You wake up early in the morning, ignite the engine and then let it warm up while you fill it up with diesel. It is a cool morning, with temperatures going from 10-20c and with clear skies and a visibility of 100 kilometers into the horizon. The road is first world-class with signs all along the way and you can drive at cruise speed without worrying about a pothole or a badly made turn. You are driving a brand new rig therefore you have the latest specs, you are comfortable and happy, you just made a 30minute walk and had a nice breakfast before getting into your office and you love all of it. You are alone but not lonely, you are doing the same but always moving, you like the noise and how it requires all of your attention to make it safely to the next delivery in a different city, a different state.
The truck behaves perfectly, flawless, and the waiting time in the first couple of drops is reasonable so all is going well. You are now moving to pick up the next load, frozen berries, a valuable load and you know it is important to take it in time to the next warehouse. You deliver and take the necessary photos for the factoring company to move with the payment, for a small fee that money will be in your bank account tomorrow noon, with that out of your mind you focus on the route back home and to the chores pending once you get home.
All is good, however you cannot ignore the fact that trucking is a ferocious industry, the closest thing to perfect competition, where margins are slim and capital expenditures are often big so in order to be successful you must track every penny and understand perfectly the economics behind your operation. To do that it is important to track the maintenance log, anticipate every expense for it to be preventive and not corrective, cash reserves must be kept at hand to be able to sustain a market downturn.
Expenses must be labeled according to their nature, be it fuel, driver, truck or administrative, put everything in per mile terms and evaluate over time the best way to go, the best route, the fuel consumption and of course load and the broker that allows your operation to run profitably over time. Every driver can be successful in the good times, but only the ones that are able to analyze their number will be prepared to survive a downturn.
It would be unreasonable to expect that you will do all that by yourself, but you don’t need to. You can just team up with DaTeam and while you are on the road all your analytics will stay updated, you will get reminders of your insurance renewal, the upcoming oil change and with a couple of clicks you will get the receipt of the last time you installed new shock absorbers. And that will give you an edge and a bigger chance to forge ahead and grow your profits and your business.