Running a trucking company comes with its challenges, that much is true. But trucking operations owners can invest in a series of best practices to make daily operations smoother and more efficient.
From keeping vehicles and drivers safe to saving money and looking out for your bottom line, emphasizing a focus on efficiency in your company’s blueprint is an effective overall plan. Here are some best practices to consider when wanting to create and run on an atmosphere of efficiency.
Improving Safety
Safety should be the top priority of every trucking company. It’s important to keep vehicles maintained regularly, educate your employees on driver safety, and keep your truck insurance policy updated. Commercial truck insurance is specifically tailored to your trucking company’s needs and can dive into things like trailers, pollution and in general cover repairs and replacements of parts and trucks.
Trucking companies should stress the importance of having safe operational trucks that employees use daily. And with a new wave of self-driving trucking technology stepping into the big rig world, companies that are adapting have a lot more to worry about in terms of safety. Improving safety in trucking goes together with solid operation conditions and training for drivers. Trucking owners should also arrange safety programs and schedule regular meetings on refreshing everyone’s mind on driver safety.
Maintenance
As mentioned in the section above, it’s important to have vehicles routinely worked on to ensure overall operational safety. But beyond safety, vehicles can also be optimized to keep efficiency a priority. Tire pressure is always an issue with fuel consumption, especially when it comes to large commercial fleets driving from highway to highway.
Trucks should have regularly scheduled tire pressure checks as well as once-overs of assessing the integrity of axle alignment. Maintenance is a broad term when it comes to commercial trucking operations, but what’s important is to understand the frequency in which truck safety should be established through assessments.
Load Management Optimizations
Trucks can cut down on overall operations costs by maximizing the best potential load. Trucking companies should require packing and loading their trucks to as close to capacity as possible, especially when it comes to short-distance deliveries.
Trucking operations should try their best to keep away from running an empty load when picking up another load. There is software that is specifically outfitted to optimize pickup and delivery routes, whether it’s distance or vehicle capacity.
Optimizing Routes
The same software that helps boost more efficient loads can also do the same for travel routes. The goal is to select the most fuel-efficient and time-efficient routes, which may not be the shortest distances. Companies should consider factors such as speed limits, traffic signals, regular traffic levels in certain areas, and other times where trucks are stopped.
One way trucking operation companies can help themselves when it comes to planning routes is to make running lists of notes related to things like hazardous materials routes, preferred routes, and construction zones that are all need-to-know pieces of information.
About Western Truck Insurance Services
Western Truck Insurance Services is a commercial truck insurance agency with roots dating back to 1954. We have evolved into a highly respected, professionally managed, truck and transportation insurance brokerage. The hallmark of our organization is our desire to provide unparalleled service. We go way beyond what you expect to receive from an insurance brokerage. Equipped with state of the art automation, Western Truck Insurance can provide you with lightning fast truck insurance quotes, customer service, Insurance certificates and coverage changes.