Categories
Features & Updates

Driver Settlements in Two Easy Steps

“Where’s my paycheck?” – is something that we’ve all heard whenever there’s a slightest delay in the payroll process. Delays in processing paperwork, calculation errors and “technical glitches” can significantly impact timely payroll checks or deposits. Driver’s not only want to be paid on time but also have confidence that they are compensated fairly for their work. How can you as a small truck company simplify the driver settlement process, reduce paperwork and present an error-free settlement sheet?

Do your Math – or not

When it comes to paying drivers the numbers need to match reality. Your integrity as a company is on the line if you underpay and your bottom line suffers if you overpay. Keeping track of the trip is critical as each mile matters for the driver and the company. Trip sheets are a very common practice even in the days of smart technology. The additional work for the driver to track miles can be burdensome. Manual data entry and calculations at the end of the week are time consuming and error prone. Why not allow this process to proceed organically throughout the week as the trips are completed? Using LoadPanel and the LoadPanel Driver App both you and the driver are current on the milage driven and money earned.

As each trip is created milage is automatically calculated with the Google Maps API integration. Adjustments can be made for special truck routing to accommodate road conditions or restrictions. As new expenses are incurred they are added to the trip. At the end of the pay period all that is left to do is generate the settlement.

Run Payroll – just click

In smaller trucking companies, driver pay is mostly calculated by milage or percentage of the trip rate. LoadPanel allows a driver to be configured as a company driver or an owner operator. The calculated pay will be based on these settings. Fixed expenses can be automatically added during the settlement generation and any unexpected deductions can be easily applied at the same time. An overwrite exception allows manual adjustment to the milage in case the software milage calculation is off.

Once all the numbers check out the settlement is finalized. The settlement page can be downloaded as a pdf file or emailed directly to the drivers. Each settlement has detailed trip information for the period, any additional deductions or compensation as well as year-to-date totals. Now what is left is to generate a paper check or a direct deposit for the total amount due to the driver.

… just one click generates the payroll for a whole week with all the deductions and adjustments!

Owner of Integrity Freight LLC

If you are operating a trucking business with fewer than 100 trucks, you need reliable, web-based truck management software which has a simple settlement feature among many other functions. Our team at LoadPanel will get you setup and using our service at no charge. Try the LoadPanel 30-day free trial.

Categories
Tips

How Can Truck Management Software Help Your Small Fleet?

Running a small business is a tough job. A lot of times you, the owner, have to wear multiple hats in order for the operation to run smoothly. That means dispatching, invoicing and payroll all done by one or a few people to keep costs low. If the goal is to grow your business, having systems in place is of the utmost importance. Systems are like well-oiled machines requiring low maintenance and allowing you to focus on growing your business.

How can you use TMS (Truck Management Software) to build your business systems? There are multiple ways this can be done. We will look at the most common tasks and see how they can be automated, or augmented, with TMS.

Dispatching

Dispatching is a core component of any trucking business so it’s very important that it is handled properly and with little room for errors. When a load is confirmed, a trip is created in LoadPanel with all the relevant information, including the confirmation document, customer information and broker information. The trip is dispatched to the driver via SMS or the LoadPanel Driver app (the driver will get a push notification). All activity, communication and documents are recorded on the trip and archived for records. The customer or broker is able to view the status of a trip in real-time with a special tracking link reducing the unnecessary check calls.

With ELD integration, the TMS will report the location and status of the driver, including the driver’s HOS. With geofencing, the TMS is able to determine when the driver arrives at a pickup or delivery location and notifies the dispatcher when that occurs.

Invoicing

Invoicing the broker quickly and accurately is very important – you’re in business to get paid after all. LoadPanel generates an invoice for a trip, including any reimbursable expenses incurred during the trip by the driver. If you use a factoring company, you can easily create a batch invoice (one invoice for many trips), print or email the invoice to the factoring company (or broker) directly from LoadPanel and keep track of paid and unpaid invoices.

Expenses

When drivers incur expenses during a trip run, the invoices can be uploaded directly to the trip in the LoadPanel Driver app. Expenses and additional driver income are recorded on the trip which will later be used when doing payroll. This process reduces the amount of paperwork required and saves a lot of accounting time.

Driver Settlements

Good drivers are hard to find and even harder to keep so paying them quickly and on time helps with driver retention and satisfaction. Automating payroll reduces the amount of time required to pay drivers. LoadPanel auto-generates driver settlements for each driver using the trip information and expenses captured earlier in the process. Driver settlements are configurable for both company drivers and owner-operators.

Installment agreements (regular payments for truck leases or insurance) with drivers are included during each pay period and are automatically deducted from the agreement ledgers.

Maintenance

Staying on top of things by keeping it all in your head is not a good strategy. We recommend setting reminders in LoadPanel for any recurring maintenance, payments and renewals so you could focus on what’s most important.

