Jan 26, 2023

How Often Do Truckers Prefer To Return Home? How Often Do They Actually Return Home?

One-stop-shop: How a fledgling small fleet found organization, efficiency with TMS Published on Overdrive (overdriveonline.com) on November 10, 2022. Matt Cole – November 10, 2022 – Dorian Acosta Sr. started <a href="https://www.shippingteleporters.com/">Shipping Teleporters Trucking Company</a> as a family business in late 2020, after spending about a decade driving for other trucking companies. In May of 2021, the company got authority, and Senior turned the company over to his son, Dorian Acosta Jr., who had been handling paperwork and some other duties in the back office. Acosta Sr. still works for the Middletown, Connecticut-based company managing maintenance on their three trucks and four trailers, along with other duties around the business. “My dad, he’s my partner -- we’re right there neck-and-neck,” Acosta Jr. said. “He definitely introduced me into the industry. He had the primary trucking background.” When Acosta Jr. took over as CEO, it was a “baptism by fire,” he said, as he started handling the booking of loads, accounting, driver management and more. “I had no experience in the logistics industry until last year," he said. The company hauls a variety of freight, mostly working the spot market and primarily sticking to the tri-state area of Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, and surrounding states. The company’s three trucks are a 2012 Freightliner Cascadia daycab, a 2011 Volvo VNL and a 2012 Kenworth T700. While the company owns a flatbed and walking floor trailer, the two dry vans butter the bread of the business, moving dry goods such as sugar, bottled water and more. Like many small fleet owners, Acosta Jr. had cobbled together a working system for back-office management that hinged in part on the QuickBooks accounting software. “I used QuickBooks for accounting purposes, and they also have an employee time-tracking side of their offerings where drivers can clock in and out to track their time,” he said. “Whenever I was dispatching a driver, I would include what time I needed them. I’d include in the comments section their truck and trailer number, where they have to go, the load numbers, everything.” He acknowledged that people with more experience in the industry “obviously would have known to sign up for some sort of access” to transportation management system (TMS) software, but he was “just learning as we went, dispatching drivers and putting information into the comment section” of the QuickBooks timesheet. “We made do, but we got to a really stressful point where, in April [2022] we ended up researching” TMS software to help the business run more smoothly, he said. After trial runs with a number of providers, Acosta decided to go with Trucker Path Command, which had just launched in March. Trucker Path, of course, has long offered an app geared toward operators that offers navigation, truck stop information, weigh station information, truck parking information and more, leaning on users to provide the in-app community with useful updates about specific locations. “Just the way everything was, the ease and functionality, being able to log in, dispatch a driver, provide them all the information, and they can upload the documents” made the decision easy for Acosta, who said he’s always valued a “one-stop-shop” approach, whether in business or as a consumer. Shipping Teleporters has used the DAT load board since its inception, but since choosing Trucker Path Command as its TMS software, Acosta has started to also rely on Trucker Path’s own TruckLoads board -- access to it is included in Command’s monthly fee. He’s also found great value in the system’s document management and scanning capabilities, through which drivers scan and upload paperwork, receipts and anything else that’s needed in the office. <img src="https://truckerpath.com/uploads/2022/11/Portal-300x152.png" alt="Rather than having to physically get the paperwork out of his trucks every day, or having his drivers text sometimes poor-quality images of the paperwork, Acosta and his operators now have access to intuitive tools for the purpose of sharing documents, stored for easy access all in one place." /> “Before everything was digitized, I was heading down to my truck lot to get paperwork for the drivers, putting proofs of delivery in there for them to get signed,” Acosta said. “Every single day after their load assignments, I would pick up paperwork from their trucks.” Now, he said, the drivers upload the paperwork for him to create invoices within the system, and with its integration with his QuickBooks, he’s able to automatically send invoices either direct to customers or to the factoring company he uses, Factoring Express. When using the load board and negotiating with brokers, Acosta said another valuable tool is a rate calculator that allows him to input all the relevant information to see what he needs to make on a load for it to meet his profit expectations. Command has also been helpful for his drivers, he added. Once he books a load through the software, he can dispatch his drivers by sending the load directly to their phones, and the drivers can use the Trucker Path app’s routing, or Acosta can route the drivers through the app himself to make their jobs easier. I can pull up points of interest -- weigh stations, places to eat and park, fuel stations” -- to help drivers find the best deal on fuel and more, he said. With crowdsourced fuel pricing information from the more than 1 million driver users of the Trucker Path app, managers using Command can send “the route that has the perfect fuel optimization to fuel up, tell them when and where,” said Tom Wulf, senior vice president of sales and strategic partnerships for Trucker Path. <img src="https://truckerpath.com/uploads/2022/11/Truck-Water-Tower-300x221.png" alt="While the company's primary focus is dry van freight, Acosta keeps the fleet's options open with a flatbed trailer, shown here hooked to the company's 2012 Freightliner Cascadia, and a walking floor trailer." /> With future growth in mind, Acosta believes Command will be an invaluable tool as he looks to grow his fleet, integrating in one system a variety of management tools -- from finding and booking a load to dispatching the driver and sending the driver route information, having the fleet’s Motive ELDs integrated into Trucker Path to track hours of service and location information for customers that want load updates, the document-management functions already described... The list goes on. Financial benefits are already apparent, he believes. The company grossed $106,000 from its launch in May of 2021 through the end of the year with two trucks (the third was purchased last December). This year so far, it's pulled in $275,000 in revenue, on pace to pass $330,000 by the end of the year. “It manages the rest of your operation,” Wulf said of Command. “It is a complete, robust system, and it can scale. If you’re a small fleet or owner-operator and you start growing, which is the goal in many cases, you don’t have to switch -- it can scale right with you.” Wulf added that the price point, given the combination of features, “is designed to make this affordable to even the playing field” for owner-operators and small fleets. Acosta agreed, saying that just having a subscription to multiple load boards prior to purchasing Trucker Path Command was more expensive than the monthly subscription. A Command subscription starts at $99 a month, which includes one Operator (manager) license and two Diamond-level Trucker Path driver app subscriptions, which are $29.99 a month if purchased by a driver. An additional Operator seat adds $50 to the monthly cost, and additional driver seats cost an extra $30. Discounts are also available once you surpass 10 drivers. “For everything that [Trucker Path] offers, I can’t believe how affordable the software is,” Acosta said.

