For a trucking company to compete in today’s world, it needs to be able to leverage the very best modern tech and talent on offer.
Failing to move with the times can result in a lack of proper vehicle safety, an unoptimized fleet management system, and a drop in customers, yet unfortunately, making any large and meaningful changes is one of the hardest endeavors for any business owner.
The trucking industry is currently full to the brim with opportunity for those business savvy enough to reach out and grab it, but it’s not without its own array of unique challenges.
If you feel like you need to revitalize your trucking company in time to thrive in the world of tomorrow, it’s worth checking out these tips on how to get it done right.
Explore Sustainable Solutions
Green living and working aren’t just part of a post-modern fashion trend – sustainability is integral to the health of the planet, and the trucking industry has a responsibility to practice it, particularly considering the size of its carbon footprint.
A move toward running a greener trucking business may come with a vast array of benefits, such as tax breaks, more efficient fuel processes, greater customer connection, positive brand growth, lower-cost packaging, and increased longevity.
Making this move sooner rather than later can help you stay ahead of the competition and set a good example in the industry, and this is never bad news for your brand.
A few great ways to start smashing sustainability targets is to optimize your routes, to encourage greener driving habits, to partner with green brokers and shippers, and to cut back on non-sustainable packaging.
There are also electric trucks available now, and they’ll probably only improve in quality in the near future, so make sure you watch this space.
Upgrade Your Tracking Tech
Tracking technology has come a long way in recent years, so it could be time to revisit this area if you hope to get modernized. It’s not just the truck that needs tracking – it’s the individual parts of the truck, the package, the driver’s behavior, and plenty of other factors that can neatly tie in with the analytics on your fleet management software system.
Use the Right Fleet Management Software
A dependable fleet management system can act as the foundation of everything your company does.
If you’re using outdated tech or tech that doesn’t quite match up to your evolving needs, then it’s time for a change. From real-time route planning to account management and absence control, an all-in-one software hub can bolster your productivity and make life easier in general.
Why is the right tech so important? Because it can help you leverage valuable data, enabling you to make better decisions in the future. A single truck journey can yield a wealth of instrumental data; it’s up to you and your tech to capture it and use it to optimize your existing processes.
From route planning to engine maintenance and driver safety, there’s plenty of data to record and learn from, provided you’ve got the means to make the most out of it.
Your software infrastructure should be easy to use, scalable and accessible. Otherwise, it just gets in the way when what it needs to do is give you a solid foundation on which to develop the backend of your ultra-modern trucking company.
Partner with the Right People
Strong business connections are a must in the trucking industry. Since trucking relies so heavily on the collaboration of various different roles, companies, individuals, and disciplines, developing a good network of like-minded professionals is critical to mission success.
This can also refer to the company you buy your hardware from. Whether it’s parts for your trucks or your packaging, you’ll need to be able to ensure consistent quality. For instance, when it comes to maintaining precision and safety in your fleet, you might explore advanced systems like hunter wheel alignment to ensure long-term reliability and reduce tyre wear across your vehicles.
If you’re hoping to chase innovation and consistently improve on every detail of every mile, enlisting the help of a trucking technology like TruckLabs might be in your best interests. Sometimes, outsourcing to seasoned experts can give your business the boost that takes it to the next level. Outsourcing is an incredibly modern way of doing business and one that plenty of growing companies rely on in order to retain their flexibility, maximize their budget, and scale as their responsibilities demand.
Utilize Load Boards
Load boards can be a superb way to find quick work and just the right kind of work too. No matter what you’re used to transporting, what kind of vehicles you have, or what you’re capable of handling in a single day, a load board will probably have a gig for you.
This can be a great way of generating extra income to help with business expansion, or it can be a superb way to meet new and valuable connections.
Plenty of the best gigs are advertised solely on load boards too, so if you haven’t already, you should get signed up and start setting yourself some parameters.
Build a Great Website
Poor trucking websites need to bite the dust in favor of hyper-modern, sleek, sophisticated, and highly professional ones. Nothing dates a company quite as badly as a website that looks stuck in the mid-2000s.
A great website emanates professionalism and dependability – two traits that are essential to any trucking company that cares about the perception of its integrity.
Thankfully, setting up a good website is easier than ever before, especially since most of the best platforms, like Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress, have very easy-to-use tools that can help you build a beautiful website with virtually zero prior knowledge of how to do so.
Many modern clients operate entirely online nowadays, so if you want to fully modernize your business, you’ll need a great website that acts as your online hub of activity, a digital storefront through which clients all over the world can access your wonderful services.
Trucking is an integral part of what makes modern society work in today’s world, so there will always be rewards to find for those who constantly seek to progress their trucking businesses to the next level.