Even if you are running a single truck, automating parts of your business using systems is a huge win. The advantages are even higher as the number of trucks increases. The systems that are put in place in the beginning work for you while you work on your business. If you have a small fleet, now is the time to create a free account on LoadPanel and start building your systems.

Categories
Tips

Advantages of Using Cloud-based Truck Management Software

Are you still struggling with archaic trucking management software (TMS) that cost you a fortune to set up and maintain? You are not alone. In fact, most of the trucking businesses that we interviewed were using some sort of outdated truck management software that was practically impossible to get rid of because of the lack of support and portability. Worse yet, many are still relying on paper and pencil to run their operations. I have to say, I feel for them.

So what’s the answer? The solution is to use web-based (or cloud-based) software that is secure, up-to-date, feature-rich, cost-effecting and without any hidden fees.

Why is cloud-based TMS better?

Cloud-based truck management software is a service that runs somewhere on a server and can be accessed directly through a browser – from anywhere. Cloud-based software does not require any downloads or updates. In case of a fire, or other loss, desktop software could be destroyed and all the data lost. With web-based software, all data is backed up regularly and kept secure.

No Downloads or Installs

Traditional software required the user to download or install a large, complicated piece of software on a computer that may not have been even powerful enough to run the software in the first place. Web-based software does not have any downloads or updates. All updates are done automatically on the web. Whenever a problem in the software is discovered, it is fixed right away without any updates. When a new feature is released, it is available to all users without any work on the users side. This means there is less down-time for the whole operation.

Available Anywhere, Anytime

Web-based truck management software can be accessed from any device with an Internet connection – desktop, laptop, mobile phone or tablet. Whenever you need to run a report or dispatch a trip, you can do it with a few clicks (or taps) and be done. No more running to the office because Joe, the driver, forgot where his next stop is (in fact, Joe, the driver, can use the LoadPanel Driver app and let you sleep).

Backed up and Secure

Some of the old desktop software had archaic backup systems that were not reliable and prone to operator error. Our truck management software is backed up regularly and, in case of a failure, can be brought back to any point in time. And the best part is that it’s all done automatically without needing to involve technical support or computer professionals. On top of that, we always keep your data secure and away from unauthorized access.

Live Support and Resolution

For me, the best part about web-based truck management software is that I can get an issue resolved in just a few minutes without needing to tinker with computers. LoadPanel has live 24/7 support and will work to resolve any and every issue reported by the user. Bugs (or problems) in the software are resolved swiftly and seamlessly. New features requested by users are rolled out without interruptions. LoadPanel can also add custom features and changes to the software, just for your business. Now that’s some custom-tailored service for you!

If you are operating a trucking business with fewer than 100 trucks, you need reliable, web-based truck management software. Our team at LoadPanel will assist you get set up and running at no charge. Try the LoadPanel 30-day free trial.

Categories
Tips

4 Reasons Why You Should Integrate Your ELD with TMS

Since the ELD mandate went into effect, most truckers now use electronic devices to track their hours of service (HOS). Majority of the ELDs offered by the market also track and monitor other useful data about the truck. Such data is very helpful especially for larger fleets who desire to optimize their operation. Not only that, companies with just a few trucks can now have the same cost-effective tools at their fingertips.

Read on to see how your trucking business can benefit from integrating your ELDs with Transportation Management Software (TMS).

What is TMS?

Transportation Management Software (TMS) is an all-in-one software that can help automate most of a carrier’s day-to-day operations. Large carriers use this type of software to manage their fleets which can cost thousands of dollars to operate and maintain. LoadPanel is designed with small to medium carriers in mind (under 100 trucks) and is very affordable and even free for small carriers.

LoadPanel is a web-based software that dispatches, tracks, invoices, generates driver settlements and much more. With ELD integration of most popular ELDs, it can automate more of your trucking business.

Benefits of integrating ELDs with LoadPanel

There are many reasons why you should integrate your ELDs with LoadPanel. The top four reasons are:

  1. ELDs provide LoadPanel with accurate driver miles which are auto-filled when doing payroll. This means less work for you.
  2. With the ELDs tracking mechanism, dispatchers and customers are more aware about the status of each trip and can plan ahead accordingly.
  3. Dispatchers are alerted when drivers are running late, have arrived or left the facility via automatic geofencing. This ensures that dispatchers are informed without the need of check-calls.
  4. LoadPanel crunches the data from the ELDs as well as dispatcher input to generate reports about driver/truck performance, operations performance and trends.

If you are operating a trucking business with fewer than 100 trucks, reliable Transportation Management Software (TMS) is a must-have. LoadPanel integrates with some of the most popular ELD brands including KeepTruckin, Samsara and GeoTab. More ELDs are supported regularly as demand dictates.

