Owning and operating a trucking business can be a demanding endeavor. Recruiting drivers, managing customer invoices (as well as other documents), and booking loads are just a few of the challenges faced by carriers on a daily basis. Administrative tasks like these, however important, can take up precious hours of the day which you would otherwise spend actually growing your business. Trucking business owners, then, find themselves in a difficult position: How do they dedicate more time to truly build their operations while still making sure all the day-to-day paperwork gets done?
Thanks to convenient technology, we can provide an answer: Automation.
With this post, let's go over a few steps you can take to automate your trucking business, so you can spend less time sifting through files and more time securing loads.
Find the Right Drivers Fast with Recruiting Software
Turnover rates in the trucking industry are notoriously high. It's normal for carriers, and especially carriers that specialize in long hauls, to have an employee/contractor retention rate that reflects new drivers leaving within six months or sooner. Because of this high turnover, recruitment can be a costly and time-intensive part of a trucking business' operations.
Enter recruiting software. Recruiting software can filter out applicants who don't have the qualifications your business desires. Many recruiting applications also streamline communications with potential hires by automatically sending out appropriate, customizable emails as applicants move through each stage of the hiring process.
By using recruiting software, you can quickly home in on the candidates that best fit your needs as a carrier. Check out this Nov. 2020 article that goes over some of the best recruiting software options for small, medium, and enterprise-level businesses.
Accelerate Invoicing with Document Management
However necessary, doing paperwork is time-consuming. This is especially true when it comes to invoices. Keeping track of your sent invoices means keeping track of your profits. In other words, without a good system for managing your documents, you risk leaving money on the table—or jammed into a filing cabinet. And ensuring documents are both efficiently completed and safely stored becomes exponentially more difficult with each new driver involved with a trucking operation.
The solution? A digital document management system. These help you keep all of your important documents in one place and convert your physical paperwork into secure, shareable files.
Some of the best document management systems also offer tools like esignature support and file type conversion (if you want to change a PDF to a Word DOCX for example). If you decide on a team-focused DMS option, each of your drivers will be able to scan and upload documents under their own account ID, making it easy to separate one driver's invoices from another's. If you think a DMS could help your business thrive, considering taking a quick look at this guide to 2020's best document management systems.
Instantly Book Loads with Transportation Management
Reviewing rate confirmations for potential errors and following up with customers to make sure their payment is coming through can take up a significant amount of time that could be better spent actually securing loads. But what if you could receive reliable rate confirmations at the press of a button?
Relaymile's new TMS allows carriers to book loads with a single click and immediately receive a rate confirmation via email. With instant rate confirmations (generated from the same basic info posted to the load board), you can spend less time phoning customers to make sure you're on the same page and rest easy knowing that your backhauls are ready for pickup.
Are you interested in an alternative to the standard trucking business model? If so, take a look at how Relaymile is reimagining trucking to provide drivers with a healthier, more consistent standard of work.
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