If your trucking software was an employee in your office, working with the dispatchers and billers, how does that look? Is it the person everyone trusts and goes to for answers? Or is it the person crashing everyone’s moods and tempers? Trucking business software isn’t only a tool. It’s the life blood of your business. Let’s treat it like an employee and give it a performance review.

 

The Review: Key Traits of a Great Team Member (aka “Trucking Business Software”)

Close your eyes and picture your current system sitting across from you. It might be a single system, or it might be a combination of Excel, QuickBooks, partial TMS, etc. These are the kinds of things you would be considering.

INITIATIVE

Do you have to constantly remind the employee what to do? Or does it handle tasks with expediency and care?

Great software should automate routine tasks such as IFTA, fuel surcharge rating, rating loads, and flagging unpaid invoices before they become a problem. Consider whether your employee is doing this, or if they are leaving it on your to-do list or worse, making a mess of these tasks.

RELIABILITY

Does your trucking software load up fast and stay consistent throughout the day, or does it mysteriously slow down right when things get busy?

You wouldn’t keep an employee who disappears every time the phone lights up or there is a ping in the email inbox. Your software should show up ready to work every time.

COMMUNICATION

Can you pull the numbers you need in a few clicks? Or are you staring at a report that makes no sense until you call support?

Clarity matters. Whether it’s a quick summary or a deep dive into a profit by lane, your tools should keep up with what you need to do.

ORIENTED TO DETAIL

Are accessorial charges getting missed? Are invoices going out late? Is your employee always forgetting to allocate revenue and accessorials for relay loads?

If your software drops the ball on the small stuff, it tends to cost you big over time. Accuracy in a great team member is a non-negotiable.

PLAYS LIKE ITS ON A TEAM

When something goes wrong (and it always does eventually), does your software provider pick up the phone? Or leave you in the queue for days?

Support isn’t a luxury. It’s part of the package. The right software team should feel like part of your team: ready to roll up their sleeves, jump in, and help when things get messy.

 

How to Evaluate Your Software “Employee” Like a Boss

Here are a few quick ways you can evaluate your trucking business software if you aren’t sure how it’s really performing.

1. Ask your team: Who is fighting with the system the most? Your dispatcher, your accountant, your billing clerk? Their feedback will tell you everything.
2. Run a task stopwatch: Time how long it takes to enter a load, generate an invoice (or dozens of them at once), or pull a report. Could that be faster?
3. Look at your workarounds: If you’re using sticky notes, spreadsheets, or after-lunch prayers to patch over system gaps, that’s a sign your software isn’t cutting it.
4. Review your support history: How often are you reaching out for help, and how fast do you get answers? The frequency of getting help isn’t always a metric on its own. Trucking is complex and some operations more so than others. If you are just starting out, you may need more help when learning your way around enterprise-level software. The important part is the response you get. A great trucking software product is backed by dependable people. What is the feeling you get when you think about needing to call in to support?

At the end of the day, your software should work as hard as the rest of your team. If it’s creating friction instead of solving problems, it might be time for a change.

 

 

So… Would You Rehire Your Software?

Savvy business owners know that their software is more than a tool. It’s an integral part of their daily operations. When it works well, your whole trucking operation runs smoother. When it doesn’t, it slows everything down.

If you aren’t confident your software would survive an annual review, don’t wait until it causes a bigger problem. There are better options out there that are built for performance, backed by dependable people, and ready to work just as hard as you do.

If your trucking business software were up for a performance review, what would you say?

If your trucking business software were up for a performance review, would you say “You’ve been a rockstar. Always on time, organized, and helping the team thrive”? Or would you say “We appreciate your service, but it’s time to go in different directions”?

 

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Do you need “to hire” software that feels like part of your team? Q7 Trucking Business Software is reliable and always ready to help your operation run smoother. Schedule a demo today to help us understand where your pain points are and find out how you can improve back office performance.