. The efficiency achieve for document imaging is more than 25% of the administrative time expected for clerical duties. That is $2000-$4000 annually per employee.
How about that white board. Consider that can not be replaced? Incorrect! Trucking software with dispatching capabilities can replace that white board in a heartbeat. Not only does it have dispatch management tools, most trucking software program packages come with substantially additional to manage the rest of the business. Trucking particular capabilities such as driver certain pay varieties and settlements, IFTA reporting, gear management, and extra. Some even come with document imaging built in so scanned pictures can be stored inside the software program for easy access. White boards are fantastic fro tracking work that day or week, but attempt seeking up jobs accomplished months ago on that white board. Fusiotech running a profitability report for the last quarter on that white board to obtain out which driver or truck or consumer was most profitable. That form of details could be worth tens of thousands when it impacts the selection creating for the business enterprise. There could be a client taking up 10% of your resources and only contributing 2% to the all round bottom line. Eliminating a customer like that can boost net income by 10% or extra. Who wouldn’t want a ten% raise this year?
In summary, trucking application and other technologies can not only replace older tools, they can enhance efficiencies saving funds by the thousands. Even though you may perhaps have never ever utilized these digital tools, and it feels strange to start working with them, take the leap of faith. There are much better tools getting created just about every day to assistance you save funds, so take benefit of them and be an early adopter of new technologies!
Masslogics supplies internet-primarily based trucking computer software to modest and medium sized trucking providers. Working with options like Document Imaging, IFTA reporting, and now Mobile Dispatch, the cell phone interface for drivers, Masslogics makes enterprise level trucking application cost-effective for any trucking organization.