It takes years of training and experience for drivers to operate 70-foot, 40-ton, 18-wheelers safely in all conditions. Running a small trucking fleet is even more challenging with less margin for error. Yet many small fleets still dispatch with pads, pencils, and spreadsheets. That’s risky business.
Small companies must operate more efficiently or get squeezed out of this highly fragmented industry, where nearly 96% of the 750,000 carriers registered with the FMCSA have fewer than ten trucks.
Now and always, real-time visibility and back-office automation are critical for small fleets to grow revenue and accelerate cash flow. Where can you turn for guidance? What partners and tools can you trust?
This article shares why a doctor wanted to develop a transportation management system (TMS) from the ground up for small fleets, enabling them to find and dispatch digitally and invoice loads for speedy payment.
The idea of developing a cloud-based TMS solution for small fleets came from the doctor’s discussion with a fleet owner neighbor in Perrysburg, Ohio. Ned Lakshmipathy listened to his neighbor’s pain and wanted to create a solution to help small fleets succeed in a highly competitive industry.
As an entrepreneur, first in medical and then in trucking, Ned sees parallels between growing and scaling medical and trucking businesses. His medical practice is now the largest interventional pain treatment service provider in the United States.
Driving Operating Efficiency
Ned’s neighbor owned a small fleet of 50 trucks. He explained the difficulties of managing operations without expensive and difficult-to-implement TMS platforms. He voiced a need for an easy-to-use, affordable solution for day-to-day management so owners could focus on growing their businesses.
The struggle resonated with Ned, given his challenges with starting a medical practice. Like the trucking industry, healthcare is highly complex and fragmented. When Ned graduated from medical school, he had to learn the business side through trial and error.
Similarly, small fleets often need help finding a niche and generating new and repeat business with limited time and resources. Ned envisioned a TMS that would give fleets more than a modern technology platform; it would be a support network for small fleets to overcome the challenges of starting and growing their businesses.
When starting a private practice, Ned knew he must earn customers’ trust to grow. He built referral relationships with other doctors and focused on delivering excellent service and gaining trust in the community of Findlay, Ohio. Next, he measured patient outcomes and used extensive data analysis to create a template for enhancing speed and quality to scale the business.
Like a trucking company manages loads with a TMS, Ned’s practice uses the template with digital tools to deliver treatment plans and services more efficiently to patients without sacrificing safety or quality.
Helping Small Fleets Succeed
Ned launched T3, LLC, to make a meaningful difference for small fleets. He assembled an experienced team of trucking industry experts with a mission to build an easy-to-use, affordable solution to help small carriers operate more efficiently.
The team built TrueTMS to simplify finding and dispatching loads, processing driver settlements and payroll, tracking assets and loads, invoicing, and other core processes. TrueTMS empowers small companies to better compete with larger fleets.
The people of TrueTMS approach each customer relationship as a partnership with a mission to help them succeed. The TrueTMS team is highly engaged with clients and gathers feedback to understand where to focus future product improvements for evolving user needs.
Ned calls the business model he uses in medical and trucking “responsible capitalism.” He believes that companies must profit responsibly by aligning their interests with the interests of their customers and partners.
Constantly Evolving with Customer Needs
One of Ned’s goals for TrueTMS is to facilitate connections between high-quality brokers, carriers, and shippers to foster a safer, more transparent environment for the trucking community. By building an ecosystem where stakeholders can mutually thrive, Ned hopes to bring more stability and prosperity to small trucking companies as the backbone of the nation’s supply chain.
As his medical practice has evolved new business models and service offerings, Ned envisions that TrueTMS will do the same. In doing so, he wants TrueTMS to bring meaningful change to an underserved market to help small fleets build sustainable businesses.
Are you ready to digitize your office and free resources to focus on growth? The people behind TrueTMS are invested in your success. The technology is the prescription for gaining the same benefits that larger fleets have with enterprise-grade TMS solutions at a remarkably affordable price. TrueTMS makes it easy to get started. Sign up for a free, no-risk trial today: https://info.truetms.com/signup .
