Unique Ways To Improve Your Trucking Business
No matter how great you think your trucking company is, there’s room for improvement in at least one area. No company is perfect, after all. That’s why we’ve put together this list of unique ways to improve your trucking business. We hope they’ll help you.
Reduce Unnecessary Costs
While this could pertain to a lot of things, in this case, it means avoiding fines and speeding tickets. Many drivers try to get their route done as quickly as possible in order to start their next one and get more pay. You could also get a ticket if your semi is overweight. A great way to ensure that this doesn’t happen is to equip each truck with an axel weighing scale. These can benefit your business in a multitude of ways, but the most significant is avoiding fines for being too heavy.
Even though your company’s goal is to transfer as much freight as possible, you should never do it at the expense of people’s safety. Find ways to discourage it, such as docking pay for getting tickets or giving bonuses to safe drivers.
Find Ways To Save on Gas
Overspending on gas is another sore spot for trucking companies. Many have found relief by investing in fuel cards with great benefits or encouraging their drivers to shut off their engines when idling, but there are other ways to do this, too. One option is to plan a route before leaving. While GPS has come a long way in helping drivers get to their destination in time, they never consider fuel usage. Planning the trip ahead of time can help you better determine which path will save you the most on gas.
Another way to do this is by contemplating the aerodynamics of your semis. Air resistance and drag make a massive difference in how much fuel your trucks will burn in order to reach the desired speed. If you use designs and attachments that improve these drawbacks, you’ll see a noticeable difference in your gas bills.
Decrease Driver Turnover
Our final unique way to improve your trucking business suggestion is one that we feel often gets overlooked: the rate of turnover for drivers. You’d be surprised to find out how many professional truck drivers don’t last. While it sometimes comes down to personal choice, many turnovers are the company’s fault. Either the drivers weren’t trained well enough, didn’t receive necessary benefits, or simply weren’t getting paid enough for the time they put in.
Regardless of the reason, many companies don’t make changes to fix this issue because they don’t want to waste their money. However, what many of them don’t realize is that the process of finding and hiring new talent costs tens of thousands of dollars per driver they employ. If your turnover rate is very high, put the money to better use by keeping your current staff happy.