When considering a startup in the world of commercial hauling, understanding the core requirements is crucial. Among these, semi-truck financing requirements play a pivotal role. Your credit score and financial history serve as a testament to your reliability, heavily influencing your chances of securing financing. An adequate down payment and a well-thought-out business plan can significantly bolster your case, proving to lenders that you're a worthy investment.
Getting the right truck for your business
Selecting the ideal truck is crucial for establishing the foundation of your trucking enterprise. The dilemma between opting for a new vehicle versus a used one can be daunting. New trucks come with the latest features and warranties, yet they're a hefty investment. On the other hand, used trucks offer a more affordable entry point but could potentially harbour hidden issues. Regardless of your choice, ensuring a thorough inspection by a qualified mechanic can save you from future headaches. Ultimately, the right truck should align with your business's specific hauling needs, offering a balance between performance and cost as well-maintained trucks contribute to operational efficiency, reduce downtime, and enhance overall safety.
Laying down the legal groundwork
Ensure that you understand and comply with all federal, state, and local regulations governing the trucking industry. This includes obtaining the necessary licenses, and permits, and adhering to safety standards. Failure to comply with regulations can lead to fines, penalties, and business disruptions. Every trucking business must navigate this intricate maze of permits and licenses essential for lawful operation. This means understanding federal and state regulatory requirements, including obtaining a DOT number—an identification process that ensures adherence to all road safety and vehicle maintenance standards. Permits may vary based on the nature of the cargo, with hazardous materials demanding additional clearances. Therefore, familiarizing yourself with these requirements is essential for a smooth start.
Securing a Commercial Driver's License (CDL) is a pivotal milestone for individuals aspiring to embark on a career in the trucking industry. The process of obtaining a CDL involves a comprehensive understanding of vehicle operation, safety protocols, and regulatory compliance. Aspiring drivers typically undergo a rigorous training program, which includes both theoretical knowledge and hands-on skills assessment. The CDL examination covers a range of topics, such as vehicle inspection, manoeuvring, and adherence to traffic laws. Obtaining a CDL not only signifies proficiency in handling large commercial vehicles but also signifies a commitment to safety and professionalism on the road. Beyond the technicalities, a CDL opens the door to diverse opportunities within the transportation sector, offering the chance to navigate the highways and byways as a skilled and certified commercial driver.
Insurance also plays a non-negotiable role in protecting both your assets and future endeavours. It's not merely about fulfilling a legal obligation but ensuring the longevity of your business against unforeseen mishaps. The type and extent of coverage depend on various factors, including the nature of your cargo and operating radius. Shopping around for competitive rates while ensuring adequate coverage can pave the way for financial stability and peace of mind.
Route Planning and Logistics
Efficient route planning is crucial for optimizing fuel efficiency and minimizing transportation costs. It serves as the compass guiding a commercial trucking business toward heightened fuel efficiency and reduced transportation costs. The meticulous analysis of delivery routes, taking into account fluctuating traffic patterns and strategically minimizing empty return trips, forms the bedrock of a well-orchestrated operation. This strategic approach not only contributes to the economic sustainability of the business but also plays a pivotal role in environmental conservation by minimizing fuel consumption. For a seamless integration of these principles, implementing robust logistics systems emerges as the linchpin. These systems not only streamline day-to-day operations but also elevate the overall effectiveness of a trucking business, allowing it to navigate the complexities of the road with precision and foresight.
Building the foundation for a successful operation
Launching a trucking business with just one truck might seem like a modest beginning, but with strategic planning, it can grow into a lucrative venture. Identifying your niche in the hauling market is the first step towards differentiation. Whether it's refrigerated goods, dry bulk or hazardous materials, excelling in a specific domain can enhance your competitive edge.
