Rapid industry changes and the rising price of diesel are eroding profit margins and changing the competitive landscape for carriers. It's often hard to tell if you're making or losing money, whether you're in or out of compliance. It's a fact -- many companies are not going to make it through the challenges of today's market. Putting the right tools in place now to get control of your business is the best thing you can do to ensure yours is one of the companies to survive -- and thrive -- as others fail.
Read on below to learn how Profit Tools can help with many of your key issues.
Or hear from our users how Proft Tools has helped trucking companies like yours.
"Rising fuel costs are killing our margins.”
Key solution: Keep track of rising diesel costs nationwide. Profit Tools links to current nationwide DOE fuel cost data so you won't fall behind in determining what you should charge. You can control fuel surcharge rates with system defaults and vary rates by customer and type of work, such as local vs. road. When you change rates, you can apply the new rates to unbilled shipments. And you can use our shipment profitability tool to determine on the fly if what you're charging and what you're paying out will make money or lose money, before it's too late.
"Slow-paying customers are killing our cash-flow.”
Key solution: You can invoice to PDF and email invoices and related documents direct to the customer, saving postage and mail time. Or invoice electronically via EDI. If a customer does dispute a bill, Document Imaging allows you to produce and email on-demand PODs and other documents while you have the customer on the phone, avoiding a drawn-out dispute. For Quickbooks® users, Profit Tools AR Cross-Check feature allows you to see open invoices and outstanding balances within Profit Tools when speaking with your customer or determining whether to take a load.
"We're struggling to keep up with all the safety, compliance, and security changes.”
Key solution: When you record license, medical, and other expirations in the system, your dispatchers are automatically alerted to upcoming and past-due expirations. Same goes for hazmat and other restrictions and endorsements. You have the data for your TWIC applications readily accessible in the system. You improve your loss prevention and security by knowing when, where, and who dropped your equipment. By dispatching in the system, you build a complete driver and equipment history, searchable at any later date. By recording driver logs, you get proactive hours-of-service monitoring, with automatic violations notification and explanations.
"Increased per diem and demurrage rates with shorter free times.”
Key solution: Profit Tools gives you the ability to track every piece of Intermodal equipment from start to finish. With Track & Trace™, the system gets the latest status and availability information on inbound equipment direct from the ports and ramps. In Dispatch, the system shows your last free dates, so you avoid demurrage and unapproved per diem charges. Profit Tools calculates per diem, so you can bill back accurate per diem fees to the customer at initial invoicing, or tell a customer in advance how much it'll cost if they hold a container. Profit Tools also allows you to e-mail copies of EIRs, PODs and accessorial charge notifications from any desktop, reducing the hassle of finding paperwork and records for documentation.
"We're diversifying. We need a program that will handle multiple rate and pay systems, even if one driver or one customer does multiple kinds of work."
Key solution: Profit Tools’ ratings and settlements can handle the different rate and pay formulas you work with: point-to-point, percent revenue, mileage, class, zones, stops and more. And, Profit Tools can handle these modes under one roof.
"We don't know where our trailers and containers are."
Key solution: Profit Tools gives you the ability to track every piece of equipment from start to finish with drop-trailer reporting, solving your headache of losing a trailer or container or trying to find one that is already missing. The Profit Tools solution offers easy-to-manage tracking tools to document where a piece of equipments travels and stamps a date and time in the system to tell you how long it has been in a specific location.
We're swimming in paper."
Key solution: Profit Tools solutions can reduce the amount of time your staff spends on filing, researching, copying, faxing and filing documents. With solutions such as Document Imaging, Auto-Email, and EDI and EDD, information is readily available to your office and your customers, significantly reducing paperwork and delayed billing.
"Manually finding and tracking the status of containers is too time consuming.”
Key solution: Track & Trace™ from Profit Tools puts the control of tracking rail and terminal shipments all under one roof and delivers the information to you the way you need to see it. Track & Trace continually searches and updates shipping statuses from multiple rail lines and terminals. This gives your company a direct advantage of getting better information faster, and avoiding costly mistakes, improving accuracy, reliability and timeliness.
"We want the convenience of running our multiple divisions in one dispatch program, but we need to keep the divisional financials separate.”
Key solution: Profit Tools enables you to map sales to one or multiple accounting companies, and to separate divisions or GLs within one company. Profit Tools can also separate driver pay to different GLs, even if one driver performs work for multiple divisions.
"We could grow more, but we’d risk losing control.”
Key solution: Grow with confidence. Take over business from your less proactive competition. Profit Tools gives both your operations and management teams the ability to accurately identify and track vital information at the click of the mouse. From streamlined billing, document imaging to reduce clutter and mishandled records, to automated communications to keep the field and the dispatchers all on the same page, Profit Tools has comprehensive solutions to help your company grow.