Nov 16, 2022

Food Logistics Names Trucker Path a 2022 Top Software & Technology Provider Award honors software and technology providers that ensure a safe, efficient and reliable global cold food and beverage supply chain PHOENIX – December 12, 2022 – Trucker Path, the most comprehensive and most used mobile app for North American truckers, today announced it has been named a recipient of the 2022 Top Software & Technology Providers award by Food Logistics, the only publication exclusively dedicated to covering the movement of product through the global cold food supply chain. “The drivers, and small and mid-size fleets, who rely on Trucker Path are key players in making sure food supplies reach store shelves,” said Chris Oliver, CMO at Trucker Path. “The Food Logistics 2022 Top Software & Technology Providers award validates that the tools we provide like the Trucker Path app, TruckLoads load board, and COMMAND Operations & Driver Relationship (ODR) TMS platform help truckers haul food and beverages safely, reliably and effectively.” The Top Software & Technology Providers award honors companies that ensure a safe, efficient and reliable global cold food and beverage supply chain. As a recipient of this year’s award, Trucker Path will be profiled in the Nov/Dec 2022 print edition of Food Logistics and is included in the publication’s<a href="https://www.foodlogistics.com/software-technology/article/22419155/top-software-tech-providers-award-visibility-supply-chain-management-lead-the-way"> full list of winners.</a> About Food Logistics Food Logistics reaches more than 26,000 supply chain executives in the global food and beverage industries, including executives in the food sector (growers, producers, manufacturers, wholesalers and grocers) and the logistics section (transportation, warehousing, distribution, software and technology) who share a mutual interest in the operations and business aspects of the global cold food supply chain.Food Logistics and sister publication Supply & Demand Chain Executive are also home to L.I.N.K. and L.I.N.K. Educate podcast channels, L.I.N.K. Live, SCN Summit, <a href="https://www.supplychainlearningcenter.com/"> SupplyChainLearningCenter.com</a>and more. Go to <a href="https://www.foodlogistics.com/"> www.FoodLogistics.com </a>to learn more. About Trucker Path Phoenix-based Trucker Path is the provider of a wide range of truck driver-centric mobility products. Its Trucker Path app is currently in use by over 1 million professional truck drivers. Offering best-in-class navigation with truck optimized routing, the Trucker Path app also provides access to vital up-to-date information about truck stops, real-time available parking, fuel prices, weigh station status, and truck scales and wash locations. The company also offers TruckLoads, a digital freight exchange that connects drivers, carriers and brokers; COMMAND™, the industry’s first and only Operations & Driver Relationship (ODR) platform that provides small to mid-size fleets with the necessary driver and TMS technologies to successfully run a fleet; and DISPATCH, a full-service dispatch service designed specifically to serve the back-office needs of small carriers and owner-operators. For more information, visit <a href="https://www.truckerpath.com/">www.truckerpath.com.</a> Media Contact: Susan Fall LaunchIt Public Relations <a href="tel:8584901050">858-490-1050</a> <a href="mailto:susan@launchitpr.com">susan@launchitpr.com</a>

