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What’s your business endgame?

Perhaps it’s improved asset utilization and customer satisfaction, or you’ve decided to focus on compliance and ensure you’re fully on point with government mandates.

Most carriers would list all these points and add some of their own. Factor in owner and shareholder expectations, and it’s clear that, whatever the objective, fiscally successful companies need procedures that reduce unnecessary labor, drive revenue and have a universally positive effect on the bottom line.

Is it hard to remember life before handheld mobile devices and even harder to imagine life without them?

Today, beyond calling, texting and even checking e-mail, we’re all using our phones and tablets for a growing number of reasons. In a hurry? “We have an app for that” say food and coffee vendors. Just place your order on a device and pick it up without slowing down. Need a last-minute gift, some household or office supplies? No need to stop at the store. Use the app on your phone and your order will be delivered, even on the same day in some cases.

Trucking has always been a low margin business. The most efficient operations generally only realize profits of just a few cents on a dollar. Even something like a spike in the price of fuel can be the difference between red and black ink on a carrier’s balance sheet.

It’s normal in everyday life to wing it. Sure, you may play it by ear when you’re going out with friends on the weekend or fly by the seat of your pants when driving to a vacation destination. But not often do you do it off the top of your head at work, especially when it comes to implementing a complex software solution. For transportation companies, that intricate solution is most likely a Transportation Management System (TMS).

You’ve heard of us before. As an organization that has worked within the trucking industry since 2009, our name is pretty familiar. For one reason or another, your company hasn’t used our free training yet. Maybe you thought it cost money. Maybe you don’t really know what human trafficking is. Perhaps you think that human trafficking only happens in third-world countries. If you’re reading this, you may still think these things. Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) is here to provide free training and raise awareness of human trafficking to the trucking industry. We are teaming up with Trimble to host a free webinar to address what human trafficking is, how your employees can combat it and why it’s important to join this fight.

We all fall into certain habits: Whether it’s the time for rising each day, our breakfast choices or the way to tackle our work. Sometimes it’s good to have a steady routine. Other times, a routine can be static and prevent us from living life and performing business tasks more efficiently.

We all know some of the challenges that the transportation and logistics industry is facing such as the capacity crunch and the driver shortage. Both factor into each other and make it seem like there’s an endless list of available jobs with only a few available candidates in the talent pool. Part of the revolving door is that drivers feel like because there are so many available jobs that if one company isn’t treating them right, then they can jump to the next one.

At the 2018 in.sight user conference + expo, two customer companies presented their experiences with searching for a dock management solution and how implementing Trimble’s ConnectedDock created more efficiencies. During “A Case for ConnectedDock” representatives from both Maritime-Ontario and Carlile Transportation explained the importance of using robust, hand-held devices to streamline cross-dock operations and eliminate misdirected freight.

The pressure on truck capacity is coming from all angles.

A shortage of qualified drivers could be the most serious concern. The American Trucking Associations estimates the industry will need 890,000 new drivers over the next decade – an average of 89,000 per year – to replace those who will be retiring and to keep pace with freight growth.