How Do You Know If You’re Making Money in Trucking?

IF YOU CAN’T SEE MY MIRRORS
I CAN’T SEE YOU

Making Money in Trucking

I was following a truck down US 30 in Ohio this week.  The state and trucking are coming alive.  The seed trucks are moving tons of corn and soybeans to be planted, and I lost count of how many trucks I passed who were hauling pipes and equipment for the pipeline they’re building here.

Lots of trucking in Ohio now.  Somebody is making a mint of money off this pipeline job.

Aren’t they?

How Do You Know If You’re Making Money?

In one sentence, we can sum up the key to making a business succeed.  Are you making money?

In another sentence, we can show how a business fails.  Where are you losing money?

It’s almost impossible to think that someone isn’t making money in trucking all those pipeline loads.  But do you know if your next load is making you money – or costing you money?

It happens sometimes that we take loads that barely cover expenses because we’re trapped in an area where the shippers want to pay next to nothing to get their loads hauled.  I’ve taken a few just to get out of those dead zones.

I didn’t know then what I know now.

Trying to figure out my costs with multiple spreadsheets was near impossible.  One spreadsheet had my fuel expenses (so I could figure out the IFTA) and another had my driver settlements (so I’d be sure to pay the taxes right) and another had my maintenance costs.  When it came down to it, I had 5 different spreadsheets of data but no idea if I was making money.

“If you’re not in my mirrors, I can’t see you.”  In other words, it’s important to know what’s behind you.  That applies to business too.  We have to know what we’ve done in the past and be able to examine it.  We need to analyze what we did right and where we took the wrong turn.

I know now.  I know because now I track everything – but not on 5 spreadsheets.  I track with TruckingOffice trucking management software.  I enter the details for the invoice as soon as I get the load.  When I deliver it, I add the other details – and that’s done.

But those numbers tell me a much bigger story.  I’d be a fool not to study them to figure out what my cost per mile is – and therefore, how much I have to get to haul a load.

I don’t have to work hard to do that with TruckingOffice.  I’ve got a half-dozen reports that can show me how I’m making money in trucking.

• Cost per mile
• Revenue per mile
• Cost per load
• Revenue per load
• Deadhead miles
• Profit and loss report

TruckingOffice makes it easy.

Are you ready to give it a try?  Give us a month’s worth of data and you’ll be in the know about your business.  We’ll give you a free trial just to let you see how much you can learn from your business.