TMS – CarShipIO Blog

ELD for Car Haulers

Car haulers, this subject already sounds pretty familiar to every motor car carrier that’s thinking long term in the industry. Here are some insights you need to know directly from FMCSA about the ELD rule.

ELD is used by commercial drivers with the requirement to prepare:

HOS – Hours of service
RODS – Records of duty status

ELD needs to also be certified and registered with FMCSA, along with having supporting documents for drivers/car carriers required to keep in the truck. So, beginning on December 18, 2017, a driver using an ELD must have an ELD information packet onboard the commercial motor vehicle (CMV).

Speaking about it, an ELD can be on a smartphone or other wireless device if the device meets the ELD rule’s technical specifications. Data Storage: For six months, a motor carrier must keep both the ELD Records of

hours services data
a back-up copy of that data on a separate device

The car carrier must ensure that these records are stored securely to protect driver privacy. An ELD automatically records the following data elements at certain intervals:

date
time
location information
engine hours
vehicle miles
identification information for the driver
authenticated user
vehicle
motor carrier

Location data must be recorded by an ELD at 60-minute intervals when the vehicle is in motion, driver powers up and shuts down the engine, change duty status, and indicates personal use or yard moves. Also, keep in mind that an ELD must automatically switch to driving mode once the commercial motor vehicle (CMV) is moving up to a set speed threshold of five miles per hour. As a result, the in-motion state must not be configured greater than five miles per hour. The vehicle will be considered stopped once its speed falls to zero miles per hour and stays at zero miles per hour for three consecutive seconds.

Guess what else?
The ELD must convert automatically captured vehicle position in latitude/longitude coordinates into geo-location information that indicates the approximate distance and direction to an identifiable location corresponding to the name of a nearby city, town, or village, with a State abbreviation.

Engine synchronization CMV – ELD
An ELD must be integrally synchronized with the engine of the commercial motor vehicle (CMV). Engine synchronization means monitoring engine operation to automatically capture the engine power status, vehicle motion status, miles driven, and engine hour

Vehicle performance? Not really.
Yes, the ELD rule allows but does not require, warning or notification to drivers when they are nearing their HOS limits.

Data export from ELD

Since all ELD data file output will be a standard comma-delimited file, a driver may import the data output file into Microsoft Excel, Word notepad, or other common tools. A driver will also be able to access ELD records through a screen display or a printout, depending on the ELD design.

Bluetooth Feature
If the driver is using a “local” ELD with Bluetooth capabilities, the authorized safety official will activate Bluetooth on his or her computing device and the driver will initiate the Bluetooth electronic transfer of the data from the driver’s ELD to the safety official’s computing device. The official will provide a Bluetooth pairing code for the driver to enter into the ELD for the data file transfer. Here’s a cool list you can review – ELD’s Compliant List
The plug-in device to your truck’s ECM communicates the relevant data to software on your smartphone — the software enables the log to work, likewise electronic pre-trip/post trip inspection reports. The ECM plug-in communicates with your smartphone, as with many others, over Bluetooth, and guiding smartphone apps are currently available on both iOS and Android platforms. Administration of the data is done through a web-based software program users create a unique account.
Most ELDs pair an engine-connected relay with another device, often an operator’s smartphone or tablet, hence the common BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) designation. For such devices, some contain a cellular connection within the engine-connected relay, some don’t. For those that don’t, generally, extra costs incurred for data-plan charges on a smartphone are not reflected here.

Just a quick overview for car haulers: We’re covering just new industry information so that every single car hauler out there can read it and get a general idea – for full in-depth explanation of specific cases feel free to visit FMCSA for sure.

Auto Transport Dispatcher – Save Time and Money Guide

How to save time and money as an auto transport dispatcher?

