Many owner-operators go into trucking to be their own bosses and out on the open road. Most do not want to sit at a desk piled high with paperwork. So when it comes to the back-office, small carriers often face the daunting but tedious, daily challenges of managing invoices, tracking profits and chasing own payments.
Leveraging trucking software specifically designed for owner-operators leaves the invoicing and other back-office nitty-gritty to the experts and allows owner-operators to do what they do best: trucking.
Small carriers face big challenges
Owner-operators face major headaches, including:
- Volatile operational costs, particularly fluctuating fuel prices.
- Difficulty scaling with a small workforce.
- Back-office operations take precedence over growing the trucking business itself.
“Like any small-business owners, trucking entrepreneurs must become adept with business and financial management, tax preparation, hiring and more,” a Forbes Finance Council article titled, “Why Financial Leaders Should Help Truckers Grow Their Small Businesses” said.
These challenges and others have resulted in a large number of small carriers shuttering operations in recent years. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said the number of active motor carrier (MC) authorities dropped by more than 16,000 – a 4.5% decrease – between December 2022 and September 2023 alone.
Freight brokers are going out of business too, with nearly 1,500 closing up shop between December 2022 and October 2023, according to a Bobtail blog, which pointed out that “more brokers shuttering their doors means more invoices going unpaid. That leads to carriers not getting their money in time to pay for expenses and putting their businesses at risk, too.”
It’s time for small carriers to rethink their back-office operations. The good news is that there is now software designed specifically for owner-operators to streamline back-office tasks.
3 tech-enabled practices for owner-operators
Technology can help small carriers keep costs down and keep their customers happy, according to a guide for small fleets on the use of digital tools.
With owner-operator trucking software, small carriers can track loads and documents in one place, keep track of revenue and costs, and choose payment solutions that work for them.
1. Track loads and related documents in one place
Many small carriers manage their businesses out of their email inboxes. They get rate confirmations through email and then send proof of deliveries (PODs) via email. But since carriers often work with dozens of different brokers over the course of a year, there’s no clean way to track everything in their inboxes.
TrueNorth let's carriers:
- Find the perfect load by from more than 100,000 daily loads.
- Keep track of all loads and related documents.
- Send PODs and invoices directly from the app, while keeping a paper trail
2. Track revenue and costs per mile obsessively
If small carriers use owner-operator trucking software, they can easily see how profitable they are per load per day, per week, and per month.
TrueNorth:
- Provides owner-operators with a breakeven calculator that weighs fixed, variable, and operational costs.
- Sends load documents and invoices instantly
- Provides a financial dashboard so small carriers can see how their revenue stacks up against other carriers' revenue.
3. Choose your payment solution wisely
Handling complex, paperwork-heavy invoicing often means having a large back office. This just isn’t possible for most owner-operators. Instead, they can streamline their back-office operations by implementing trucking software designed specifically for fleets as small as one truck.
TrueNorth:
- Sends invoices and load documents to any broker or factoring company.
- Allows owner-operators to make faster decisions with personalized data.
You move the freight, TrueNorth will move the invoices
TrueNorth’s trucking software for owner-operators takes the financial burdens off the shoulders of small carriers. The all-in-one financial dashboard empowers owner-operators with all the business intelligence they need to operate successfully.
TrueNorth’s trucking software provides:
- Full-cycle load management. Owner-operators can search, book, and invoice loads all in one place.
- Financial clarity. Owner-operators can determine how profitable a load is; see how they are progressing toward annual revenue goals; and track overall profitability per mile, per week, per month, and per year.
- A single app to replace all other apps, giving owner-operators one place to manage their entire business.
- And much more.
With TrueNorth, owner-operators can spend more time driving and less time searching for and keeping track of their loads. TrueNorth empowers owner-operators to book better loads, get paid faster, and track their profits.
Download TrueNorth today
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