Overcoming the 4 Biggest Challenges of Haulage Companies Today

There are some big challenges facing the haulage industry today, from making hundreds of empty return journeys on a regular basis to the rising price of fuel, from shortages of drivers to keeping up with changes to legislation. All of these issues can leave large costs for your company. But there are some really great ways to solve them: joining a freight exchange, run by platforms such as Haulage Exchange, is perfect for sharing out the burdens with fellow professionals, and allowing you to share in the profit. Here’s how you can overcome those hurdles, and keep those journeys ahead smooth:

Coping with Empty Return Journeys

There’s nothing profitable about making long journeys without carrying anything in return; it only wastes time and a lot of energy. Being part of a freight exchange, which matches companies with unused vehicles, is the perfect way of reducing empty running. Active users post their availability, their location and end-destination, which can then quickly and easily be found by companies looking for space. Membership of an active exchange can reduce dead mileage by over 60% and is the simplest way of turning a loss into a profit.

Offsetting Rising Fuel Prices

Of course, profits are harder to achieve against the continual rise in prices of petrol. A great way of offsetting these costs, however, is through smart load matching. Platforms like Haulage Exchange can monitor thousands of movements made every day in real-time, with drivers posting their jobs and availability. That means you can easily identify the best ways of keeping costs low by taking advantage of unused vehicles, and cutting down on unnecessary journeys.

Managing Driver Shortages

Another major challenge for the industry, particularly if you’re running a smaller company, is driver shortages. Having a limited pool of hauliers at your company drastically reduces the number of journeys you can take and the jobs you can make to expand your business. A freight exchange can easily solve this problem by extending the size of your fleet. Trade platforms like Haulage Exchange offer a vast network of accredited, professional hauliers and allow you to quickly build up new contacts. While your company might seem to be suffering from a shortage, there are thousands of drivers and vehicles waiting just at the edge of your fingertips, ready to help you quite literally go the extra mile.

Dealing with Onerous Legislation

It can be hard keeping track of changes in legislation, and rifling through all the necessary documentation is certainly a tedious, time-consuming task. Platforms like Haulage Exchange are brilliant for streamlining communication and making the sharing of information much more efficient by providing alerts and notifications by email, SMS or on smartphones to safely communicate with drivers on the go. What’s more, they can easily provide hauliers with information about any new changes to the law.

Joining an Exchange

Membership of a freight exchange platform like Haulage Exchange offers great solutions for the problems any haulage company has to face. With over 15,000 active users taking part, running over 30,000 vehicles, it operates on a huge scale, and is ideally poised for making your job a hundred times more efficient, more productive and more profitable. Why not see which jobs are available right now?

Norman Dulwich is a Correspondent for Haulage Exchange, the leading online trade network for the road transport industry. Connecting logistics professionals across the UK and Europe through their online freight exchange, Haulage Exchange provides services for matching loads and with available drivers. Over 4,000 transport exchange businesses are networked together through their website, trading jobs and capacity in a safe 'wholesale' environment.

Writer and Online Marketing Manager in London.