But don't stop there because developing a comprehensive business strategy, including a detailed financial plan and robust marketing efforts, is crucial. Reinvesting profits into your business allows for gradual expansion—be it through acquiring more trucks or venturing into new markets. Remember, maintaining high-quality service and understanding logistics is key to retaining clients and fostering growth. With dedication, resilience, and strategic planning, your single-truck operation could pave the way to a flourishing transportation empire.
While you can drive yourself and take your car with you, that isn’t the most cost-effective way to move the car across the country. So what is, what is the best way to get a car from one side of the country to another? Well, that is what this article is going to talk about!
Hire An Auto Transport Company
This is one of the most common ways to ship your car across the country. You can load your car up into a heavy carrier, and then it can be driven across the country. Depending on the traffic on the road and the distance that you are traveling, it could be a very cheap way to move the car from one location to another.
All you need to do is call the company and get everything set up, and because all of the transport companies use the same multiple-car carriers, you can even move multiple cars all with the same company and at the same time!
Should You Use An Enclosed Transport?
As you look at the various options for transporting your car across the country by car, you will see two different options. One is an enclosed auto transport option and the other is an open auto transport option.
Enclosed auto transport is whenever your car is enclosed inside the trailer, protecting it from the hazards of the road and any poor weather conditions. While open transport is whenever the car is left exposed to all of that.
Open auto transport is a cheaper option whenever you take your car across the country, but depending on the weather conditions, you might decide to splurge on enclosed transport and shield your car from weather effects. If you compare the cost of enclosed transport to the average cost to ship a car according to Agoyu, then you will find some savings.
Shipping By Train
If you are looking for some serious cost-effectiveness in terms of moving your car from one location to another, then having your car ride the rails is a good idea. A train can ship more cars for less fuel, and you can also load the car with boxes before it ships out and save some money on getting your belongings to your new home.
The train is much better for the environment and for your wallet! The only problem that can come with shipping your car by train is that rail lines are very limited and a specialized line might not be available for the area you want to move to.
So make sure to check everything well before you sign up and start planning your move because you don’t want to schedule your car to be moved on a rail line that doesn’t exist!
Check The Cost To Ship A Car
Shipping a car across the country doesn’t need to be a massive hassle that grinds your entire move to a halt. Instead, it can be something that you can use to your advantage. Just make sure to pick the cost-effective ways to ship a car across the country, and soon your vehicle will arrive at the door of your new home!
A surge of freight volumes has caused gridlock in UK ports, and the government has been warned by port operators that further disruption could be on the way once new Brexit checks come into force.
Felixstowe, the UK’s biggest deep-sea port that handles 40% of the country’s container trade, has been handling around 30% more goods than usual as businesses have rushed to replenish stock after the end of the recent England-wide lockdown and ahead of the final days of the Brexit transition period. The disruption has also been felt in other major ports including Southampton and London Gateway, impacting several industries.
Shortages of essential products like washing machines and fridges have been reported by several high street retail chains. Builders are also running short on tools and supplies, with Builders Merchants Federation CEO John Newcomb describing the ports as a “major issue” for members.
“There appears to be an increasing issue getting products through ports,” Newcomb said. “Rather than taking a maximum of one week to unload, it is taking up to four.”
Elsewhere, Honda was forced to close its 370-acre factory in Swindon – its largest plant in Europe – which operates a “just in time” manufacturing supply chain. As the punctual arrival of goods is essential to the continuity of its production line, congestion at ports left the factory unable to function.
From 1 January, UK exporters and lorries will be subject to new checks on agricultural and animal products at EU ports, which logistics industry heads fear will disrupt mainland imports. Equally concerning are the health and safety checks that the UK plans to impose on EU imports, including food, potentially causing shortages.
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In a letter to cabinet office minister Michael Gove in November, British Ports Association CEO Richard Ballantyne warned of a “severe impact” on trade and essential supplies.
“Some ports are being told by customers that these volumes of interventions could ‘kill off’ particular trades,” Ballantyne wrote, raising fresh-cut flowers and salad and meat supplies for supermarkets as some of the most at-risk areas.
Artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, and Cloud are no longer just buzzwords as enterprises globally are embracing all types of next-gen technology to drive significant business transformations. Blockchain, a more recent addition to the roster, fits within the same technology bracket and is poised to become a major disruptive force across all industries. However, despite emerging applications across supply-chain logistics, healthcare and FinTech that are promising ‘game-changing’ solutions leveraging the technology, to date, very few companies have been able to tap into the complete potential of blockchain.
The Growth of FinTech
Thanks to the rapid global proliferation of the Internet and coming of age of tech-savvy millennials, the marriage of technology and financial institutions has expanded from simple credit card and ATM transactions to online money transfers and payments. In fact, the FinTech industry has already staked its claim in adapting emerging technologies such as wireless payments and AI-enabled chatbots.
Leveraging these next-gen technologies to complete traditional financial transactions, such as money transfers and loan applications has resulted in many consumers looking to deal with FinTechs over traditional banks. Their ability to promptly, securely and successfully complete transactions have helped build customer trust over time. With the continued improvement in security and privacy measures backed by new technologies such as blockchain, the ‘trust quotient’ in the financial services industry is bound to rise manifold. Looking ahead, 77% of financial institutions are expected to adopt blockchain by 2020, according to PwC’s 2017 Global FinTech Report.
What is Blockchain?
Oftentimes incorrectly used interchangeably with the term Bitcoin, blockchain is actually a distributed ledger that is capable of maintaining an ever-growing list of records. Although it resembles a spreadsheet like Excel, there are certain unique features that set blockchain apart from traditional databases:
• Decentralised: Blockchain promotes a decentralised system where data is distributed across several servers. Its lack of a single authority makes the system fair and more secure.
• Immutable: Blockchain is a tamper-free environment. It has immutable and irreversible records that do not permit changes once a ‘block’ is written. Only new records can be written.
These key benefits make blockchain a vital tool in building trust between businesses and customers, which is especially critical in the financial services industry, by providing access to accurate data from retail banking to investment banking to insurance.
How Blockchain Helps Build Trust
In the digital era, the rate at which consumers adopt next-gen technology is among the top growth metrics for the FinTech industry; however, FinTechs face big challenges in generating trust among consumers. This is where blockchain comes into the picture. In a complete shift from how traditional banks operate - where customers have little to no insights into their banks’ operations and processes, blockchain maintains its data in a centralised repository. This shifts the ‘power’ into the hands of the consumer, effectively cutting out intermediaries and ensuring complete transparency in all transactions.
Blockchain provides companies with access to a decentralised network where they can share information in a secure environment that guarantees unalterable data transfers and ensures an agreement of obligations from both parties when processing a transaction. In addition, it simplifies financial services, such as money transfers, loan applications, and mobile payments, something that every customer yearns for in terms of augmenting their overall experience.
Ensuring the accurate authentication and authorisation of every customer and transaction is another big challenge for FinTechs when it comes to establishing trust. Blockchain technology makes these functions, as well as identity management, a lot simpler and more convenient by enabling users to choose the mode of identity and with whom they want to share it while registering. The information is then stored on a secure decentralised network, with user-only access to alter it. This helps FinTech companies save on paperwork and data servers.
Blockchain Applications in FinTech
Cross-Border Payments
Cross-border money transfers can be expensive and slow due to complex procedures. Blockchain technology is able to simplify, speed up, and make cross-border payments less expensive. Peer-to-peer transactions cut out the ‘middlemen’, resulting in faster and less expensive transactions. In fact, blockchain also helps lower the remittance costs on the total transfer amount from about 20% to a mere 3%.
Smart Contracts
Smart Contracts are arguably one of the most promising applications of blockchain in the FinTech industry. They are nothing but computer programs developed to verify or enforce agreements. These contractual clauses are either partially or fully self-executing or self-enforcing. Smart Contracts using blockchain help in recording information on a shared ledger, making it an unquestionable digital proof, thus empowering everyone from regulators to individual artists and authors with strong security features, a lowered risk of internal hacking, and the prevention of plagiarism of work by intermediaries.
