Jun 16, 2022

6 Keys Steps for Owner Operator to Navigate Down Markets

6 Keys Steps for Owner Operator to Navigate Down Markets

Best Places to Celebrate Take Your Dog to Work Day if You’re a Truck Driver <p style="text-align: center;"><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></p> <p>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.</p> <p>It’s a great idea for dogs and their owners…just not great for every workplace.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>The worst workplaces to bring a dog to work could fuel an entire season of Seinfeld.</p> <p>And the best ones, could quite possibly transform an industry. Trucking for starters.</p> <p>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.</p> <h3><strong>Dogs were made for truck driving.</strong></h3> <p>As the commercial says, “Dogs love trucks.” They love being with their owners, too.</p> <p>And the benefits are far, far from one-sided.</p> <p>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.</p> <h3><strong>The Big Benefits of Having a Dog as a Copilot</strong></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><strong>Key Considerations for Bringing a Dog to Work on the Road</strong></h4> <p>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?</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <h4><strong>Connecticut is the most pet-friendly state for truck drivers.</strong></h4> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <h4>Who would have thought the Northeast was the pet-friendliest region?</h4> <p>Long haul truckers don’t tend to limit themselves to single states, so looking at the regions by pet-friendliness, is significant…and surprising.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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?</p> <h4>Experience life in the pet-friendly lane on I-95.</h4> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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).</p> <h4>Appreciate drivers by appreciating their dogs.</h4> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p>

Jun 24, 2022

Route planning tool helps drivers overcome daily frustrations <p>High driver turnover is an issue almost everyone in the logistics industry is familiar with, if not grappling with, as drivers jump between carriers in pursuit of better opportunities.</p> <p>Drivers leave jobs for a variety of reasons — to receive a sign-on bonus or pay raise at a different trucking company, to seek routes closer to home, to find better management or even to change professions.</p> <p><a href="https://truckerpath.com/">Trucker Path</a> has been giving truck drivers tools since 2013 to make navigating life on the road more enjoyable and efficient, keeping more people in the driver’s seat. It does this through one critical action: listening to drivers. <p>“So many companies in the logistics industry funnel a large amount of money into technology development, but few remember to ask those who are using the technology daily what their needs are and what works best for them,” said Chris Oliver, chief marketing officer at Trucker Path.</p> <p>At its core, Trucker Path is an app built off of crowdsourced feedback from drivers. While drivers are likely to find benefits and drawbacks working for any motor carrier, they encounter the same day-to-day realities that come with driving a semi-truck no matter what company name is on their door. Trucker Path listens to what drivers need and hands them the tools to mitigate some of the most common struggles they face everywhere they go.</p> <p>Tied for No. 1 on the list of issues drivers face are compensation and truck parking, according to the American Transportation Research Institute’s <a href="https://truckingresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ATRI-Top-Industry-Issues-2021.pdf">2021 survey</a> of critical industry issues. The next top four spots are detention and delay at customer facilities, fuel prices, driver training standards and hours-of-service rules.</p> <p>By crowdsourcing information from drivers, Trucker Path helps them plan their routes and enables them to alter those plans when necessary. It helps them find available parking, be prepared for weigh stations, know what to expect at shipping docks and helps drivers save money on fuel. Trucker Path does this by connecting drivers with hundreds of thousands of points of interest along their routes and sharing the ratings, reviews and real-time updates provided by millions of other drivers within the Trucker Path community.</p> <p>“It’s almost a symbiotic relationship between the platform and technology and the driver base itself,” Oliver said.</p> <p>Drivers can see and share information such as availability of truck stop overnight parking, quality of truck stops, whether a weigh station is open and its wait time, shipping dock wait time, as well as nearby maintenance facilities, restaurants, stores and more.</p> <p>The app also shows fuel stations and fuel-optimized routes that help drivers save money along the way to their destinations. Other insights, such as specific truck entrances at docks and the ability to share feedback regarding sharp turns and other truck restrictions, provide even greater navigational efficacy for drivers as they plan and drive their routes.</p> <p>By providing feedback in the app about these points of interest, drivers are able to help other users.</p> <p>Trucker Path recently also launched its COMMAND TMS solution, which integrates into the Trucker Path app. COMMAND allows carriers to do such things as manage drivers and assets, source loads, build jobs, dispatch, provide instantaneous location and progress updates, scan documents and create invoices.</p> <p>“Having your TMS directly tied to the most popular app for truckers makes for a much easier experience and smoother implementation and user experience for both sides,” Oliver said. “About a third of long-haul drivers already use Trucker Path as it is. So there’s a very good chance from a fleet perspective that when you implement COMMAND, what you’re really doing is using the driver’s preferred tool they’re already using to serve the fleet’s purposes.”</p> <p>DISPATCH is another new service recently made available by Trucker Path. Personal dispatchers take the time to get to know their driver customers, including their lane and commodity preferences, where they live, how long they like to run, and what their favorite restaurants are, in order to help find them the best jobs that not only pay well but adhere to their personal preferences. Once the loads are sourced and agreed to, the dispatchers send the job to the driver’s Trucker Path app, which allows them to either accept or reject a load.</p> <p>“The dispatchers themselves are really a conduit or concierge to all our technologies, helping customers recognize all the benefits we offer via a personal touch and a familiar voice,” Oliver said.</p> <p>Giving drivers the ability to make their daily work lives more productive and convenient is a direct path to boosting driver satisfaction and increasing efficiency and productivity for the entire company.</p> <p> <strong>Source: </strong> <strong><a href="https://www.freightwaves.com/news/route-planning-tool-helps-drivers-overcome-daily-frustrations">FREIGHT WAVES</a></strong></p>

