Sep 21, 2022

Highest and Lowest Rated Major US Trucking Corridors based on Points of Interest (POI) Ratings

Small Fleet recap: How should owner-operators manage downturns? Understanding your costs and developing quality relationships are key, says Trucker Path’s Oliver This fireside chat recap is from the FreightWaves virtual Small Fleet & Owner-Operator Summit on Wednesday. FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: What steps can owner-operators take to manage downturns? DETAILS: Owner-operators face increasing uncertainty in the freight markets, but there are steps they can take to handle whatever the market throws at them. Understanding your costs and building quality relationships serve carriers better than taking the “bear down and hope” approach that small fleets have operated under in the past. SPEAKER: Chris Oliver is the chief marketing officer of Trucker Path. BIO: Oliver has more than 25 years’ experience leading small to midsize businesses. In addition to Trucker Path, he led growth and development efforts for several transportation brands, including Cargomatic, Zonar and PrePass. He holds degrees in marketing, international management and finance. KEY QUOTES FROM OLIVER “It all comes down to the basics. How do you know if you’re making any money if you don’t understand what your costs are? So the very first that you have to do is understand those costs. And there’s a lot to consider there — it’s not just your truck and your fuel.” “Over time, after you have built a relationship and trust and that shipper knows you’re a go-to guy that’s going to get the job done for you, they tend to loosen the purse strings a little and trust you a little bit more and share a little bit more of the revenue. Just to build those types of go-to relationships over time is just a smart thing to do.” “We’re not just here to book a load, send it to you and get our little percentage out of the way. We’re trying to help people be better businesspeople.” Source: <a href="https://www.freightwaves.com/news/small-fleet-recap-how-should-owner-operators-manage-downturns">FreightWaves </a>