This specific post is related to a ton of auto transport dispatcher out there that want to improve their daily operations by focusing on these key indicators:

Time
Organization
The Process of Load Management
The Process of Trip Management
Documentation if necessary – BOL, Invoicing, Inspection Review, Contracts, reports

First of all the most important asset in the every single business out there is managing your time – and if you’re not owning time as a dispatcher, and time is owning you – then the truth is that work is going to overwhelming and stomp you on daily basis. Mastering this core asset will help you focus on:

Actually staying connected with your customers and drivers
Spending more time to find quality of work you have for the company/companies you’re working for
Having more time will open up business opportunities that you’re ignoring because of your stomped scheduled

An auto transport dispatcher is going to work on daily basis with different loads big brokers out there, big load boards to find loads for the drivers. They always need to get that dispatch sheet from 10+load boards in different formats and manage them all together – the amount of paperwork gathered is insane and not organized in the proper way.
That’s where a load of time is wasted. Manually checking in the load boards, requesting the dispatch sheet via the email/load board, going back to save, going into your email to send it to the drivers, checking with the driver if he received it, calling him 3+ times, then checking if he got the correct load number, pickup and delivery information. Sending the BOL, and invoices is another one – an auto transport dispatcher can send typically other 20+ of those a week. That’s actually near thousands of transport documents in a year – think about how much time you need to spend on to perfect and check that paperwork every single time.

What if someone told you can save all that time for your right away and you can actually focus on bring more loads to the drivers – as that is what you’re getting paid for? Would you consider it as an auto transport dispatcher? I bet yes!
So if you want to change it, here’s a framework that you can use that we developed in our system CarShipIO for auto transport dispatchers:

Imagine yourself uploading all dispatch sheets in one single place from all the loadboards out there, and big brokers ( there are more than 20+ out there in the auto transport industry).
Dispatching it right away with just creating a organized trip for all your drivers, will loads, vehicles, miles, addresses, customer information, ability to edit the load, add more loads, delete the loads.
Everything is integrated with a driver app on the driver end, and he sees all that info without any information slippage. They have the ability to do everything they need, inspection, electronic bill of lading, change status of loads so the auto transport dispatcher and customer sees it, add vehicles to a load, automatically scan vin code, add expenses.

The real benefit is saving your time, your driver time, your company times, your customer time, and the receive time with everything being organized around the concept of load, trip, driver.

We highly recommend trying it out as we believe time is going to be single biggest asset out there for you – read more info here.

By our average calculations saving 5K $ by using the system on yearly basis is very welcome for your business.
Sign-UP here, use it and get that benefit.

Starting new Car Hauler business and “I Never have time” excuse

We have been facing a paradox problem that we would like to address and explain. Most of the business owners, whether they are the truck drivers themselves or are the managers of drivers, face the same issue of having “no time”. They are always busy.
This cycle never ends, at first they are looking for job, then it’s a back and forth communication with the customer, price estimates, and quotes, sorting the cars on the truck, notify customer when picked up, delivered, stuck on a road, etc etc… just never ends, and no time to expand the business nor relax.

CarShipIO Car Carrier Software has a solution.

We have created a one stop do it all software that it designed specifically for auto haulers. We help you give correct estimates, in an instant see which job is profitable, or pays more. With just a click of a button, you can update the status of your jobs, so that all of the parties can be aware where the vehicle is at.
No more phone calls to brokers, dispatchers, and customers!!!

Right here you can also create a custom invoice and BOL and either email it, fax it or print it for your customers.

There is no more need to scribble on a paper the damages/scratches to a car, the driver can take/upload pictures with his phone and either save them into the system or email to the customer or broker right away!

CarShipIO knows your problems and has easy solutions. But in order for an automated process to work it’s best, you have to make a little commitment and enter your info, that you enter anyway, but in a more accustomed way. Once you enter all of the info, such as your truck details, customer’s info, broker’s info, insurance etc.