Categories
Features & Updates

LoadPanel Update: Driver App

LoadPanel Driver App – Now Available

Our mobile app for drivers is now available for installation on both iOS and Android platforms. After many months of development our team has released the first version of the mobile app to compliment our LoadPanel environment. Our desire is that this app will simplify the communication process between dispatchers and drivers by providing up-to-date information about the assigned loads.

Load Details

Each assigned load is color-coded showing the Active, Pending and Completed trips. The quick reference card shows the pickup and drop locations as well as an estimated distances from the app user’s location. Clicking the card reveals a detailed view of the assigned load.

Navigation

Each pickup and drop location presents an arial map view for quick familiarization with the facility. Detailed pickup or drop-off information is also available on this screen. A quick go-to button can send the address to the navigation app such as Google Maps for a complete turn-by-turn directions.

Communication

Each screen has a context-aware communication button in the upper right corner. When viewing a particular assigned load the button reveals all the necessary communication information – allowing dialing with a single push.

The built in messaging capability allows for chatting between the driver and dispatch. The centralized messaging provides for traceable communication and auditing of conversations. Each appointment location allows for quick in and out time updates by the driver for precise reporting and tracking.

Documents

Anytime during the trip the driver may upload documents which will be available for dispatch to accept or reject after proper review. 

Earnings

The top porting of the home screen shows the number of trips, earnings and miles driven for the given time frame. Currently this is an experimental function which estimates both the earnings as well as the miles driven and should not be relied upon for any compensation. 

IN/OUT Times

The driver may choose to report in and out times through the app which will save time in having to make or answer tracking phone calls. The times are reported to dispatch and are displayed on the timeline.

Comments

Each trip allows for comments that can be both left by the driver as well as dispatchers. This function is not intended to be a chat function but rather a method to leave notes and updates about the trip for future reference.

Download and Enable

Download and install the app on your device of choice and enable it for each driver in their profile. Each driver needs a unique phone number and password set in the profile in order to login. 

Thank you to all who visited our booth at the 2019 Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, KY this year. We had an exciting three days, meeting hundreds of people and engaging in various conversations about the trucking industry and LoadPanel as a TMS of choice. 

Categories
Features & Updates

LoadPanel Update: Driver Settlements, Recurring Expenses And More

Driver Pay and Recurring Expenses

While we have not been consistent with our blog and newsletter updates, we have been busy this winter working on major updates and improvements to LoadPanel. One of the most frequent requests have centered around a driver pay feature. In the latest update we’ve added a Driver Settlements section. Keep in mind that this feature is still in beta and may contain minor bugs. Let us know if you find anything out of place or not performing as intended. 

Driver Settlements

This feature is not intended to be a complete payroll solution but rather is designed to satisfy most small business while complimenting those who have an existing accounting system. We’ve designed our pay periods to be adjustable and to fit any situation. The selection of multiple drivers allows for a single click payroll creation. The individualized payroll PDF reports/stubs can then be printed or emailed directly to the drivers.

Split Trip

In order to solve the issue of compensation for unfinished loads, we now allow splitting trips. Doing so, enables the administrator to choose the percentage of the completed trip that should be included in the selected pay period while retaining the remainder for when the load is finally delivered and completed. This method solves some of the struggles that companies have who pay drivers on a weekly schedule. 

Driver Expense Wizard

Another powerful tool that has been long in coming is the driver expense wizard. The special feature has the ability to create recurring expenses which can be applied immediately, repeated over multiple pay periods or scheduled to be added in the future. The various driver expenses and recurring payment on debt can now easily be tracked and billed. 

Quick Adjustments and History

The various driver deductions can be reviewed and adjusted before completing the payroll. Removing a scheduled expense does not remove it from the driver and will associate it on the next pay cycle. All the historical driver pay and the new expenses table have been added to the driver page. 

Final Note

Please let us know what you think of these features and how they are serving your needs. We continue to improve and desire to become the leading TMS solution for the small trucking business environment. 

Feel free to email us directly or contact us from the app with any suggestions, comments, or concerns. We’re here to make your life easier.

Categories
Team Updates

Team Update – ICAP

Learning Together

For the past two weeks our team has been part of the Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program (ICAP) under the Virginia Small Business Development Center Network which supports new startups. ICAP helps inventors and entrepreneurs take the right first steps in bringing new technologies and innovations to market.Thank you Bob Smith (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebobsmith/) for leading the class and challenging us to get out of our comfort zone and interview our potential customer base.

The experience that we gained has given us a new perspective and revealed additional hurdles that we did not consider while bringing LoadPanel to the market. We are looking forward to having more conversations with the small trucking business owners on the challenges they are facing. Only through such experience can we evolve our product to serve the majority of the needs of small trucking companies.

