Organizing Your Trucking Business

Organizing Your Trucking Business

Organizing your trucking business in the 21st century means leaving the old ways behind.  Just like we’ve got modern trucks, we need modern technology to manage them.  Using a good trucking management software that is accessible and secure is critical to your trucking business success.  But there are a lot of TMS programs out there.  How do you know which to pick?

Get Rid of the Paper – Life in the Cloud

There are few things more frustrating than trying to find something we know we just saw… somewhere…

Organization is more than putting things away.  It’s the ability to find them again when you need them.  That may be why so many of us have messy desks or cabs  We think it’s better to have things out where we can see them.  Eventually.  Because the stacks get higher and our space gets more crowded.  It’s that much harder trying to find the lost item.

This is the real power of computing within The Cloud.  What is this mysterious thing?

Essentially, it’s a storage system that isn’t on your computer.  It’s stored somewhere else and is accessible, usually by password, when and where you want it, regardless of where you are.  Save a picture on your phone and you can’t get to it until you email or message it to yourself.  Save a picture in the cloud and your

• phone
• tablet
• laptop
• desktop computer
• computer at your local library

will have access to it.

Organizing your trucking business with the cloud makes accessing your data much easier.  Then you can handle the business tasks faster – and get paid faster.  You’ll have your invoices out right after delivery – that will cut the payment time down.

Security

This makes some people worried.  Will my data be secure?  Will someone be able to steal my information and use it?

That’s a great question to ask.  You need to be comfortable with how you store your data, or how applications protect it.  We hear about data breaches in the media too frequently to be complacent.

Using a secure data system requires you to make careful decisions about how you store your data.  Too much security and you can’t access it – making the data useless.  Not enough security and someone may try to buy a new transmission with your credit card.

The greatest risk is your smartphone or tablet.  What happens if you leave it somewhere?  Drop it and someone picks it up?  Unless you have some security programmed into your phone to access it, you’re at risk.  If you use an app that stores all your critical data on your phone, a lost phone is catastrophic.  How do you get your data back?  You might not.

Using a web-based application is a lot smarter and safer.

1.  Password security:  you’ll have a unique user name and password that you can change if your smartphone gets lost or stolen.
2. Your data is kept on a safe server to access even if the tablet or smartphone stops working.
3. Updates are managed by the company.  Apps get updated and suddenly start crashing and losing important information.  A web-based program doesn’t have to conform to dozens of different phones or tablets, so it’s more stable and secure.

Organizing your trucking business on a web-based application makes every part of your business easier because you can get to the whole program wherever you are.  If you need to know your maintenance records – you can get to them.  Want to take a load from a broker but something is bothering you about the shipper?  Check your customer records to find out if this company paid on time in the past.  The best trucking management system gives you all that – on demand.

But I’ve got everything already figured out!

Using Google is often thought to be a good for organizing your trucking business.  It’s easy to use, seems to be safe, and you can do a lot of work by combining Google Docs and Sheets.  It takes a lot of work and investment of time, but you’ve got it worked out.

Until it doesn’t work.  The laws change.  The tax rates change.  That spreadsheet calculation suddenly doesn’t work.  Or worse, you can’t work and need someone else to step in.  Or you want to hire a team to handle this part of the business.  That accountant wants the numbers in a particular format.

Then you’ve got a problem.

Google is a great co-operative platform.  It’s got just about everything a small trucking business could want – word processor, spreadsheet, maps, and who-knows-whatever-else.  But Google is a platform, not a solution for the long-term.  You can work with it, but you’re going to work.

Computers have changed the trucking industry.  Specialized programs that handle the tasks – accounting, routing, dispatching, billing – are what you need to manage a trucking business.  While it looks like a lot to learn at the front end, the savings in time pays for the investment.  By having a system that organizes your trucking business and makes it simple to find what you need when you need it is priceless.

Want to find out what a TMS can do – without you doing all the programming first?

We have a free trial for TruckingOffice!  You’ll discover that organizing your trucking business is easy and fast.  You’ll have better control over your finances and your equipment.  What are you waiting for?  Your free trial can start right now!