Saving up for your trucking authority is easier said than done. The fees can run upwards of $300 if you do it yourself, or a lot more if you hire a company to do it for you. That’s a lot of money for owner-operators who are just striking out on their own. Did you ever think that your trucking software can help?
Track Spending Tendencies With Expense Tracking Software
Saving up for your trucking authority fees is already difficult enough. Imagine how much harder it is without having a way of knowing how your hard-earned money is being spent. That’s exactly the problem that expense tracking software solves for owner-operators.
Identifying spending patterns can reveal adjustments that need to be made not only for owner-operators to be able to afford their trucking authority-related fees, but for the long-term health of their business as well.
Expense tracking is a must-have for owner-operators aiming to obtain their trucking authority. Expense tracking provides a custom snapshot of the financial insights that matter to owner-operators, such as
- Food and living expenses
- Fuel
- Tolls
- Maintenance costs
- Insurance payments
- Loan payments.
When you see the total amount spent on a specific type of item that you feel like you’re spending too much money on, too frequently, then you can make changes. Instead of buying so much coffee on the road, maybe buying a thermos and brewing your joe at home will save you money in the long run. Learn how to cook on the road and you’ll save hundreds of dollars every month.
Savings tip: Run an expense report with TruckingOffice trucking software. Track your expenses by date, which makes planning for expenses on trips easier than ever before. Then those extra savings can go toward paying the fees for your trucking authority.
Improve Fuel Efficiency and IFTA?
Can you believe how much fuel costs right now?
Improving fuel efficiency however possible is smart. It’s not just about saving money. Less pollution is something we can all get behind.
When you know your routes for a dispatch, you can plan to get your fuel when you need it. Sometimes that’s at your preferred station, but sometimes, it’s also about not buying too much fuel. How much does fuel weigh? Do you need both tanks full if you’re only going on a 100-mile trip? Maybe keeping the weight of the fuel down improves your fuel mileage in some small way. LIttle things make a difference, right?
Knowing how to save money on fuel by making sure your truck is as fuel-efficient as possible is simple. But let’s take it a step further. Trucking software that creates an IFTA report will track where a trucker buys fuel and how much. That can help a trucker know where to buy fuel to reduce their IFTA tax bill. That can be one way toward big savings.
Savings tip: Pay yourself every time you fill up your fuel tanks. Put $5 or $10 into your trucking authority savings fund. If you run an IFTA report to know where you should buy your next tankful, pay yourself for paying attention to that tax payment that’s coming up.
Cut Down on Maintenance Costs
Repeatedly having to fix the same problems is a waste of precious time and money. Having a trucking software that tracks problems that are cost the most to fix can guide owner-operators to make smarter decisions – like when it’s better to replace the engine instead of buying a new rig.
Another way trucking software helps owner-operators save funds for their trucking authority fees is by creating preventative maintenance plans. Roadside repairs are always more costly than planned service jobs. By creating a preventative maintenance plan, truckers benefit from receiving alerts whenever they’re due to have preventative maintenance work performed. Whenever it’s time for preventative maintenance helps maintain DOT compliance (and then you don’t have to pay fines and penalties!).
Saving tip: whenever you take your rig in for scheduled maintenance, pay yourself. Put 10% of the cost of the service into your trucking authority savings account.
Easy to Say, Harder to Do
Any financial planner is going to give a lot of advice about how you should manage your money. We’re not claiming to be financial planners. We just have a few ideas here about how to sock away the pennies toward paying for your trucking authority that may not be so hard to endure, especially when we’re all tightening our belts.
Finding those little ways to save up – effectively investing in your future by getting your trucking authority – may make the process a little easier. The key is to set aside money consistently. If you put away $5 per week, $300 is about 15 months. Drop $25 into your savings per month and you’ll have it in a year.
Having a hard time thinking you can find an extra $25 per month when the other trucking authority requirements – like insurance and bonds – cost so much more?
That’s why your trucking software investment you make needs to pay off. Owner-operators who want their own trucking authority are searching for the right trucking software. Running a trucking business requires that an owner-operator can check on all aspects of the business, not just the road in front of them. That’s even more important when they have their authority.
Getting your trucking authority can be intimidating. You don’t want to waste your money or time with software that’s not going to take you where you want to go. TruckingOffice was created by truckers, for truckers with their goals in mind. So how about you take us out for a spin? No risk. On us.
Recent Comments