CarShipIO car carrier software will automatically remind you about maintenance that needs to be done on a truck, it can calculate the profitability of your run based on the gas usage of your truck, knowing your customers, it can send them invoices and BOLs, and status updates with your command. With just a little commitment you can create a big helper for yourself that will save you a lot of time or create you time to expand your business.
Initially, it is very difficult to start, find this time especially during a busy season, but it is an investment – investment in your future, in the future of your own business. Having all of the documents, receipts, invoices, notes, customers, trucks in one place gets you ready for the tax season, saving you a ton of time of looking for all of the info for the past year, it gets you ready for audits, and simply with just a few clicks summarizes your business for your own knowledge. You can know profitability by a driver, a customer, a trip. You can easily eliminate extra expenses such as maintenance when it was very predictable.

Please do yourself a favor and invest your time today for the easier future!
We are always here to help, our advanced technical team can set up an individual time with you to help you get started using our software for car carriers and answer any technical questions you may have.
Sign up today. We are here to help you getting to where you really want to be.

Best Practices when you are delayed or truck broke down

Have you ever been delayed by weather? Did your ever had your truck break down? You are hauling ten cars and 10 customers are relying on you to be on time. Logically you need to notify everyone, and if your next trip is already planned out, those customers need to know you will be delayed as well.

The key to effective notifications is having all the customer information including email and phone numbers so you can notify them immediately. It would also be good to notify other contacts associated with each load, for example any contacts who are waiting for you to deliver the vehicles listed on the order.

Maybe you are lucky to have someone at the office who will notify everyone on your behalf, but if you don’t then it’s up to you to do that. Even if you have everyone’s numbers and email addresses, you still need to search for the contact info, and make the call, compose and send an email or text message right?

There is a better way and that is a mobile application that allows for instant notification of ETA to everyone on your trip.
With your mobile device you suddenly have that power – send out a notification to as many people as you need to on that trip. Your customers will appreciate the notification and you are more likely to keep them as a customer the next time they need to transport their vehicle because you took time to manage their expectations.

Luckily there is a tool that provides Notifications for every step in your process: Starting a Trip, Picking Up Vehicles, Delivering Vehicles, General ETA to your destination. That tool is CarShipIO online business management tools, which are designed specifically for your Auto Transport Business so you are prepared for anything that comes your way.

Increase car hauler business efficiency by using the correct tools

We all know that time is valuable, and if you are spending time less efficiently than your competition you are losing your money and need to look at your car hauler business process for possible inefficiencies and address them immediately. The more time you can free up, the more you can invest that time into growing your car carrier business and keep your customers happy.
Let’s look at some inefficiencies and some solutions in your Transport Business

Invoicing

How do you invoice your clients? If it takes you more than a minute, you are probably spinning your wheels going from one application to another or writing invoices by hand.

The solution to is to store all your load information in a software that also lets you invoice clients with just a few clicks, so it takes less than 10 seconds to generate and send out the invoice.

Think about it this way – let’s say it takes you 5 minutes to generate and send out an invoice today vs 30 seconds you could be spending with an online business management tool. If you invoice 10 clients each day, then you are wasting 45 minutes, and 3hrs per week on generating invoices which adds up to 156 hours per year of wasted time…

If you can free up 3hrs per week, you can do something more productive like work on finding quality loads or spend time working on your marketing, that time can translate to thousands of dollars each week just by invoicing faster. I hope you see how you can get a nice Return on Investment by switching to an application that manages your loads in one place just for the sake of saving time on invoicing.

Another added benefit for a car carrier is getting PAID FASTER since you can generate invoices with one click right after delivery right from your mobile device! If you are strapped for cash, this gives you the much-needed cash flow and additional ROI because you aren’t borrowing at a high-interest rate or using money factoring services.

Ask yourself:

How many customers did you forget to invoice or did not collect payment because it slipped through the cracks? Payments not collected may cost your business thousands a month. What if that no longer was an issue? Some applications track late invoices as well as loads that you need to invoice, this will ensure you don’t miss a payment.

