Mobile technology is gaining more popularity every day. Brokers and carriers are migrating to mobile apps for their access to bills of lading, invoices and other necessary documents. I find myself using less paper these days and starting to use my phone to take pictures of paperwork and sending it in to brokers for payment.
As an independent owner operator, I need a lot of tools to keep me rolling. I don't have a carrier to look for my loads or take care of my compliance and paperwork; I have to
do it all myself. Here are the tools that I use to keep the wheels rolling.
My Trucking Apps:
- Apple Maps - to supplement my Garmin GPS and big picture trip planning
- Mobi Maps - Good street view for addresses
- TruckSmart - I fuel at TA/Petro so I use this app to help find locations and inform of amenities
- CHRW - Broker app to find loads
- TQL - Broker app to find loads and submit paperwork
- Coyote - Broker app to find loads and submit paperwork
- Trucker Path - to find parking and check on scale house activity
- Waze - a real time traffic app. I used this recently to find out how long my traffic jam was
- CamScanner - I use this to scan documents into a PDF file and quickly email
- Dispatcher - a service to help find loads for me and act on my behalf to brokers; 4% fee
- Transflo - Some brokers want their load documents submitted through this service
- MacroPoint - a tracking app that some brokers want when you transport for them
- Trucker Tools -an app that I use for finding truck washes and scales
- Go By Truck - a freight matching service, called one of the Uber of Trucking startups
- Transfix - similar to #14, one of so called Uber of Trucking startups
- Numbers - an Apple app that I use to capture my fueling and IFTA information as well as all my numbers that I track
- MyPilot - helps me find Flying J and Pilot Travel Centers anywhere in the U.S.
- 5-0 Radio - A police scanner app I use to see what's going on with police/fire/rescue in an area.
My Trucking Websites:
- TeamRunSmart.com - what a community!
- EZ Pass -where I can track tolls and add funds if necessary
- LandstarBroker.com - I prefer the website to the app for finding loads
- Hotel4Truckers.com - Free to join and gives me discounts to trucker friendly hotels
- FindTruckService.com - I've used this when broken down in middle of nowhere. I just found out that their Apple app is coming in a few weeks so I'll be using that.
- NTTSBreakdown.com - Similar to #5 and I've used this site successfully as well.
- FindFuelStops.com - I can see prices at truck stops along a route, with or without state tax
- RitchieSpecs.com - A resource for heavy equipment dimensions
There are many others out there, but these are the resources that I use reguarly. To be competitive in this business, I need to have access to these mobile apps. This technology really gives me leverage to compete with the big boys on the playing field.
Which ones do you use that I didn't list?