Share Trading
Share trading involves several third parties, such as brokers and the stock exchange. This makes the clearing and settlement process time-consuming and cumbersome with multiple stages and bureaucracy to navigate that can take up to three working days to complete. The decentralised nature of blockchain technology, however, helps remove the unnecessary intermediaries and optimise the whole lifecycle of the trade by enhancing trade accuracy, speeding up the settlement process, and reducing risks.
Trade Financing
Trade financing – financial activities related to commerce and international trade – involves lots of tedious paperwork and bureaucracy, making the process highly time-consuming and risky. Blockchain-based trade financing helps overcome these bottlenecks, streamlining the process. It eliminates the need for participants to maintain a personal database of documents as well as the risk of an error in one document being duplicated to its copies by creating a single digital document that contains all the necessary information. Blockchain also supports real-time updating of the document, which ensures all members have access to the most up-to-date information at all times.
Happily Ever After: FinTechs and Blockchain
In today’s increasingly digitised world, there is a growing need for a bridge between new technologies and financial institutions in order for the industry to meet the demands of consumers who want a convenient yet safe and secure way to complete their financial transactions. Blockchain has the ability to build that bridge and FinTechs leveraging this new technology will reap the rewards of an exponentially increasing customer base.
With the support of a trusted service delivery partner with experienced customer service agents who can knowledgeably address questions and concerns about blockchain, these new FinTech kids on the financial block are poised to take on traditional banks.
About Neeraj Sabharwal
Neeraj Sabharwal, Director of Cloud and Big Data Solutions at Xavient Digital - powered by TELUS International, has more than 15 years of experience in the next-gen technology industry, helping customers derive incremental value from their data. He is a true data enthusiast and enjoys writing his popular blog and regularly contributes to articles as a member of the Forbes Tech Council.
About Xavient Digital - powered by TELUS International
Xavient Digital is a US-based provider of digital IT solutions and software services, headquartered in California with offices throughout the United States and an international network of delivery centers. Xavient Digital leverages its global footprint to deploy the best talent, time to market and cost optimisation benefits for its customers. Xavient Digital’s corecompetencies are in digital transformation stacks and full lifecycle IT services across telecom, media, BFSI and consumer technology verticals.
Learn more at:
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The details of the Government agenda for the next two years have been revealed; and the global delivery experts Fastlane International say there is some good news for exporters and logistics companies.
The delayed Queen’s Speech has finally been delivered, and the e-commerce delivery specialists Fastlane International say that there is some good news for exporters and logistics; though many Brexit details remain unclear.
Says Fastlane’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks MILT: ‘There are eight bills tackling Brexit alone; but the real details of the Government’s approach to Brexit, and how wedded they still are to a ‘hard’ Brexit - leaving the Customs Union and the Single Market entirely - remains to be seen as negotiations unfold.’
David comments below on the Bills introduced:
- The Customs Bill will contain legislation to ensure the UK has a stand-alone UK Customs regime on exit: not entirely good news for exporters and logistics companies hoping to see few significant changes to current tariff free exports and imports. However, the stated flexibility to accommodate future trade agreements with the EU and others does perhaps pave the way for a softer Brexit, including the opportunity to retain tariff free borders.
- Additionally, the Trade Bill will introduce a legal framework for Britain to agree free trade deals with countries and trading blocs around the world; and it is to be hoped this includes opportunities for deals with Nafta - the group made up of Canada, Mexico and the US – and the remaining members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the deal which was due to be implemented between 12 countries, including Australia and Japan, until Donald Trump pulled the US out of the agreement.
- More good news for UK logistics companies was the Automated and Electronic Vehicles Bill. Fastlane believes the future of UK courier services will be closely linked to greener, autonomous vehicles delivering in urban areas.