Trip / Load Planning

How do you plan your trips today? You have 10 pickups and 10 drop offs and all you have is print outs or files in your cloud storage. Planning your trip is not an easy task and you may use several applications such as online maps or GPS and you spend 1hr or more. Some just outsource it all together and pay as much as 25% or more for this service.

It doesn’t have to be this way, some applications save time by combining all your loads on one map in a Trip Planner, a map view using your loads pickup and delivery address. Once you plan your trip, the details are instantly synced up and your drivers can see the trip and load details on their mobile interface. When everyone is collaborating in real time, any updates in trip details and the pickup/delivery information is as easy as making a change to the data. Now count how much time of your day gets drained on the phone or emails with your drivers just dealing with dispatch before or after they start their trips… Ok, say it’s on average 2 min per load, multiply that times loads per week… you get what we are saying? Now your drivers see the changes real time!

Customer Updates and Follow-ups

When a customer inquires, how do you know when their vehicle will be delivered up? Do you make a phone call to your driver? Do you text them? How much time does that take? With automatic status and ETA notifications, every time you or your drivers does a pickup/delivery they can update the status on their mobile device and automatically notify your customers. Also your customers will be happy knowing they can check the status of the car shipment any time like on a UPS shipment – and that’s good customer service. So if both you and your customer see the vehicle status real time you will see a drop in call volume.

So let’s review how an online application saves you time and money over existing processes in your Auto Transport Business:

Save time by generating invoices in under 30 seconds and by avoiding double entering loads into multiple places.
You get paid faster because you can invoice from your truck as soon as you deliver, which saves you money and increases cash flow.
You stay on top of your finances, get reminders on late or unpaid invoices, you never miss a payment again and/or forget to invoice in the first place.
You plan your trips faster, your driver sees all the trip details on their mobile device instantly, updates load status real time, which cuts down on call volume from worried customers.
You communicating effortlessly with your drivers, customers, dispatchers.
You use extra time and money you save to grow your business.

There are many other money and time saving features an online business management tool provides to help you run your business more efficiently.
CarShipIO is such a tool designed exclusively for your Auto Transport business. Our car carrier software and auto hauler software saves you time, money.
Sign up for our service today – we would love to hear how you are saving time and money once you become our customer.

Managing Car Carrier Business with CarShipIO is Smart

Managing loads is the essence of your business.

That’s why CarShipIO Car Hauler Software gives you the online tools you need to make your job easier, more efficient and faster by eliminating truckloads of scribbles, spreadsheets and faxes. With CarShipIO, you can stop pushing paper and start pushing your business forward.

Here is how

Say you are a truck owner and you just dropped off your cars on a Friday afternoon. If you are still billing your customers the old way, you’ll probably wait until Monday to generate a new invoice from scratch, print it, fax it and hope the customer will receive it. If he doesn’t, you’ll have to resend the invoice again and make lots of phone calls to double-check if it had arrived. And let’s face it, chasing after your invoices take time. In fact, you might find yourself working overtime just to keep up. And that’s time away from growing your business – and your family.

When you use CarShipIO Auto Transport Platform, billing your customers becomes a walk in the park. Just drop off those new shiny cars (or beat up clunkers) and with a few swipes on your mobile app, you can mark the load as Delivered and send that invoice right from your truck, together with any other important documents, like your BOL. And you don’t need to enter your customer’s information. It’s all at your fingertips. So now you can get back home and enjoy that weekend.

And there is lots more. With CarShipIO you can track your entire business with just one click. See the status of all your trucks and know where they are within seconds. Track your jobs from “quote” to “complete” and build schedules and plan out routes in a new, more efficient way. You can even make accurate job estimates or track your expenses and get important reminders.

So what are you waiting for? We can help you get out of the rut and get you moving a whole lot faster. Register with CarShipIO Digital Office today.
It will make you, your customers – and even your dog – very happy.