Apr 28, 2022

Trucker Path Community Names Best Truck Stops <blockquote> <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Top choices for chain and independent facilities for trucker-friendly services chosen by more than one million app users</em></p> </blockquote> <p><strong> </strong><strong>PHOENIX</strong> – March 2, 2022 - Trucker Path, the most comprehensive and most used mobile app for North American commercial truck drivers,<strong> </strong>today announced the results of its annual ranking of truck stops. The Best Truck Stops winners among chain and independent facilities were based on ratings, reviews, feedback and votes by the more than one million Trucker Path app users.</p> <p><strong>The Trucker Path Top 5 Best Trucks Stops</strong></p> <p><u>Independent Truck Stops</u><br> 1<sup>st</sup> Place -- Bert's Travel Plaza, Wellsville, Kansas<br> 2<sup>nd</sup> Place -- Big Apple Travel Center, Joplin, Missouri<br> 3<sup>rd</sup> Place – Boise Stage Stop, Boise, Idaho<br> 4<sup>th</sup> Place -- Russell's Endee Truck and Travel Center, Glenrio, New Mexico<br> 5<sup>th</sup> Place -- Truck World Truck Stop, Hubbard. Ohio<br></P> <p><u>Chain Truck Stops</u><br> 1<sup>st</sup> Place – Pilot Travel Center #1, Mill Hall Pennsylvania<br> 2<sup>nd</sup> Place – Love's Travel Stop #812, Bliss, IdahoD<br> 3<sup>rd</sup> Place – Rocky Mountain Truck Centers of Little America, Green River, Wyoming<br> 4<sup>th</sup> Place – TA Oakley #91, Oakley, Kansas<br> 5<sup>th</sup> Place – Love's Travel Stop #814, Hamilton, Alabama<br></P> <p>“When I found out we’d won I was shocked because our store just opened on May 1, 2020,” said Kim Jackson, general manager of Bert's Travel Plaza in Wellsville, Kansas. “But we’ve worked so hard to make it a great place. Being family owned, especially having owners that also operate a trucking company, really helps. They put all their trucker knowledge into our facility. The owner really wanted a place for drivers so it was built for the drivers. There’s lots of concrete, bigger spots to prevent accidents and a security guard at night to help drivers. We also have free parking, a wash bay, and we have a 24-hour cleaning crew for clean showers and restrooms. I am very thankful for a great staff that also cares about the drivers. At the end of the day, I’m very proud to show my kids that hard work really pays off.”</p> <p>For its annual Best Truck Stops award, Trucker Path uses in-app ratings, reviews and driver feedback to determine the top 20 chain and independent truck stops. The Top 5 lists are then created through voting on those locations by Trucker Path app users. Each Best Truck Stops facility receives a window decal honoring the location.</p> <p>“Truck stop ratings by drivers reflect the locations that offer the best parking, food and a range of other amenities,” said Chris Oliver, CMO at Trucker Path. “Recognition by drivers means these facilities are the right place to stop based on their features and customer service. This year’s winners are what drivers tell us are the best chain and independent truck stops from among the more than 6,000 locations in the Trucker Path app.”</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://truckerpath.com/uploads/2022/03/Top-20-Truck-Stops-of-2021.png"><img class="alignnone wp-image-6485 size-full" src="https://truckerpath.com/uploads/2022/03/Top-20-Truck-Stops-of-2021-e1646244968536.png" alt="" width="643" height="571" /></a></p> <p><strong>About Trucker Path</strong></p> <p>Trucker Path, the North American trucking industry’s most comprehensive and most used mobile app for truckers, is in use by more than 1 million drivers. The online platform’s unmatched capabilities provide access to vital up-to-date information about truck stops, real-time parking availability, fuel prices, weigh station status, truck scales and wash locations and much more. The advanced technology, designed to mitigate inefficiencies in the transportation industry, offers navigational assistance with truck optimized routing, and its TruckLoads freight matching load board connects drivers, carriers and brokers. </p> <strong>Media Contact:</strong><br> Susan Fall<br> LaunchIt Public Relations<br> 858-490-1050<br> <a href="mailto:susan@launchitpr.com">susan@launchitpr.com</a>

Mar 03, 2022