- The news that the Government is pushing ahead with its High Speed 2 Phase 2A Bill – the so called HS2A extension of the HS2 railway from Birmingham to Crew - will mean more freight transport will be able to use the existing West Coast Mainline as slots are freed-up when high-speed passenger services switch to the new line.
- News of a Commonwealth Summit next year will also help concentrate plans for British exporters post Brexit. From Australia to Zambia the 52 member countries present an A-Z of opportunities for business.
- Finally, as e-commerce delivery specialists Fastlane was interested to hear of a Digital Charter in the Data Protection Bill. Measures to crack down on internet crime help increase trust in online transactions.
(Source: Fastlane)
Peter Sprigg, CEO of Helge Nyberg AB in Sweden, explains the challenges of offering a unique logistics business, developing and manufacturing trolleys and towing and picking trucks for a global market.
Could you please give a brief overall description of Helge Nyberg AB and the work you do?
Helge Nyberg AB is a company that develops, manufactures and markets trolleys and towing and picking trucks for a worldwide market. Some companies make trucks while others sell trolleys, but Helge Nyberg AB is the only specialist company that takes care of the whole picture: people, trolleys, trucks, and the Ergobjörn truck and trolley, considered as a unique solution in the market. Today, we are a global company with customers in more than 60 countries.
We offer our standard trolley range via large catalogue companies throughout Europe, and our solution partner for many years, Toyota Material Handling, is the world's largest company within material handling, and part of the company that founded the Lean Principles. Our solutions are part of their range. The company’s head office, where development and manufacturing takes place is located in Sweden and we have a separate sales office in Germany. Our sales consultants in both Sweden and Germany help both our partners and end customers to find the best and smartest solutions for in-house material handling. As specialists, we want to offer constantly increasing efficiency, better ergonomics and positive economic results for our customers.
Could you please give us an insight into your role as the CEO of your company?
My role as CEO is to manage Helge Nyberg so that it remains a company with an aim to constantly exceed our customers’ expectations, in all our activities.
As a business leader, how do you ensure that your visions are executed across all sectors of your company?
I make sure that I keep a strong focus on our vision and the position within the market we have taken, which is as ‘the in-house material handling specialist’. My role is to ensure that we always act as a specialist across our entire range of services and activities. However, the outcome and the result of our activities should lead to our customers perceiving us as specialists, and with this in mind, to feel satisfied with us as a partner. This position includes all our actions, from development to production, marketing and sales, as well as the behaviour and attitude of the people in our organization. With this in mind, we like to grow our business as a specialist with the view to making the daily business better and more efficient for our customers.
What have you done as the company’s CEO since you started in 2009?
As a new CEO in the company, I took the opportunity to make a six-month analysis of our market. I used the strategy ‘Listen, Find and Act’. This meant that I spent a lot of time interviewing people in the organization, as well as our partners and customers, since I wanted to find new future sustainable strategies for growth. We ‘found’ and we did ‘act’! One of the first things I did was to make big changes in our methods of communication and thinking. From inside out, to outside and in, we started to look at the company with the view from our customers’ eyes. We created a position to take at the market – we made segmentations of our market – we started to communicate the benefit for our customers when they used our products in different logistics flow in each segment, instead of product specifications. We started to make new Lean principle-driven product development, determined by the new segments in which our products should be used. At the same time, we started up a strong development program with the view of making new product solutions. The result of this program we hoped would help our customers to be more effective with our trucks and trolleys solutions, and ultimately, the result has been that 50% of our turnover today comes from new innovative product solutions launched during the last five years.
What has your experience brought to the company?
My background as CEO comes from sales and marketing and I brought this knowledge into Helge Nyberg to understand our customers’ needs and demands; to create strategies, products and solution that meet and exceed those needs. We need to help our customers with their daily business and make them more efficient with our products solutions, and that needs to be something we keep in our minds at all times. Make our customer´s working life easier. If we are able to keep this directive at the forefront, then both our customers and we will be successful.
How does your firm ensure that they are at the forefront of any emerging developments?
