Eight Things You Can Do To Grow Your Trucking Business

It’s exciting to be in a position of expansion when you run your own trucking business, and if you want to ensure that you grow yours to bigger and better heights, then you need to be focused on truly competing with other, larger fleets. Every single large fleet out there started off as a small one, and you could one day be one of those larger fleets with the right focus. The biggest advantage of growing your fleet and having more trucks is obviously the chance to offer more aggressive pricing, hire more drivers and get great discounts. You are a part of the trucking industry, and you know how competitive it is out there.

You want to compete with the big guys, right? Well, buying up the right Piedmont Trucks and getting experts on board to help you to manage is the first start. However, you want your trucking business growth to be smart and not too fast. The best thing that you can do is to take a look at the eight things that you can do to grow your business to be better than the big guys out there!

1. Being ahead of the law. If there is one thing that’s true about the trucking industry, it’s that it’s fluid. It changes often and the new regulations and alterations to the current laws will happen faster than you think. One big part of being ahead of the trucking game is to know about the upcoming laws and changes before they happen. In 2020 alone, there were five new trucking regulations that affected the industry as a whole and if you’re not ahead of changes like this, you’re going to find that you are behind the rest of the big guns out there. Your trucking business can assimilate smoothly to the changing rules if you know about them. As well as following all of the latest trucking guidelines, you should also ensure that you’re fully insured and covered legally. Explore a range of insurance options online and obtain the best possible quote, so that you and your employees are safe on the roads no matter what. As well as choosing your insurer wisely, you may also want to have a truck accident attorney on hand just in case. Nowadays, road accidents are more and more common, so having a competent lawyer at the end of the phone will ensure your business can continue running smoothly without any legal issues.
2. Keep up with your truck technology. As with the law, technology is changing and evolving quickly. Your trucking technology needs to keep up with the times and as an owner of a transportation business, you will remember that it’s tough to run a small business. However, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be done and the right technology is going to help you to keep your trucking business streamlined and running smoothly. You need to tap into the right trucking apps to efficiently manage your business and your drivers. Saving time and increasing your efficiency is a must, and whether you use apps to find the best diesel prices nearby or you use tools to help you with real-time traffic information, you’re going to be better when you keep up with the technology.
3. Get ahead of your finances. When you are a trucker you know where you are going and what you’ve spent but as a business owner, you’re managing several truckers and their spends, and that’s not always easy. Get to know everything about your business finances. You may already have an accountant but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get to know what is going on with the numbers. Have a plan for business finances and know what you’re doing about it.
4. Keep providing the right service. One of the best things that you can do for your customers is to continue to provide the very best service available. If you know you want loyalty from your clients and customers, you need to keep providing the best service possible. The better the service is, the more customers will be willing to pay for your service – they know it’s the best so they will pay the price for it. It’s not that you need to put your prices up, it’s that with the right service that goes above and beyond for customers, you’ll always find people who want you!

5. Pace yourself. You want to grow, but trying to do it all at once could end up having the opposite effect and killing your business. This business of yours needn’t be trifled with. Make your plan and stick to the timeline for growth that you set for it. This is supposed to be something fulfilling and exciting but it can’t be that if you are rushing your plans ahead. You need to build your relationships carefully and ensure that you are watching your finances. It’s important that you pace those plans back because then if things change at the last minute, you won’t get too far ahead of yourself!
6. Find more clients. The more you grow, the more you need to push into your marketing budget. You cast a wider net for customers when you are growing a trucking business and as you try to expand, you have to look further than you ever have before. If you want to build better relationships and ensure that your clients are happy, you need to keep the search going for more!
7. Work smarter. Where you can, you need to get out of the head of a trucker! You have to get into a more business-focused mindset and think about your business as it is – ready to grow and evolve. To ensure that you stay working smarter, you should think about working the loads that you know you can work and not push your drivers beyond what they can do. You’re an independent trucking owner, and that means that you need to work on ensuring that your business is flowing the way that it should be. You need more profit in your pocket without burning out your drivers, so make sure that you are having everyone on board with the changes that you make!
8. Accelerate. From your access to capital to your cash flow, you need to accelerate your business so that you are able to be efficient with clients and deliveries. Freight bills often end up left unpaid after delivery so you need to have clear terms within your business and immediate cash that you can fuel your trucks and pay drivers with. It’s worth it in the long run!