Operation management is mainly concerned with planning, organizing, and supervising in the contexts of production or the provision of services. In other words, managing how to keep your business operating.align="left" 

 

In the trucking business there are a few things that are essential when trying to keep your business running: 

• Hauling loads 
• Staying compliant 
• Managing your fuel expenses 
• Maintaining your tractors  

 

HAULING LOADS 

Making money in the trucking industry is as simple to hauling loads, but the complicated part is getting the loads to haul. If you don't have a dedicated lane with a shipper, you should start with load boards. There are hundreds of load boards to choose from but here are a few popular one's: 

• DAT Freight & Analytics 
• J.B. Hunt Carrier 360
• Schneider 
• Uber Freight 
• Amazon Relay

Assuming that you have all of your authority, DOT number, commercial insurance, etc. It's a good idea to sign up with all of these load boards this will give you more than enough to choose from. A factoring company is good to have to speed up your payment time. Click here if you don't have one already.

 

STAYING COMPLIANT

Staying compliant is the most important thing you can do as a trucking company. Decide is whether you are short haul carrier or a long haul carrier this will determine what methods of logging their trips they will have to do to be compliant.

For example, short hauls - are exempt from the ELD mandate, they are still required to keep an accurate account of the HOS records by recording working hours for your drivers and monitoring their compliance with the 150 air-mile radius limit for short-haul operations. (More info here) Long hauls is anything above the 150 air-mile radius and requires a ELD. 

 

What is an ELD? 

An ELD is an electronic logging device that is used by commercial drivers automatically record driving time and Hours of Service (HOS) records, as well as capture data on the vehicle’s engine, movement and miles driven. The ELD keeps truck drivers and dispatchers informed of driver status in real-time to support fleet compliance, inspections and planning. ELD for owner operators can be purchased outright with out any subscriptions but fleet ELD's normally come with some sort of subscription. Heres a few examples: 

 

Ideal for a Owner Operator (click image for details)

GARMIN DRIVESMART 65

 

Ideal for Fleet Management 

KEEP TRUCKIN ELD DISCOUNT 

 

 

These aren't the only two ELD's companies offering ELD software and hardware. Here are a few more that may help you narrow down what works best for you: 

•  SAMSARA
• TRANSFLO
• EROAD USA 
• GORILLA SAFETY
• RAND MCNALLY ELD
• OMNITRACS

 

 

 

MANAGING FUEL EXPENSES

One of your biggest expenses besides your drivers will be your fuel expenses. This has to be managed carefully because it's not a fixed price like your finance or lease. The best way to do this is by getting a fuel card some factoring companies offer fuel cards as well, but I would recommend it. Fuel cards provided by factoring companies often are prepaid or are funded by giving you an advance on your loads. This can be problematic because it limits your immediate cashflow. In a nutshell, you want these things to be separate so you can have double the cash to work with.

Most fuel cards have great data analytics tools that can help you monitor how much a driver is fueling up, put limits on spending, and calculate your average spend for the month. There are many more features such as personalized pin codes, setting time and days the card will be operable, etc., but there's a few for starters. Below is a list of popular used fuel cards:

• COMDATA 
• PILOT FLYING J
• FUELMAN 
• LOVES
• BP BUSINESS SOLUTIONS 
• WEX 

Having multiple fuel cards can have huge advantages so don't limit your company to just one. Get 2-3 major fuel cards because you will need them in the long run. Fuel can cost $350-$450 in some states depending on the price. You don't want to ask your driver to pay out of pocket because his/her card doesn't work at that particular station. Scarce fueling stations can be a nightmare if you are not prepared.

Some fuel cards are only regional and have limited fueling stations in different markets. The markets where one card isn't useful your other cards will be. If your drivers are interstate drivers being able to fuel up at 18-wheeler friendly stations is a must. Most gas stations sell diesel fuel but that doesn't mean they can accommodate an 18-wheeler. Even if the station can accommodate your driver being around non-truck drivers is a risk. Furthermore, time is money and the longer it takes for your driver to fuel up you are losing money and he is losing time on his clock.