Whether you own a trucking company with one large truck and a single driver or one with hundreds of trucks and scores of drivers working in round-the-clock shifts, streamlining your business process is key to making sure your business runs smoothly and turns a profit. The following are three things you can do to optimize your business practices.
Refine Communication
Businesses grow successfully when employees know exactly what their roles are and stay up-to-date with exactly what they’re expected to do. A lack of communication between drivers, dispatch and other employees in the company can cause breakdowns that could affect your company’s bottom line. Having clear and open communication between departments means that everyone’s role is well-defined and promotes the idea that everyone is working together as a team. According to Infiniti Workforce Solutions, you should make sure that there’s clear communication between drivers and dispatch so that any issues that arise that could jeopardize your business can be dealt with immediately. Also, be sure that everyone knows who they need to contact when they need help.
Freight Factoring
In order to make money, a company has to get paid for its services. Accounts receivable departments often have to chase after invoices long after shipments have been delivered to their destinations. According to OTR, even with the average invoice being paid off within 30-45 days, roughly 60 percent are paid off late, a situation that can put a trucking company’s cash flow and ability to function at risk. Working with a freight tracking company could eliminate a lot of this financial uncertainty for businesses. Freight factoring, also called accounts receivable factoring, is a type of invoicing system where trucking companies are paid immediately by a freight factoring company. This company, acting as a middle man, will pay off unpaid invoices within 24 hours, taking anywhere from 1.5 % to 5% for a fee. There is no credit check required, although the freight factoring company may look at your clients’ creditworthiness to determine whether or not to work with them.
Choose Your Niche
One of the best ways to streamline a trucking business is to narrow down your trucking segment and pick your niche. Focusing on a specific niche can help a company own that segment in the market, making it the go-to service for a specific product in an area. Check out your area, and go after markets that are underserved so that you can excel at and dominate them.
Running a trucking business can have many challenges, but there are ways like the ones above that can help alleviate some of these challenges. If trucking businesses make the effort to follow the suggestions outlined above, they can make sure that their processes are as streamlined as possible.
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