People can be a little weird about change. For example, when the first car was released, there was a shift in the way people thought about getting around. It was no longer a horse and buggy. Now the buggy has no horse.
As technology changes and grows, you have the opportunity to change with it, including in your trucking business.
Can you even imagine what life would be like without the invention of the car or semi-truck?
Resisting change is completely normal and everybody does it to some degree. Change can be tough, but it can also be great.
As time goes on, trucking innovations have revolved around reducing emissions, better truck parts, and improving fuel efficiency.
One of the very first adaptations to improve fuel efficiency was the use of cruise control to keep a steady speed and let engines do the work. According to a Cummins Engine Report. “Secrets of Better Fuel Economy,” cruise control was listed as part of efficient driving behaviour. The most efficient drivers get 30% better fuel economy!
In an article from wadsauto.com, a company called IAV Automotive Engineering introduced a new invention to 3D-rint a lighter, stronger piston. The piston is made from metallic and 3D-printed in a honeycomb structure, which reduces its mass by 25%. It has less friction, which helps with cooling. Material properties are improved by 75% compared to a traditional piston. One of the directors from IAV has the right idea, “Taking that much weight out of the piston has an immense ripple effect.”
Have you ever seen a ripple effect in your life? Sometimes, one little change can make a large impact.
Even though upgrading to keep up with changes in the industry can seems terrifying at first, in the long run, it can really save time and money. Keep in mind, we are not talking about changes that are mandated by legislation in which technology is introduced afterwards. When any legislation is flawed, no matter what technology you implement, the legislation is the source of how things need to be done.
Everybody knows that a large cost in the trucking industry is fuel. What kind of money will be saved when the new norm is electric semi trucks such as Thor Trucks or Tesla Semi?
It is great to look into future, but we should focus on what kind of technology we have available right now and how we can utilize that to our full capabilities.
Right now, ELDs are new to the market and you have a window of opportunity. You now have a device that can captures your miles. You can also work with fuel cards, another great piece of technology that helps capture all of your fuel purchases.
These types of technologies may work even better for you than you realize – such as helping with your fuel taxes.
eTruxFuel is here to save time for you and your employees by taking data that you are capturing with your technologies, and making sense of it for IFTA. It also gives you options, so if you do have missing mileages; you can enter them manually or fill them in with our IFTA mileage calculator. This way you can still make sense of your data even if there are gaps in it.
Imagine having your data easily imported, organized, and being able to have a fully comprehensible IFTA report done in a few clicks of a button.
Mike did imagine this, and when he tried eTruxFuel, this is what he said:
“Extremely easy to understand. It saves me a lot of money – we used to have an outside source for fuel reporting, but now we can access all the information by logging into the program.
We don’t have to wait for the end of the quarter for fuel mileage answers.”
– Mike Haese, Seven Oaks Specialized LLC., Kaukauna, WI
Or, take Zack who found eTruxFuel so much easier to use than the traditional way:
“I started about a month ago after I had searched around for a easier way to keep track of my of miles and receipts for each jurisdiction, found eTruxFuel. Man does it work slick!
Takes about 30 seconds to enter each fuel purchase or border mileage. Beats the heck out of the old way, of trying to add everything up in a hurry, the night before deadline to file!
I would not hesitate to recommend this program to anyone. It will literally save you hours over the conventional way.”
– Zach Martin, Hoss Heavy LLC., Nine Mile Falls, WA
We understand that it can be difficult switching to a new system, so we are here to help. We have short, detailed help videos which give great step-by-step instructions. Or, if you need further explanations about anything to do with IFTA, you can easily get in touch with us.
Starting with eTruxFuel is completely free. There is no contract and no credit card submission while you are on your free trial.
We want you to succeed. Take advantage of eTruxFuel – get your IFTA done quickly and easily.