The trucking industry, as everything in logistics, heavily depends on the optimization of working processes. The more time you save, the more money you earn. And scheduling everything loosely is not the option, because staying busy always means making more money. So, how do you work it all out?
Balancing management and truck driving can be hard if you’re doing it all by yourself. Having a good dispatcher will optimize your business, bring you more revenue and more five-star reviews from clients.
This is where dispatching services step in: https://fleet.care/.
How having a dispatcher impacts your trucking business?
Having a trucking dispatcher these days is necessary and even essential for a successful and prosperous business in the trucking industry. Load and price negotiations, truckers’ safety, scheduling, and paperwork ‒ a dispatcher relieves you of these duties, taking the responsibility for every process that impacts the quality of service. It’s quite easier to hire a dispatcher on a salary than trying to figure out every process on your own. Besides, you’ll actually save more money ‒ having a tight but smart schedule for truckers as well as full loads will benefit you, and hiring a dispatcher is definitely worth it.
Of course, you can delegate some of these responsibilities to a truck driver ‒ a good driver can actually figure out the best route and do negotiations, but a dispatcher knows every nuance about it. For example, dispatchers can give drivers optimized routes that will not only save time and fuel but also avoid bad weather conditions, which can be quite common in the US.
Overwhelming yourself with too many logistic tasks won’t help you a lot ‒ instead, you can grow your trucking business in more ways.
Let’s take a look at the example here: you have, let’s say, two truck drivers. Both of them have families to visit at least once a week, both of them work in the same state and have the ability to spend more time at home when they’re not on the road. You have to create a schedule that acknowledges these nuances, so every driver won’t spend on the road more time than it’s allowed legally. The said schedule should also bring you a profit, which means the bigger loads you get, the better.
All these nuances are easy to miss if you do it all yourself or let drivers take extra responsibilities. Time means money, and you have to convert it really effectively.
All in all, a good dispatcher will do freight negotiations, route calculation, and schedule management. You could use that ‒ the competition in the US trucking industry is really high, and 2022 will be full of challenges ‒ you have to be prepared by optimizing every process you can.
A few ways you can make money in the trucking business
So, what are your main options when you have to make your trucking business really profitable?
- You can find and manage freight on your own ‒ tough, time-consuming, but you’re in full control of everything. Well, at least for the start ‒ when your business grows, you have no choice but to find someone who will help. This brings us to another option.
- You can seek help from friends or relatives without paying them. While it’s a good opportunity to have someone you trust to help you, money is the best motivation, no matter how close you are. Dispatchers exist because they get paid for being responsible and managing necessary and even vital business processes. Also, employment is a guarantee from both sides ‒ when you are only “asking for help”, you have no guarantees. At least, you’re saving money on hiring someone, which is not so bad, if you think about it.
- Of course, you can hire someone for an adequate wage that can be proportional to the work they do. That’s fair, and everyone is winning here. Hiring a dispatcher will give you an advantage of better organization, which is really important in this industry. You can find an employee like this anywhere ‒ from headhunting websites, through HR services, or even based on recommendations.
- Also, you can hire a dispatching service ‒ this way, you are guaranteed to hire a professional. Dispatchers from companies have experience in the industry and can manage everything from scheduling to paperwork. This option is perfect if you have big plans for your business.
All in all, time really is money, and a good dispatcher clearly knows that. This is exactly what you get after hiring this employee ‒ a good revenue and busy schedule that benefits everyone: you, the company, truck drivers, other employees, and, eventually, clients. Most big trucking companies have at least one dispatcher ‒ you can call it a key to success because once you want to have more freight and more trucks, managing it all can get really hard.
Optimized supply chains
The globalization process never stops! The global market always means more opportunities for everyone, including the trucking industry. Even after the crises caused by the coronavirus pandemic, economies will merge and overlap, resulting in more freight to carry.
Supply chains get more diverse: raw materials and parts from different countries can be shipped to different factories instead of being made at the same place. As for the trucking business, this is a perfect opportunity to get more contracts and find better revenue. This diversification is healthy both for economies and for everyone being a part of supply chains.
We like this particular trend ‒ it means more work, and more work always means more money!
There are more trends to come, of course ‒ but these three dominate the industry for now. They for sure will develop further, and other trends will start to bloom depending on the global situation.
We know for sure that in the trucking industry there’s one main trend that won’t change anytime soon: business processes automatization and optimization. When you save your time on paperwork, scheduling, and tracking, you eventually have more time for actual work with freight.
