Best Dispatch Software For Small Trucking Companies - “When you got it, a truck brought it to you. Food, clothing, medicine, fuel for households and industry. The day our trucks stop America is over."
Imagine if all the trucks in America could be stacked - they would reach the moon, claims Target Transportation. How about more numbers: According to research, the market size of the trucking industry is more than $193 billion, with nearly 616,700 companies in the United States providing trucking services. Trucks move about 11.84 billion tons of freight annually, about 72.5 percent of all US freight, with nearly 12 million people involved in trucking-related activities.
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All these impressive statistics prove that trucking, the dominant freight mode (particularly influenced by the development of the e-commerce sector), is a vast and complex system involving multiple operations. And like any other industry, it cannot avoid experiencing the effects of global digital transformation. Various technologies are implemented to manage and streamline transportation operations. In this article we talk about how software products in truck management help to optimize the main processes in trucking.
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As trucking is part of the supply chain, logistics and transportation industry, be sure to check out our related articles for a broader perspective:
Trucking software is a type of transportation management software that helps trucking companies manage their daily operations and increase efficiency by integrating all aspects of the business into one system. Such software is specially designed for freight forwarders, but some functions can also be used by other parties involved in the freight transportation process, e.g. B. brokers, shippers, manufacturers, etc.
As with any other management technology, the main goal of trucking software is to reduce manual intervention, streamline operations, synchronize data, and minimize human error. Running a trucking company involves such important processes as:
There are a number of all-in-one solutions on the market that cover all of these aspects and help manage a trucking company (check out our overview of fleet management software in a dedicated article). Some popular ones are Axon Software, ProTransport, and TruckingOffice. They allow you to bring all your operations into one system and provide all the basic industry-specific features.
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The day-to-day challenges of the trucking business are similar for both large companies with huge fleets and owners with a single truck (91.3 percent of trucking companies operate fewer than 6 trucks). However, the unique needs of each trucking company may require different solutions and approaches. So let's take a closer look at each part of the process, the issues involved, and how the technology is tackling industry-specific issues.
A Convey study shows that 84 percent of customers are unlikely to return to a brand after just one bad delivery experience. Forwarders are the ones whose job it is to make sure that everything goes smoothly in the delivery process.
Shippers are at the heart of the trucking business as they coordinate the movement of cargo and organize loads, customers, trucks and drivers into a schedule. Shipping is linked to all other aspects in one way or another. That's what it's all about.
Planning and organizing loading and delivery involves finding loading routes, getting all the details and requirements about the loads, contacting shippers and consignees, scheduling collection and disposal, etc. However, all sorts of things happen in this business all the time. Trucks break down and require maintenance, loads are canceled or postponed, traffic and weather cause delays. There are too many variables to manage with pen and paper.
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Negotiating with clients and keeping them informed is similar to the previous one as it also requires constant contact with everyone involved. This includes communicating with ETAs, notifying potential flight schedule changes, arranging potential arrests, etc. If you have a large fleet and don't use software, your dispatchers are likely to spend most of their time on the phone, torn between getting updates of drivers and informing customers about these updates.
Driver assignment is about creating the most efficient schedule with minimized idle time, ensuring all drivers are busy, considering their preferences as well as their equipment type and available operating hours (HOS). That's a Herculean task when you try to do it manually, especially when all kinds of glitches and changes happen every day.
Routing, or creating the optimal and most cost- and fuel-efficient route, can be part of the shipper's routine or the responsibility of the driver, depending on the company. We will go into more detail about this in the next section.
Truck and cargo tracking is crucial to provide customers with the most accurate updates and further planning. In turn, not using tracking software means endless phone calls that distract and annoy drivers, and frustrate customers because they don't know what's happening with their cargo.
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To ensure compliance with important regulations, safety standards set by the government, such as regular medical and maintenance inspections, must be followed. While it's more the driver's responsibility, dispatchers must monitor compliance procedures to avoid fines and quickly discover potential equipment failures. See below for more details on this part.
Handling documents such as valuation confirmations, journeys, bills of lading and sometimes invoicing is a large part of a freight forwarder's job that requires a great deal of attention and precision. Entering information manually is always error-prone and mountains of paper complicate the process. In addition, without a computer system, it is almost impossible to collect data from various sources in order to generate the required reports.
Modern technology enables the shipping process to be streamlined by merging information from telematics devices, Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs), trackers, and driver data into one system.
Planning When considering a trucking system, ensure shippers can easily see the available trucks that meet the needs of the specific cargo, as well as their current location. This allows dispatchers to assign them based on the driver's HOS. In addition, some tools will automatically suggest the next charge to the driver based on their proximity and the remaining hours available. Or, depending on how your business operates, drivers will receive automatic notifications when you have a suitable pickup near their location.
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Tracking Tracking the movement of goods throughout the delivery process is a feature used by all players in this game. A vehicle's GPS device or smartphone application allows real-time tracking of a truck's location and tracking its progress. Customers can be given access to the tracker for full visibility and/or alerts can be set to automatically notify the driver's estimated time of arrival.
Electronic documentation. Paper documents no longer have to be printed out, but can be created directly from the system with just a few clicks, signed online and sent by e-mail. The generation and exchange of digital documents saves time and reduces errors caused by manual intervention.
Data collection. Telematics is a technology that collects vehicle-related information and transmits it over cellular networks. The GPS and telematics devices, dashcams and sensors installed in the vehicle not only help with location, but also collect data on the behavior of the driver and the condition of the vehicle. All information is then sent to management for further analysis to uncover risky behavioral trends or potential maintenance issues. Modern software can collect massive amounts of data, ensure fleet-wide visibility and provide analytics to make more informed decisions.
Driver app. Many trucking software providers also have a connected application for drivers. It facilitates communication, enables the exchange of documents (e.g. fuel receipts, cargo information and PODs), supports route sharing and updating, and streamlines required compliance procedures (e.g. tracking HOS and assisting with regular vehicle inspections ).
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The routing function can either be part of the send function or come as a separate tool. We've already discussed routing issues and route optimization solutions. Such software helps to create the most efficient routes that would plan all the necessary stops and minimize the time required and fuel consumption.
Until now, dispatchers or drivers had to plan the route manually with little or no up-to-date information about closed roads and weather conditions, let alone the actual traffic situation. And when it is a multi-stop journey with specific time frames in each place, the task becomes almost impossible to accomplish.
It is also important to remember that road tools for private consumers, commercial agents or delivery services are different from those used in trucking. The reason is that not all roads are suitable for large, heavy trucks. Truck routes are created to avoid obstacles such as sharp turns, steep slopes, low clearance bridges or anything else that could cause dangerous situations. For example, the Pulaski Skyway in New Jersey on US 1/9 has banned trucks since 1934 due to safety issues and a high number of accidents.
Therefore, a truck route optimization software should create the routes considering all the limitations and restrictions. In addition, it needs a scheduling function to plan pickup and delivery times.
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Today's routing tools automatically create the optimal routes based on real-time updates of all relevant factors such as weather and traffic conditions. When creating a route, you can select different optimization goals for each journey, e.g. B. Minimize distance, minimize time, or balance distance and time.
The system must contain a desktop version for senders and
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