3 Things Every New Independent Haulier Should Know

A leap into anything new can stir anxiety, excitement, and a touch of fear. Starting a transportation business has its own challenges, and working as an independent contractor brings another set of concerns. Amid all the uncertainties, it is natural to reach out for answers, or at least a guide to light the road to success. But the route to success for a haulier relies more on understanding the particularities of your independent work, rather than a template.

Do You Know Your Market?

Any new haulier wants to get up close and personal to their potential market - or at least wrap their mind around the opportunities it presents. Being aware of your market is often presented as being imbued with marketing skills and sensibilities, and trusting your instincts about the demand for your services. But whether you drive a van in an inner city or operate a truck across the country, it is vital that your knowledge of your market goes beyond spin and digs into the specifics. Who bought similar services last year? Who will you compete with, and with whom can you partner? What are the expectations of quality and how do they vary? Sounding out the market is not a matter of reinventing the market research wheel, but simply a matter of clarifying the demand for your particular transport service in a particular place at a particular time.

Do You Know Your Strengths?

Speaking of particularities, do you know who you are as a transport worker? A haulier ventures into independent work because they associate themselves with other small businesses in transportation based on ambition, experience, or opportunity. But as every business is different, so too are each one's strengths. As you begin your transport work, it is imperative not to be confused or delusional about these. You need to determine whether your vehicles, driving abilities, networking skills, equipment, depot location, or other factors are your main strengths. Then you can shape and differentiate your business plan and brand around this in such a way that your prospective clients are under no illusions as to the way you intend to meet demands in the market.

Do You Have Small Business Skills?

As a haulier and independent contractor, it is surprisingly easy to forget at times that business is business. While, as mentioned, it is important to recognise the specific features of transportation work and this work within your local market, there are nonetheless a great deal of similarities between what you will do and what a freelance designer, restaurateur, or courier company will do, for example. Assessing your business skills is often a matter of understanding how you will invest time and energy into improving your business as opposed to actually doing business. Accounting, marketing, record-keeping, liaising and networking – one excellent way of doing this is by joining an online exchange - and managing computer systems are all facets of your business that are imperative, yet function outside the core work of delivering, transporting, and moving goods. This does not make this knowledge any less important, however.

Norman Dulwich is a Correspondent for Haulage Exchange, the leading online trade network for the road transport industry across the UK and Europe. It provides services for matching work for a haulier with jobs and to buy and sell road transport and haulage work in the domestic and international markets. 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.