Learn more about ICAP https://www.virginiasbdc.org/programs/icap/ and http://va4e.org/

Let us know of your experience and struggle in the trucking industry especially in dealing with a software solution. We would love to have a conversation with you in order to understand your needs. While we may not be able to satisfy all of your requests, you can be sure that we take note as we develop a common solution for all. 

Categories
Features & Updates

LoadPanel Update: New Trip Setup Experience

New Trip Setup Interface

As summer comes to an end, we are shifting into high gear with improvements to the LoadPanel interface and additional new features. The trip creation and setup window has been transformed into an easy-to-use tool allowing dispatchers to visualize the trip on a map, calculate the CPM, and estimate the travel time. 

Quick Setup

The Add Stop button facilitates quick trip planning, giving dispatchers the option to enter a city and state or just a zip code. Stop options include Current Location, Pick, Drop, and Deadhead. The Recalculate button computes the distance between the entered locations and displays the mileage and the resultant Trip CPM based on the entered Rate.

Map Power

Further refinement of the travel route can be done by simply dragging waypoints on the displayed Google map. For ease of use, the map can be expanded to full screen using the button in the upper-right hand corner. Traffic information is overlaid for additional awareness and decision making. Switching to satellite or street view can assist with critical last-mile navigation. 

Additional Trip Information

A new trip can be created without filling out additional date or address information. For those who choose to do so, trip information can be added by clicking the Edit icon for the specific stop. Further updating and editing of the stop information can be done through the primary trip page interface. 

Did You Know About the Columns Button on the Trips page?

The default Trips view has a number of hidden columns that some may find useful. Recent updates have expanded the available choices to include more than 20 column options!

Feel free to email us directly or contact us from the app with any suggestions, comments, or concerns. We’re here to make your life easier.

Categories
Features & Updates

Trips View: Color Coding Update

Ninety percent of information transmitted to the human brain is visual. Understanding this factor we have improved our color scheme on the Trips page. With a single glance, you as a dispatcher or administrator, can quickly be informed about the status of your loads.

check it out

Trips Interface

Beyond the textual information, color options have been added to enhance the usability experience. Each status now has its own color and can be configured in the Settings -> General section. The following colors are set as default:

Trip # Cell Status Colors

  •  Pending : Trips that are scheduled and are not active are in a grey box.
  •  Active : Trips that are currently in an active state are colored yellow.
  •  Delivered : Trips which have al completed appointments are green.
  •  Completed : The color changes to blue once the trip is marked as completed. This state indicates that all documents have been received and processed and the trip is considered closed.
  •  Canceled : Trips which are canceled are marked red. 

Appointment Cell Colors

  •  Active : Green cell color indicates that the current scheduled appointment is on-time.
  •  Alert : Red cell color indicates that there is a potential concern with the appointment. Possible causes are late arrival, unacknowledged timestamp or potential late arrival based on ELD data and distance. 
  • Pending or Complete: No color coding is used for future or completed trips.

Appointment Text Colors

  •  On-Time : Green date and time text indicates an on-time appointment that was either registered automatically based on location or acknowledged by dispatch.
  •  Late Arrival : Red text indicates that the set appointment time has been missed, not acknowledged or has been estimated by the ELD and location data to be late. 

Document Colors

The boxes for documents are set to change color according to the rules and color options found in Settings. 

  •  CON : Confirmation documents checkbox
  •  BOL : Bill of Lading document checkbox
  •  INV : Invoice checkbox

Did You Know About the DOC column?

The default Trips view has a number of hidden columns that some may find useful. One such column is DOC. Enabling this column reveals a red icon which is associated with the uploaded confirmation file. Clicking the icon displays the document in a pop-up view allowing the user quick reference.

Happy to help.

Feel free to message us directly from the app with any problems, suggestions or comments. We’re here to make your life easier.

Categories
Features & Updates

New Feature: Trip Planner

Here at LoadPanel, we not only innovate new features and services but also listen closely to our users. The new Trip Planner is an example of a solution to the problem of planning trips visually. Take a look and explore this feature found under the Trips menu. 

check it out

Trip Planner Interface

Each trip is blocked out for each driver on a vertical time-line.  Color coding of the trip boxes allows for quick analysis of trip progress. The dark-colored vertical bar indicates progress based on ELD and GPS data. Time spans between trips are displayed. Color coding on the appointment times is actively updated hourly.

Trip Information Panel

Clicking on any trip brings up a relevant information panel showing broker, driver, truck, trailer, pickup and delivery information. Enabled ELD trucks and drivers show relevant HOS information as well as the current location of the vehicle.

Compact and Mobile View

In addition we are continuing to improve our mobile interfaces for those who need to dispatch while on the go. In desktop mode the grey calendar button allows users to toggle between normal, compact and mobile views. 

Happy to help.

Feel free to message us directly from the app with any problems, suggestions or comments. We’re here to make your life easier.