Jun 17, 2022

Best Places to Celebrate Take Your Dog to Work Day if You’re a Truck Driver <a href="https://truckerpath.com/uploads/2022/06/Picture1.png"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-6687 size-medium" src="https://truckerpath.com/uploads/2022/06/Picture1-300x34.png" alt="" width="300" height="34" /></a> Just so you don’t find yourself wondering who let the dogs out, this Friday, June 24th is National Take Your Dog To Work Day. It’s a great idea for dogs and their owners…just not great for every workplace. Images of dogs fighting, ripping up the boss’s sofa or relieving themselves in office lobbies everywhere come to mind. Certain workplaces not being exactly conducive to canines do as well. Bone clinics, ball factories, nuclear facilities and operating rooms should be avoided. The worst workplaces to bring a dog to work could fuel an entire season of Seinfeld. And the best ones, could quite possibly transform an industry. Trucking for starters. In an industry defined by long hours, solitary work, depressive downtime and a need for healthy physical activity, bringing your dog to work is a big idea. <h3>Dogs were made for truck driving.</h3> As the commercial says, “Dogs love trucks.” They love being with their owners, too. And the benefits are far, far from one-sided. Over work, loneliness, stress, and an often-hostile work environment are downsides of trucking that dogs are uniquely qualified to alleviate by providing comfort and companionship. <h3>The Big Benefits of Having a Dog as a Copilot</h3> <ul> <li>If you drive with a dog, you’re not alone. (How’s that for alleviating loneliness?)</li> <li>Petting a dog or even gazing into a dog’s eyes releases oxytocin, a stress-reducing hormone.</li> <li>When you have a dog, you have to walk them. (A dog can make you exercise when no one else can.)</li> <li>Who needs an alarm when you have a security guard with hearing that’s four-times as sensitive as a human’s protecting your truck?</li> <li>When motorists see a trucker with a dog, it makes them feel good.</li> </ul> <h4>Key Considerations for Bringing a Dog to Work on the Road</h4> So what do you need to know if you’re a trucker with dog or a trucking company that wants to bring the quality-of-work benefits of canine copilots to their workforce? For starters, some lanes, states and regions are more dog-and-truck friendly than others. Good thing to know, because for all the big benefits of having a pup in your big rig, there are challenges. Driving with a dog can be a drag when truck stops aren’t good for a walk and a pee—or when hotel owners are downright anti-dog. It can be hard enough finding a safe place to pull over and rest—and even harder to find a dog-friendly one. We at Trucker Path crowdsourced our driver pool to find the sweetest spots in the country for drivers with dogs based on two simple criteria: the presence of pet-friendly truck stops and hotels. Here is what we found. <h4>Connecticut is the most pet-friendly state for truck drivers.</h4> Trucks may be banned from its beautiful parkways, but drivers still rank Connecticut the most pet-friendly state. Also, there appears to be no correlation between the quality of a state’s roadways and the attractiveness of its offerings for truck dogs. Connecticut ranks an abysmal 33rd overall according to the <a href="https://reason.org/wp-content/uploads/26th-annual-highway-report-state-by-state-summaries.pdf">Reason Foundation’s 2021 ranking</a> of states’ road quality. According to Trucker Path data, the other pet-friendliest states for truckers are: 2) California, 3) Montana, 4) Virginia and 5) Oregon. No surprise that dogs favor California’s beaches and Montana’s big skies. In a testament to dogs’ easy-going nature, they don’t seem to care that California and Oregon’s rough roads are ranked down there at 45th and 25th respectively in Reason Foundation’s rankings. The places to live the dog’s life for truckers who like good roads and canines who like good hotels and truck stops appears to be Virginia and Montana, ranked 2nd and 11th respectively in Reason Foundation’s findings. <h4>Who would have thought the Northeast was the pet-friendliest region?</h4> Long haul truckers don’t tend to limit themselves to single states, so looking at the regions by pet-friendliness, is significant…and surprising. Congested, with a reputation for being a little prickly at times, the Northeast nevertheless warms to pets better than any other region in the U.S. Tri-state roadways are dog-eat-dog, but their hotels and rest stops make up for the traffic and trauma they bring on truckers through their pet-hospitality. Whether you have a layover while you search for a <a href="https://www.tafs.com/tafs-360-benefits/prodispatch/">decent-paying backhaul</a>, or want to take find out while you refuel, the Northeast is the North Star of pet-loving amenities and accommodations. Other regions ranked in this order: 2) Southeast, 3) Midwest, 4) Southwest and 5) West. Why is the West so passive toward pets while the Northeast is so welcoming and attentive? Maybe the East just needs the calming influence of pets more than the laid-back West? <h4>Experience life in the pet-friendly lane on I-95.</h4> It sort of makes sense that the interstate that defines Northeast driving would also be the number one most pet-friendly lane. If there’s any interstate in America where truckers could benefit from the calming influence of a dog, it’s the I-95. Only the therapeutic gaze of a pup has the power to neutralize this interstate’s road-ragers and the corridor’s constant congestion. It’s a drive that man’s best friend was made for. And maybe not-so-coincidentally a roadway with truck stops and hotel accommodations that were made for trucker-dogs. Trucker Path users ranked the second most pet-friendly lane being the I-10 spanning from sultry Florida to sunny California with miles and miles of desert landscape and pet-friendly accommodations in between. A furry companion has always been a welcome friend on this stretch going back to wagon train days. I-10’s truck stops and hotels seem to understand and open their dog doors wide for pet-owning truckers. If you’re a driver who wants to take their dog to work every day, there are other pet-friendly lanes to consider. Coming in at #3 in pet-centricity is the I-15 (San Diego to Montana and the Canadian border). #4 is the I-90 (Massachusetts to Montana by way of Chicago and South Dakota). And #5 is the I-75 (North-South from Florida through the Great Lakes). <h4>Appreciate drivers by appreciating their dogs.</h4> They say you can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat their dog. The same goes for the way states, trucking companies, communities and hotels treat their trucker dogs. Companies and communities continue to look for ways to show appreciation to the heroes who move our goods. Showing love to truckers with dogs seems like a good way to reach the 40% of drivers who already bring their dogs to work—and the many more who would bark at the chance.

