Truckload freight capacity is the most highly fragmented, difficult to manage market segment in the transportation industry. Some 80 percent of available, over-the-road truckload capacity is provided by hundreds of thousands of single-truck owner-operators and “micro-carriers” with 9 trucks or less. It’s a market ripe for new digital collaboration technologies – particularly mobile smart-phone based tools and platforms -- that can help freight brokers grow by building better, more reliable capacity networks of trusted micro-carriers. More importantly, however, is how these platforms and mobile tools can also help thousands of small, independent truckers find loads faster, operate more efficiently, develop more…
Finding convenient and available parking is a significant problem for truckers. In a recent study, parking was ranked as the second highest concern that truckers have today and as their number one cause of stress on the job. When truckers are unable to find parking, it increases the likelihood that they will violate hours of service limits, which becomes a safety and liability issue. Lack of parking also may lead truckers to park in unsafe areas and spend significant amounts of time trying to find parking, which results in lost revenue. Hours of Service Limits Truckers generally view truck stops…
Tax season is upon us! If that statement makes you feel a creeping dread, you’re not alone. Preparing for tax filing and the filing itself can be stressful for both owner-operators and small trucking companies. Tax filing is a sort of reckoning of finances for the year and it’s something that every business owner must deal with. Establishing Good Habits There are ways for owner-operators and leaders of small trucking companies to reduce the stress of tax season. First among these is preparation. Whether you’ve set up your business as a sole proprietor, single member LLC, LLC partnership or corporation,…
For most of us in the United States, spring has either just arrived or it’s looming on the horizon. As the days grow longer, temperatures rise and roads become easier to navigate, business for owner-operators and small carriers tends to increase significantly. Here are some tips on how you can prepare for a busy and profitable spring and summer. Maintenance Make sure that your truck cooling systems are maintained and running properly in preparation for the heat of late spring and summer. This entails checking the levels and colors of antifreeze/coolant, which you should do every 500 hours/20,000 miles/three months…
If you’re in the trucking business, you’ve probably heard of The Mid-America Trucking Show or MATS for short, which began in the 1970s. Since then, it’s become one of the most important events of the year for truckers. It is a three-day conference for owner-operators and carriers that brings together brokers, shippers, 3PLs, truckers, owner-operators and vendors from all over the world to network, attend educational sessions and learn about new technologies and services. MATS will be held this March 28 through March 30 in Louisville, Ky., at the Kentucky Exhibition Center, near the Louisville International Airport. Over that three-day…
The capacity crunch of 2018 shined an unforgiving light on the issue of detention – making drivers wait excessively for their trucks to be loaded or unloaded at shipping docks. The ugly truth – poor planning practices by shippers increased anxiety with an already stressed-out driver community, created unnecessary inefficiencies and extra costs, and left badly-needed capacity sitting idle for an unacceptable amount of time, wasted on the sidelines. And in a market already short of drivers and tight on capacity, drivers have a choice: put up with shippers who waste their time, or reject those loads and gravitate to…