Dec 13, 2022

Trucker Path Solutions Earn Platinum and Gold Awards for Excellence PHOENIX – <a href= "https://truckerpath.com/">Trucker Path</a> has received four 2022 TITAN Business Awards from <a href= "https://iaaawards.org/">International Awards Associate (IAA)</a>, acknowledging its achievements in several categories and industry segments, according to a news release. For the 2022 TITAN Business Awards, Trucker Path was named: <ul> <li>Platinum Winner for the Trucker Path Driver App in the category of Products & Services, Logistics </li> <li>Gold Winner for the Trucker Path Driver App in the category of Products & Services, Transportation </li> <li>Gold Winner for Trucker Path COMMAND in the category of Business Technology Solutions, Operation Management Solution </li> <li>Gold Winner for Trucker Path COMMAND in the category of Business Technology Solutions, Supply Chain Management Solution </li> </ul> Trucker Path was chosen for recognition from among more than 1,000 nominated entries from more than 55 countries, the news release stated. Award winners were selected by 27 jurors from 15 countries. The competition used a blind judging process, under which jurors assess an entry entirely on its individual merits, without being compared side-by-side with other technologies. “It is very gratifying to be acknowledged for our achievements with these four 2022 TITAN Business Awards,” Chris Oliver, CMO at Trucker Path, said. “This recognition for excellence validates how the Trucker Path app and our COMMAND Operations & Driver Relationship (ODR) platform provide drivers, and small and mid-size fleets with the tools and services they need to succeed.” The Trucker Path app provides real-truck mapping and navigation to over 1 million drivers in North America. Trucker Path COMMAND, launched in March 2022, is a full-scale, advanced transportation management system that fully integrates with the Trucker Path app, providing operational efficiencies and unparalleled synchronization between the back-office and drivers. “The TITAN Business Awards’ primary goal is to acknowledge the achievements of entrepreneurs and organizations globally,” according to the news release. “The competition does not differentiate between small or big players in the market, and honors excellence impartially on the level playing field they have created. Only those who qualify can become honorary TITANs.” The competition was organized and hosted by the International Awards Associate and opened submissions to entrepreneurs, small and medium businesses and large organizations alike. The chance to participate was offered equally to all available industries in the market, and it did not discriminate between private or public, and for-profit or non-profit entities. “Despite this being the second season for this competitive year, we received a staggering number of entries, all of which demonstrated remarkable qualities of excellence,” Thomas Brandt, spokesperson of IAA, said. “It is particularly motivating to see so many parties still actively engaging in excellent practices in their businesses. It really does come through clearly from their submissions.”

Nov 01, 2022