In today’s busy freight market, fleets of 25 trucks or less face different kinds of challenges to survive. Expanding the truck fleet opens doors to new markets and makes competing with the truly big fish more doable while still having the agility to offer personalized service that often most of the huge companies fail to provide. But, bigger isn’t always better, so when do you actually know it’s the right time to expand the fleet?
When you are turning down customers
If your service is making your clients happy at some point of time, you’ll be loaded with a huge list of customers. Most of the time, business owners tend to refuse a number of customers, which in turn drags down the reputation. If you don’t have the fleet capacity or type of vehicle required to haul it, expansion may be the best option. Keep different types of trailers with you, flatbed, utility, enclosed etc. This will help you deliver a range of service based on the requirement. In case of a 4 car trailer, you can even make some enhancements like upgrading the tires to HANKOOK Brand, increasing the number of axles along with aluminum wheels, wireless winch and many.
When you’re hauling unprofitable loads
Some of the customers come with low-weight shipments and thus, they are not always profitable. A small firm may not be able to refuse them as they don’t have the advantage to carry heavy loads. Thus, it is a great idea to expand your fleet so that you can carry larger shipments which are heavier in load. Also, rather than actually saying “no”, having a range of fleets can let you serve even those customers who come with low-weight shipments. This means, you can help both types of customers thus, thereby increasing your reputation massively. This step can also be a great solution to compete with other freight companies.
When you can’t cope with storage
Storing a number of shipments may not be the best solution always. It requires increased maintenance and safety requirements. Thus, increasing the fleets can help you deliver the freights to their respective destinations as soon as possible without requiring to store them.
If these types of situation are common in your freight business, increasing the number of fleets is a really smart choice. Not just reputation, but also the investment will prove worthy and result in loads of profits.