Is trucking a seasonal business? Some truckers say yes, some say no. It’s about how you look at the industry and how you see your role in it. Sure, loads are not paying well right now. It’s a tough market. We here at TruckingOffice see it, too. Business is tough. But we are convinced that you can ride it out if you know your trucking business numbers. When you know your value, you know what you can and cannot do.

That’s why we offer a Trucking Company Overview Report. To give you the knowledge you need when the trucking industry gets crazy.

It’s never the perfect market.

There are always loads that don’t pay enough. There are always trucking companies that don’t treat truckers well. The world is not perfect.

These challenges are what we face daily in the trucking industry. But we don’t deserve disrespect or to be underpaid. We need to know how valuable we are. That starts by knowing what we need to maintain our businesses and our obligations to our families.

Know Your Trucking Numbers

There’s a minimum amount you need to keep your trucking business afloat. Anything less than that and you’re paying shippers for the privilege of delivering their goods. Knowing your trucking business numbers is critical. But it’s not so easy to calculate. Let’s start with just three regular expenses.

• Truck loan payments
• Insurance payments
• Regular rig maintenance

That doesn’t even include the variables, like fuel prices.

Sure, you can take your regular payments and divide them by a number of months. But how do you calculate your revenue per mile? Frankly, that’s a far more important number than a monthly cost. But that’s what most accounting programs calculate. Figuring out a cost per mile? The average accounting program just can’t handle it.

Just like the Coyote can’t ever manage to get ahead of the Roadrunner, that’s what happens when I don’t know my cost per mile.

• I don’t know what loads to avoid
• I’ll bid on the wrong loads
• My bid will be too low.

You’ll hear old truckers say they just know what to bid on a load. Experience has taught them. They may say they don’t need to know trucking business numbers. They feel it.

In this economy, we can’t wait for experience. And we don’t have to because TruckingOffice PRO can show you what you need to know.

How to know what loads to avoid

Old truckers can sometimes say “that load just feels wrong.” They can’t explain why they don’t want to take it. And they don’t have to. That’s what owner-operators can do. We can simply refuse to bid on a load. We can scroll past it on the load board and look for something else.

But what if… instead of intuition, we use numbers? What if we have the ability to calculate that number that will give us the data to decide if a load is good – or at least good enough? What if you know your trucking business numbers and don’t have to worry that you’re making the wrong decision?

That number isn’t magic. But that number is hard to come by if you don’t use TruckingOffice PRO trucking software’s Company Overview Report.

How to know your worth

TruckingOffice PRO can tell you how much it costs you to haul a load based on your history. Track your fuel, your expenses, your dispatches, your tolls… and your TruckingOffice PRO will tell you what it costs for you to drive a mile. (It will also compute your IFTA and IRP in seconds. And help you find the best route for a load. And keep track of your maintenance.)

Then think about your household expenses. Mortgage, car loans, insurance, savings for the future? What price do you need to cover those? What’s your time worth?

Know your worth by thinking about numbers, not intuition.

Looking Past the Numbers

If the choice is take an unprofitable load or deadhead home – what should you do?

That’s a very individual choice. Some truckers look at the load and say, “I’d rather just go home.”

Driving an empty trailer uses less fuel than a bad paying load, right?

Other truckers might use a bad-paying load to get to a place where they’ll find better paying loads. And others use an averaging system to decide. They’ll take all the loads of the week and figure the average income. So taking a bad load may be worth it to them.

We’re not going to tell you how to make those decisions. TruckingOffice PRO is here to give you the numbers to help you make that decision for yourself. That’s why we think it’s important that you have a chance to use TruckingOffice trucking software to decide for yourself if our program is right for you. But we know that in this economy, you need time to make a decision. So take your time and use our TruckingOffice PRO free trial. Sign up now to discover the worth of a software built for truckers by truckers.

KNOW YOUR WORTH. That’s what we have to offer you. Sign up today for that free trial!