« Dispatching SoftwareMonitoring Your Accounts Receivable »

Tools of the Trade

11/16/09

Tools of the Trade

  09:04:59 am, Categories: efficiencies , Tags: tools of the trade

Being raised in a farming and cattle ranching family, I had the opportunity to work with a variety of tools. Tools would quite often be used for things they were certainly not designed for, such has a claw hammer used to stretch barbwire tight after you had broken the wire stretcher attempting to use it as a winch to pull the pickup out of a mud hole.

In fact, the quality of the tool was quite often judged by how many things you could do with it and not break it. In my late teens I decided I was too good for farm work and worked on a construction crew for a couple of summers. I worked in concrete and did some framing. I learned a great deal about the proper use of tools during those summers, and having the right tool for the job at hand.

The quality of the tool was not simply judged on brute durability, in fact that took a second seat to precision, and efficiency. It was crucial to have the correct blade, nails, or hammer for the job. I also learned the cost of these professional tools when I had to buy my own. If I wanted to produce the quality and precision job the crew demanded I had to have quality tools.

The lessons I learned about quality tools have stuck with me through the years. I often see people who spend an enormous amount of effort, time, and money on a project or business only to put it all in jeopardy because they refuse to invest in the proper tools. This is not to say that tools have to be expensive to be quality, or, because something is expensive it is quality. However professional tools are held to a higher standard and typically cost more to produce.

Quite often trucking companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars investing in trucks, trailers, even office equipment. But when it comes to investing in the systems which manage all of their investments they falter. Sometimes they will use no system and invest in more employees or they will purchase an inexpensive system that will only manage a part of their business. This leaves the rest of the business to be managed manually or by a different inexpensive solution. These are very dangerous options for a company. As the old adage says if you cannot measure it you cannot manage it. If you measure it inaccurately you are going to manage it inaccurately.

In today's fast paced, and highly competitive transportation industry, measuring every detail of your operation is crucial. You must have the proper tools to measure and manage your company quickly and efficiently. Using a simple, off the shelf, accounting system to manage your trucking company or freight brokerage is not going to provide you the professional and accurate results your company and your customers require. Investing in a true transportation management system that is built and supported from the beginning by transportation professionals will provide you and your company quality and professional results.

Please consider TruckMaster as your company's next investment to ensure you have the proper tools of the trade. We will not only provide you with these tools but also with the expertise and support to ensure that you and your crew know how to use them, and we will ensure you have what you need in the future.

Kurtis Brown
TruckMaster Solution Provider
TruckMaster Your Trucking Company

Feedback awaiting moderation

This post has 7 feedbacks awaiting moderation...

March 2024
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
          1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31            
An ongoing discussion of trucking software. Things to watch for, things to watch out for.

Search

  XML Feeds

free open source blog