5 Things That Cost Hauling Companies More than they Realize

Disjointed operational systems

Not having a streamlined operational and billing process can cost you in many ways. The following are just a few of the ways.

• Cost of labor to key redundant or duplicate data
• Time to deal with mistakes because there is not a seamless process
• Loss of business because of unhappy customers
• Loss of revenue because of reduced efficiency
• Cost of multiple systems such as accounting, time-tracking, bidding and quoting software, GPS, cameras, fleet maintenance, etc…

The article "11 Ways to Improve Your Process" goes into more detail on these operational systems.

Lack of a good preventive maintenance program.

Your preventive maintenance system (PMS) shouldn’t be a paper-based system, as they are hard to keep up with. You will likely get better results with a system that automatically updates the mileage and hours and provides alerts when it is time for a service. Manual systems that require someone to do something to know when a PM is due are more prone to missing maintenance frequencies.

Improperly maintained tire pressure

Improperly inflated tires result in increased fuel cost, reduced tire life, increased blowouts and costly unexpected maintenance, and potentially increased legal costs.

Did you know that every 10% reduction in pressure results in an approximately 1% reduction in fuel? That means that a truck traveling with tires 10 psi low on average is wasting $200/year in fuel alone.

You can’t rely on your drivers to check the tire pressure on all of their tires every day. Most of them will either look at or kick or bang the tire to determine if it is properly inflated. According to an FMCSA study, only 44% of truck tires were within 5 psi of their target pressure. 7% were off by more than 20 psi.

To reduce the chance that your tires aren’t properly inflated, you can get a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS). For more information on some popular systems, visit our article “Choosing a Tire Pressure Monitoring System for your Dump Truck”

Driver behavior

Driver behavior such as sharp cornering, hard braking, excessive acceleration, driving too close, talking on a phone, or texting impacts your costs. These behaviors can result in increased fuel, maintenance, insurance, and legal costs.

You can improve your drivers’ behavior using various applications that can track and alert on undesired behaviors. Many drivers may not like these types of systems because they think they are “Big Brother” checking on them. What if instead, you reframed it to be “I want to help you stay safe so that you can make it home to your wife and kids. What do you think your wife and kids would think about us doing everything we reasonably can to get you home safely at night?”

These days, driver behavior functionality is included in most good GPS/Telematics platforms.

In addition to the previously mentioned benefits, a good driver behavior monitoring system may increase your CSA scores, and keep the drivers safer, resulting in all-around safer roads.

 Lack of cameras

According to several ATA studies, over 80% of the time, the car was at fault in truck-car crashes?  Having dashcam footage of the crash could save you from costly trials and payouts. When buying camera systems, I recommend choosing one integrated into a good GPS/telematics system. Two good telematics platforms that support a broad array of cameras and other add-ons are GeoTab and Samsara. While Lytx is strong as a fleet dashcam platform, it falls short as a GPS/telematics system when compared to GeoTab and Samsara.