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What are your helpful hints and solutions for managing your business and surviving life on the road? Progressive Truck Tips allows you to share your sensible solutions as well as humorous advice and get tips from other users, just like you.
A sign it may be time to find a new insurance agent: If you count your fingers whenever the two of you shake hands.
How to avoid being led down the garden path: Stay away from insurance companies that are all vines and no ‘taters when it comes to claims service, affordable pricing and policies custom-made for your transportation business.
Your fleet’s fuel cards won’t win you any poker jackpots. But they can be your ace in the hole when it comes to savings. Request proposals from vendors to get the best program for your business, then use the data and reports to track fuel costs, ratios and efficiency.
Keep your employees safe in the driver’s seat by adding three quick checks to the beginning of every shift: 1) Make sure the seat is far enough back to prevent air bag injuries; 2) Remove seat belt slack; and 3) Adjust headrests so the center is at ear level.
When it comes to the safety of your fleet, small measures add up. Low cut side windows that give your drivers more visibility, side and rear mirrors with convex sections to eliminate blind spots, daytime running lights, proper positioning of headrests and driver’s seats, and tire pressure monitoring systems all reduce accidents and injuries. Your safety efforts will pay off at insurance renewal time, too.
Want to improve your efficiency? Slip on a skirt and lower your coefficient of drag. No, it’s not a suggestion for a way to unwind after a long day behind the wheel. Drag is a measure of how much air resistance your truck encounters as you motor down the highway. Installing side skirts, or fairings, improves airflow and reduces fuel consumption. The lower your drag coefficient, the higher your fuel efficiency. Now that’s advice you can use.
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Even though the road to unintended consequences is well paved with good intentions, your mileage may vary.
In the same way that annual health screenings help prevent future problems, an annual insurance checkup can keep your business’s bottom line healthy. Evaluating each of your commercial policies at least once a year puts you in the driver’s seat when it comes to getting the right coverage at the best price.
You took the time to choose the best structure for your trucking business – sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or limited liability company – for tax and personal liability purposes, and you titled your business vehicles in the company name for the same reasons. Now drive that final mile and make sure your business is listed as the principal insured on your commercial vehicle policy. Having the right owner on the policy will save you time and trouble if claims arise.
You spend a lot of time on the road delivering goods, and you’ve seen enough bad driving to wonder if some people got their license via a correspondence course. Here’s a suggestion for making the roads safer: Visit your local high school and offer to show rookie driver’s ed students the view from your truck cab. You might even provide a real-life demonstration that illustrates how long it takes a big vehicle to stop.