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(February 1st, 2001) -Imagine a computer that allows you to manage payroll; dispatch your trucks; check routing, weather and fuel prices; and handle virtually any information function. Suppose that this computer is fully portable, allowing you to perform these tasks anywhere in the world for just 20 bucks or so per month, plus subscription or usage fees.
That "computer" exists today; it's called the Internet. Although you need your own computer to access it, the Internet is nothing but a vast computer network, essentially no different from the one you may have in your own company if you own several computers. The frenzy over "dot-coms" over the past few years and the dramatic shakeout in Internet companies over the past year have obscured an important point: The Internet is a valuable business tool. The whiz-bang innovations to come will be welcome, but you shouldn't wait to join the fray.
Find business help
Small trucking companies can benefit from dozens of websites designed to help entrepreneurs and business owners develop business strategy, obtain financing, market their companies and generally plan for the future. Few will help you with trucking-specific information, but in a sense that's a plus. It's useful to look at your company as a small business rather than as a trucking operation.
An excellent resource for small businesses is Bplans.com, a site that lets you find, view, download and edit sample business plans for expansion as well as start-up. The site offers a starting costs calculator, planning articles and other business resources. Another good website is BizMove.com, which provides dozens of guides, tools and techniques, plus free software programs.
One of the most comprehensive general business websites is the Business Owner's Toolkit , which provides a vast library of articles on management, financing, taxes, marketing and other issues. The site features more than 100 downloadable forms. A few other good sites to check out are BusinessTown.com, morebusiness.com, the Small Business Journal and smalloffice.com.
For business guidance more specific to the trucking world, visit the Small Carrier University website , which provides the text of how-to manuals on business planning, using financial statements, life-cycle costing and managing cash flow.
Get the trucking 411
Despite all the hype about e-commerce, the Internet revolution was based on a fairly simple proposition: finding more information than ever before and finding it faster than ever before.
"I use the Internet every day, if for nothing but to look up the weather where our trucks are going," says Donna Sims of Doyle Sims & Sons Trucking in Gleason, Tenn. Information on the Internet may be operational, such as fuel prices, loads, weather, routing and mileage. You might visit a site like TruckDown! to find the mobile repair service closest to your sidelined truck. Or you might need the latest version of the safety regs. Perhaps you need to find a vendor for a particular product or service. Maybe you want to do some comparison shopping for prices.
Several websites provide access to an array of trucking information. Among the sites that offer comprehensive trucking information and services are eTrucker.net, TruckNet , Truckinfo.net and mile.com.
These sites give you direct access to a variety of information tools, many of which are free.
For information on suppliers of trucking goods and services, check out the Trucking Super Directory, which is available through the American Trucking Associations website . It lists hundreds of trucking suppliers in dozens of categories, and you can search by keyword, company name and location.
For those involved in safety and compliance, the Internet has been a godsend. For example, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's website provides not only an up-to-date version of the motor carrier safety regulations, but also guidance and interpretation on what specific carrier actions and policies do and do not comply with those rules.
The Internet lets vendors provide more information to customers than ever before. Truck and engine manufacturers post technical manuals online for technicians to search or download. Other vendors let customers stay abreast of account balances, usage, inventory and other useful historical data.
Mark Krabousanos, with McCormick Trucking in Murfreesboro, Tenn., likes to access his company's fuel account online. "I can go log into the fuel account site and look at yesterday's fueling or fueling reports from a couple of months ago. Before, I didn't have that ability. And I can access information without having to go through the menus on the phone."
Handle money
The Internet gives small businesses the ability to handle various financial functions online, thereby speeding the processing and cutting paperwork. Payroll, payables, receivables - all can be done through the Internet these days. Unlike many websites that just provide information, most of these financial services sites require a payment or subscription.
But even just plain e-mail helps some trucking companies greatly in money management. Sims likes being able to take care of some of the accounting tasks through the Internet. "If there's a discrepancy in an invoice payment, you can just e-mail the payment instead of playing phone tag," Sims says. "It is so much easier to communicate with customers and vendors."
