While operating your own transportation business, it is extremely important to have a firm handle on the operational and financial position of your firm. An efficient transportation management system will help you keep a track of all the dispatching vehicles, client invoice details, vehicle tracking information, and payment records. This, in turn, will provide you with a greater control over your business as its owner and thus let you run a successful venture sans the hassles of having a 360ᵒ view.
All the information starting from correct dispatch trucking facilities, right billing to payment obligations should be displayed in a particular format facilitating ease of understanding and usage. If proper financial records are not maintained, it will lead your company to the edge of bankruptcy.
How to leverage better value from your transportation management system?
Having a transportation management system in place is good, but is it crucial to use it smartly so that you can extract maximum value from it. Keeping the system well-oiled means having to figure out proactively whether a particular component is working fine or driving your revenues down. Today we look at some pointers which will help you figure out if your transportation system in not in a proper working condition and may fall apart at any point of time:
- You lag behind in fulfilling your deadline:
Be it your deliveries or sending out your invoices, you are always behind your obligations. You are always late when it comes to payment obligations to your creditors and you file your taxes past your deadline. You have taken various loans for your business and cannot meet up with them.
If you identify with the above conditions presented by your dispatch trucking business, then it is time that you re-evaluate your business strategies. It is important for you to have a sound credit to profitability ratio. You should have enough liquidity to pay off your current liabilities. Eventually, these problems will negatively affect the quality of services you provide. It has the power of degrading your reputation and customer satisfaction. The time will not be far when you will have to shut down your enterprise.
- Usage of obsolete technology in your dispatch trucking activities
With the introduction of internet and various advancements, what worked 10 or even 5 years ago would be obsolete to use now. You would have to incorporate latest features into our transportation system so that you are able to provide your customers with efficient services.
The usage of modern techniques has increased the expectations of customers from all the business entities and it is your job to stand up to these expectations if you want to survive in this ever-changing market of dispatch trucking. Earlier the billing processes were tedious and handwritten and no backup could be provided. In today’s date highly developed computerized systems are found with backup systems in place equipped with the necessary back up measures to fight any information loss.
Further, if you want to explore the many opportunities that other companies may provide to the benefit of your business, it is essential that you keep yourself updated with the changing times.
- Inefficient customer service
Working in a constrained economy with stringent deadlines can be exhausting and you should have an efficient team to help you manage your customer relations. A proper medium of redressal of customer problems should be established to help your client base at every step of the way.
Your customers are your focal point in the dispatch trucking business and should be made aware of the fact that you care about them and are working to provide them the best possible user experience. If your customers are not at all happy with the services that you provide, then it is a sure sign that something is wrong with your transportation management system.
Staying alert for these red flags will help you execute course correction measures within time and before the damage escalates to serious proportions. It is encouraging to note that it is never too late. You can blend in a highly optimized transportation management system with good work ethics while conducting the operations of your dispatch trucking business.