We have built a strong customer focus and strong R&D into our different market segment! We also constantly analyse the market segments we are working within, with the view to finding better product solutions, which makes our customers more efficient. With this in mind, we visit many of our customers and regularly undertake studies in the working flow. From those visits, we can find new areas for improvement and we make new product solutions.
How do you ensure that all of your products and services meet the high standards you set for yourselves?
We have shaped a culture within the company that we have created for ourselves, where we keep in mind the position we have taken as the in-house material handling specialist. We have also implemented Lean principles within the company.
Does working in your region throw up any specific challenges or opportunities?
Helge Nyberg Ab is a growing international company, with customers in more than 60 countries today. The industries of today are constantly changing and we have found some trends in the market and today we are working very hard to make new product solutions in response to those trends. One trend is the growing e-commerce business and the second is the changes of how the traditional industry makes their material flow in the production. The forklift free production makes new opportunities for new kind of product solution.
What makes your company unique? What distinguishes your firm from its competitors?
We have unique solutions for order picking and the e-commerce business. We also have a strong knowledge about our customers’ demands in the different segments in which we act. In our segments; industrial and manufacturing, e-commerce and order picking, healthcare and hospital, automotive and vehicle, and service and support, we fully understand the demands and challenges. We have built up an organization that is able to provide standard products, as well as tailor-made customer solutions.
What does the future hold for your firm?
We, as a company, adapt to constant changes and new technology. In this way, we keep focus on both the products, production, R&D and our communication. It keeps us curious about the development and finding solutions to help our customers achieve a more effective everyday life.
JLL has launched ‘More than the last mile’, a research report which examines how smarter logistics will help shape cities in the future. Commenting on JLL’s report, Andy Harding, lead director of JLL’s Industrial & Logistics Group, said: “Spurred by the growth of e-commerce and demand for last-mile fulfilment facilities, there has been increasing interest in urban logistics among property developers and investors. However, this is only a part of the story, as the issues associated with logistics in cities are much wider than servicing e-commerce growth. Cities present many challenges but also significant opportunities for real estate in the future. We believe that environmental and efficiency challenges will transform logistics operations in Europe’s major cities.”
Key JLL research highlights include:
- Anticipated rise in demand for different types of logistics facilities, including transhipment facilities (where goods can be transferred onto environmentally friendly vehicles); shared-user consolidation centres; local facilities for last mile fulfilment; multi-storey buildings and underground facilities.
- A need to find new models of city logistics which are sustainable and maximise efficiency while minimising adverse environmental and social impacts, such as air pollution and noise.
- Developing technologies have the potential to address both efficiency and environmental objectives but there are no immediate quick wins.
- Old technologies should not be ignored as partial solutions may be found by looking ‘back to the future’, including, for example, the use of rail or bicycles.
- Increased night-time deliveries in cities would make more effective use of the transport network at times when it has capacity and would cut down peak traffic impacts.
- Logistical considerations need to be at the forefront of city planning and building design.
- Warehouses and suitable land for logistics activities will remain critical for efficient city logistics but if these activities are pushed too far out of the cities they service, this will drive up ‘stem distances’ (from warehouse to customers) and potentially emissions.
- Varying interests of the different stakeholders in city logistics need to be addressed in order to identify new approaches that satisfy all of them.
- Logistics in cities present big opportunities for real estate developers and investors due to strong demand and supply dynamics.
Jon Sleeman, JLL’s head of EMEA Industrial & Logistics Research, added: “From a property market perspective, city or urban logistics buildings are often considered a separate market segment, distinct from ‘big box’ logistics properties, that are mainly clustered at Europe’s major gateways (seaports and airports), along its strategic transport corridors and around its major cities. This segmentation may be valid from a property market viewpoint, but these different types of property are often part of the same supply chains. This being the case, to understand potential opportunities for change in city logistics, we need to take a wider supply chain perspective.”
(Source: JLL)