For online accounting and human resource services, check out Intacct.com. This Web-based service allows companies with up to 1,000 employees to take care of employee payroll, establish compliance guidelines and manage 401(k) programs online. There is an initial fee and a monthly subscription fee, but this cost includes support, software, hardware and networking equipment.
A more basic service which might work for smaller carriers is Freeworks.com, which cuts paperwork and automates routine business processes for free. You can download time cards, expense reports and customer and employee lists as well as do payroll, track accounts receivables and calculate insurance online. You can also subscribe to Freeworks Deluxe for more options.
Increasingly, supplier websites are giving businesses the option of ordering and paying online. But even if a particular vendor doesn't offer e-commerce through its website, you can pay online. PayPal , for example, lets you send money to anyone with an e-mail address. (For more information on handling accounts payable online, see Technology, January 2001.)
Use of the Web for handling receivables is growing as well. You could, for example, encourage customers to use services like PayPal to pay for your services. Or you could transfer your entire receivables management to an online factoring company. One option, FreightCash.com, lets you seek bids for your receivables from a small group of factoring companies.
A new option, MyReceivables.com, lets you post your receivables and receive cash - deposited electronically into your bank account - weekly or bi-weekly. You also can access and maintain up-to-the-minute balance information and the status of delinquent accounts.
Ed Young, president of E. Young's Express, a 17-truck carrier in Watertown, N.Y., sells all his invoices to MyReceivables.com. Every Friday, E. Young's Express prints and mails invoices to its customers, listing MyReceivables.com's company mailing address as its return address. Within a few days, Young says, money is wired into the company bank account for the invoice totals less a discounted flat rate of 3 percent.
These days you can even finance equipment online.
One website from the Associates, for example, lets you complete a financing application for tractors or trailers in a few minutes and get approval within a few hours. Other sites that offer financing as well as additional business management services include Truckxchange and GE Trucking Solutions.
Get good server
One benefit of the Internet that's often overlooked is the ability to operate software over a vendor's Internet server. This trend, which has been developing in trucking over the past several years, promises to be the future of information management - at least for small trucking companies. For customer and vendor it's a win-win proposition. The customer saves money on hardware and software, and the vendor can ensure all its customers are using the most current versions by updating the hosted software just once.
Several mobile communications providers offer Web-based interfaces, which not only save money but also provide great flexibility. "Everybody in the office can be on it at the same time," says Tim Dillon of Freeman & Sons Trucking Co. in Roscoe, Texas. The company has been using PeopleNet Communications' Intouch system to dispatch freight for about six months. "You can have six dispatchers looking for the same truck instead of us all standing around the machine waiting on each other to finish," Dillon says.
An Internet interface also means portability for dispatch. If, for example, a driver calls a trucking company owner at home at 3 a.m. to report a breakdown, the owner can get a precise fix on the truck's location just by turning on a home computer and launching the Internet.
The trend toward Internet interfaces seems to be taking hold among suppliers of dispatch/enterprise management software. Vendors such as McLeod, TMW, Innovative and Prophesy either have Internet-based versions on the market or are working on them. Maintenance software providers increasingly are offering Internet-based versions as well.
If you would like to move to the Internet but are particularly fond of your current software, don't despair. Chances are that an Internet interface is available or will be soon.
See for yourself
All this merely scratches the surface. As owners of trucking companies become more familiar with the power unleashed by the Internet, they may find themselves more comfortable conducting business - even buying used trucks - over the Web.
There's an old saying that if you give a man a fish he'll eat for a day, but if you teach him to fish he'll eat for a lifetime. The Internet is like that. You can't get true value from visiting a list of websites someone else provides. Get to know a few good search engines - AltaVista , Google , Lycos and Yahoo! are some of the best - and use them regularly. Your company is unique, and so are your needs from the Internet.
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