Are you trusting your memory? Or maybe a white board? Or a deck of index cards?
For me, keeping track of LTL shipping was enough to stop me from trying it. I liked hauling the full loads – even the heaviest loads – so long as I didn’t have to try to match partial loads together. It’s a lot more work trying to get them to match up, but many times it pays off if you are good at it.
I know a lot of drivers who like LTL shipping. Getting a half a load here and a couple of pallets there – it doesn’t bother them to spend time to figure it out. The methods of keeping track of all the details range from using a scrap of paper with a couple of addresses and remembering the rest to a white board with arrows and lots of scratching out. One driver uses index cards. I don’t know what would happen if he dropped them.
The secret to success in LTL shipping?
Use the right tool to plan and expedite your work.
The right tool for the task – ask any good carpenter or plumber or engine-repair mechanic and they’ll tell you that the price for the right tool is far lower than the time trying to force a pair of pliers to do the work of a ratchet wrench. The right tool speeds up the process and reduces wasted time.
A good tool for LTL shipping would let you list the possible loads and let you move them around to put together a load. It would use PC*Miler to compute the mileage to help you make the best choices for bids and routes. A great tool will let you enter all the data in a One Minute Dispatch form to manage the billing, the route, sending the shipper your bill of lading and rate confirmation, and notifying you if the invoice isn’t paid on time.
Whatever system you’ve created for yourself is probably pretty effective – you may have been using it a long time and thinking about learning something new feels like a waste of time. Your spreadsheets and whiteboard do the trick – why would you change?
Would you change if entering the data about a load one time let you pick the route, let you bill as soon as you got the signed bill of lading, and computed your IFTA for you in minutes?
Does your LTL system do that for you?
Ours does.
Try our TruckingOffice Pro. We’ll help you get over that learning curve and let you see how much more time you can spend on the road and not trying to put together a load. We’re confident you’ll find it the right tool for the job.
Sign up for our free 30 day trial and select the TruckingOffice Pro product today.
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