Increasing the workload in a trucking company can be very difficult, and only having small jobs to fill in big holes in your work timetable is not going to be the answer. To achieve the results you want, you are going to need to figure out some ways that you can fill your order books and keep your employees happy. There are plenty of ways to increase the amount of work coming into your business, but you need to find the right ones to help you offer the best for every customer and those tedious longer hauls.
Look into using load boards
Load boards are the perfect place to start when it comes to picking up more work. These can fill up your trailers with similar jobs for any particular route, which can go a long way toward making those longer trips count. Alternatively, load boards also work as a great opportunity for startups to get their first jobs in and to help when there are dips in the workload from the small number of regular customers they will have at the beginning. No matter how hard shipping work is to find, you need to be aware that directories have whole truck loads that you can work with to help you keep money coming in and help you to increase the profitability on trips that you have to make anyway.
Accept more general jobs
If you tend to specialize, looking at more general jobs for your hauls can be great if your particular niche isn’t overflowing with work. Similarly, if you want to make sure that you always have a job on the go, you can make sure that you are open to generic jobs as well as what you might specialize in, such as simply moving furniture instead of purely antiquities. This can be an important tactic for bringing in a larger range of customers, as it can help you to really hone in on what you are good at, and also give you something to fall back on that is relatively easy if your main source of work begins to dry out or tends to fluctuate more than others.
Looking into specializing in a niche
On the other hand, if you don’t happen to specialize in a niche – doing so might have the desired effect. If you have a business that mainly focuses on generic or general hauls, you might find that settling into a few niche categories can help you to pick up more loyal customers who need your services frequently. It might also play a really important part in making sure that you have your fingers in lots of different pies, so to speak, so if you have an issue in one area or work dips, you can begin to work elsewhere without much of a problem. It can be a great way to constantly catch the higher workloads across lots of different areas, meaning that you don’t need to worry about missing out on too much over the year.
Working with longer hauls
Longer hauls can be tedious and boring. You will find that a lot of drivers come back exhausted from these trips, and your trucks might need to get checked over to make sure that nothing has gone wrong. The gas can cost a huge amount, and doing all this on a half-filled truck which is then just coming back empty is a waste. So, it is common sense that you should be making the most of these longer hauls. You can do this by looking into shipping boards, as mentioned before, making sure drivers have time off after their longer hauls to recuperate and also that trucks have preventive maintenance before and after these hauls to ensure the driver’s safety.
Marketing your business effectively
If you are looking to build your business further, you are going to need to market your business to attract new customers. You might also be able to bring in new recruits this way with a different skillset or range of experiences, which opens the door to more opportunities that your business can take. You will find that by marketing your business on social media, you are building your legitimacy as a brand and making it easier for a community to be built around your company.
Work on building customer loyalty
As well as getting new customers, you should take care of the ones you already have and build customer loyalty. As a trucking business, you could find that work rarely comes through from the same person twice unless you are shipping products for companies. By making sure you leave them with a good impression of your business, as well as telling others about you, you can almost guarantee that as and when that customer needs services that you provide again, they will come to you and not look at the competition.
Make the most of the available software
Increasing the workload of your business is impossible on your own. Services have been mentioned above, but the right software is equally important. This can be anything from making sure that you are using mailshot software for marketing or automating vital areas such as HR and working with data analytics software such as BI to get a snapshot of your business and see what you can do to improve it. These can reduce the stress of your staff, as well as help to build relationships with your customers.
To wrap everything up
As you have seen, there are a great many ups and downs that you experience as a shipping company – but unreliable sources of work should not be one of these things. So, it would be best if you learned to make the most of the services, software, and customers that are available at the time. This can help you find more work and stop you from trying to live off of odd jobs that hardly pay their way, let alone increase the workload and profitability of your trucking business.