Jun 24, 2022

Should owner-operators enlist a dispatch service or stick with load boards? The popular image of the owner-operator as a modern-day range rider, free and self-reliant, doesn’t always jibe with the idea of using a dispatch service. It’s a fair point. Load boards enable truckers to do-it-yourself dispatch pretty easily. There’s another side, though. Dispatch services free owner-operators to haul freight while sparing them from much of the business of trucking. There are a lot of considerations in the dispatch service versus load board debate. The following is an objective tally of the pros and cons of a load board-only strategy versus the dispatch-service strategy. We at Trucker Path think we can toggle the debate pretty fairly as we offer both a <a href="https://truckerpath.com/truckloads/free-load-board/">load board</a> and a <a href="http://truckerpath.com/dispatch">dispatch service</a>. So whatever side you choose—no offense. Cost Considerations On the surface, self-dispatching is a no-brainer. It’s primarily free to use load boards. Dispatch services, on the other hand, charge for their services. Essentially, they charge for doing something an owner-operator can do themselves by checking the load boards, negotiating and booking freight. In working with a dispatch service, you’ll be giving up a portion of your hard-earned revenue. These companies typically charge from 5 to 10% of the income for the load. Other dispatch services charge a flat fee per load or per week or month. The flip side of this is that self-dispatching takes time which carries its own cost. For example, if it takes you three hours to find, negotiate and book a $3,000 load, it could cost you less to let a dispatch service do it for you. For example, if they charged a 5% fee or $150, based on the standard operational cost of trucking of $70 per hour, self-dispatching would cost you $210—$60 more!* On top of that, popular load boards are only free up to a certain number of loads, like five per day, for example. If a carrier wants to access more than that, they often have to pony up for a subscription. The Issue of Control With a load board, you have complete control in booking your own freight. You say where and when you’ll run. In contrast, a dispatch service decides which loads they bring you based on your preferred commodities and lanes. You may lose some say when it comes to the details but you can always reject the dispatch service’s load offers. You’ll also lose control over relationships. The dispatch service is interfacing with the shipper or broker so they in effect “own” the relationship. The trade-off is that in using a dispatch service you’ll gain more control over your schedule and how much time you spend on the road. The dispatcher handles the details of the load and manages customer care. If you want to just focus on driving, you may be happy to give up control of these chores. Negotiating Rates With load boards, it’s easier than ever to find freight, bid and book loads. But easier doesn’t always mean better. Consistently charging competitive rates still takes time and effort. The only way to do that is by maintaining a pulse of the market and knowing how far to push brokers. Someone who handles negotiations for a living is always going to be better at it than someone who does it less often. It’s a matter of experience. So a dispatcher has an advantage when it comes to getting the best rate from brokers. It’s not uncommon for a dispatcher to negotiate a load with a rate per mile 20%+ more than the national average, and that can more than cover the 5 – 10% cost of using a dispatch service. Dispatchers have the advantage of knowing going rates. They’re watching multiple load boards all day. Maintaining this breadth of vision is time-consuming for an owner-operator to achieve. Dispatching services work for the carrier, so it is their mission to make sure the carrier is paid top dollar in rate and maximizing accessorial fees according to industry standards. Business Development Load boards expose carriers to shippers and loads en masse. They make it possible to find new freight and be found by shippers by being listed on the load board. For an owner-operator to significantly grow their business, they need to take it to the next level by developing lanes and solidifying repeat loads. That takes time and effort that a small carrier may not have the stomach for. When it comes to business development, dispatch services provide an advantage. A carrier can save time and effort by plugging into a dispatcher’s existing network. By leveraging dispatchers’ connections, carriers can quickly establish themselves in lanes and land repeat loads. With a dispatching service, carriers also get someone to advise them on the lanes with the most opportunity and to help them navigate the ebbs and flows of the market. The Administrative Load If you’re running one or two trucks, a sticky-note system may work just fine—and it’s free. That can quickly change as you add drivers and vehicles and things get more complicated. One of the last things an owner-operator wants to become is a paper jockey. Especially for small, ambitious carriers, the burden can limit growth. A dispatch service can be worth its weight in gold when it comes to the additional services most provide. These include: assigning loads and scheduling drivers, maintaining hours of service records, managing weather delays or other issues, handling track & trace check calls, and ensuring drivers equipment and drivers remain in compliance. Billing and Cash Flow Any owner-operator knows cash flow is the key to success—but bill collecting is exhausting work, strains relationships with shippers and just wears on the independent soul of a trucker. With a self-dispatching strategy, you’re on your own unless you hire a bookkeeper or factoring company and then oversee them. In contrast, dispatch services often wrangle the paperwork associated with delivering and billing for a load. This paperwork duty can include getting invoices to the shipper or a <a href="http://www.tafs.com">factoring company</a>, doing collections follow-ups, and payment processing—perhaps the biggest load on carriers’ minds. What’s best? What’s best comes down to a business decision. The success of any owner-operator hinges on the numbers. If you opt to dispatch-it-yourself, just make sure you record how much time you’re spending and use our handy $70 per hour as a rule of thumb. You’ll know when it’s time to corral your costs, and there are plenty of dispatch services out there waiting to help. *American Transportation Research Institute’s 2021 estimate for the operational costs of trucking is $66.87 per hour, which we increased to $70 per hour to adjust for inflation.

Aug 31, 2022