Gross revenue is the engine that drives your business. All things being equal (such as cost management), the higher your gross revenue the better your chances are for higher profits. There are ways to easily increase your gross revenue without working harder and without giving up more home time. One of the ways to do this is by understanding freight trends and applying this knowledge to your working time as well as to your home time.
First, start with understanding how many working days you have. Generally that will be around 260 to 270 days maximum. The calculation of working days looks like this:
365 total days per year
- 30 days lost for national holidays, illness, vacation, and delays for weather, congestion, etc.
- 72 days off (1.5 days per week x 48 weeks)
= 263 working days
To make your job of running a business easier and get the very most out of those working days, simply synchronize your working time and home time with freight trends for the segment of trucking that you are in.
A typical monthly freight trend looks like this:
One week of the month is always the busiest week and one week of the month is always the slowest. Simply make sure you plan to be available for work when freight is at the peak and reward yourself with extra time off when freight is the slowest.
A typical weekly freight trend looks like this:
Except for some holiday weeks, one day of the week will see the most demand for trucks and another day will see the next busiest day for freight. For most truckers, except for expediting and a few others, Friday is the busiest day with Monday being the second busiest.
Flatbed trends will be different than dry van. Refrigerated will be different as well. You can figure out which weeks of the month are the busiest/slowest and which days of the week are the busiest/slowest by talking to managers in your field or by looking through old log books.
You work hard for your money. Give it a try. You have nothing at all to lose and a lot to gain – such as more revenue! If you don’t try this, you will be running your business against a strong headwind while making your job a lot harder. Once you understand your specific freight trends and apply that knowledge to your work time and your home time, you’ll see revenue increase without working any harder or giving up more time at home.