Trucking Business Goals
It’s that time of year again, when we set goals and forget them in 21 days. At least, that’s what most of us do. So did you set your trucking business goals for this year?
So we’re going to make the effort to remind you at least once a month to come back to those goals. Because it’s unlikely to see growth toward goals if they aren’t regularly reviewed. And we have a way to examine the metrics you need in your trucking business.
What Trucking Business Goals?
We’re going to suggest three goals for you to set this year.
- Financial Goals
- Practical Improvements
- Metrics
Financial Goals
Every business has to make money. Even if the IRS says you can lose money and still stay in business, it’s stupid to stay in business if you’re not making enough profit. Who wants to volunteer to drive freight across the country at a personal lost?
Nobody wants to do that.
So examining your accounting practices is the simple, easiest place to set your trucking business goals.
- Are you billing promptly?
- Are you tracking your slow pays (and remembering not to haul freight for them?)
- Do you review your bookkeeping on a weekly basis?
If you’re not billing promptly because you have to go home and create an invoice, you’re in for a great surprise with TruckingOffice PRO trucking software. You can create an invoice while the shipping crew is unloading your trailer. As soon as your BOL is signed, you can send that invoice out and start the payment clock.
It’s called cash flow for a reason. You’re going to pay out money for dozens of expenses per week. If the money’s not coming in, then trouble is coming.
Practical Improvements
Let’s talk for a hot minute about how you maintain your rig. We’re going to assume that you are doing regular inspections of your truck and trailer. That’s the bare minimum you should be doing to be sure your rig is safe.
But what about the things that aren’t so easy to see?
There are a number of maintenance tasks that are scheduled according to time or miles, not just based on an eyeball evaluation.
How about setting a goal to review your maintenance tasks on a regular basis? Or to schedule the tasks you know you need to do – like oil changes – with your preferred technicians, instead of whoever you get whenever you get around to it on the road?
By building a consistent relationship with the techs you know and trust, they know your equipment and can help you out when things go wrong. They might even be able to head off trouble because they know your rig.
Taxes and Emergency Practices
Another practice you might want to consider is how you track your IFTA miles and taxes due. By reviewing your taxes, you can start to set aside the funds before they’re due. Instead of going into credit card debt or having to resort to factoring to cover your costs, the money is already set aside.
While we’re talking about saving for taxes, why not set a goal to save up an emergency fund? Having a debit card with $5,000 in your back pocket when the on-the-road emergency threatens to end your trucking business isn’t just smart, it’s necessary.
Review Your Metrics
One of those things that they talk about in goal setting is having a way to judge your success. Often, that’s just the financial numbers. But with TruckingOffice PRO, we’ve got Trucker Stats™ that will give you in-depth metrics to examine your trucking business goals and see if you’re meeting them.
Whether you want to look at your business from a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis, your metrics –
- profit per mile
- expenses per week
- gross income per month
give you the information about how you’re doing as a trucking business. The metrics for your trucking business goals are the goal posts for your future trucking business success. You’re not going to get those numbers by chance. TruckingOffice PRO has the prepared reports you need.
Is It Time For Your Own Trucking Authority?
It’s a crazy rodeo out there in the trucking industry right now. But one goal that you might be ready to consider is getting your own trucking authority. You’ll make more money with your own authority. More opportunities for growth and expansion come with your trucking authority.
Should getting your trucking authority be a trucking business goal for you this year?
See you next month when we talk about your trucking business goals again!
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