How to Make Your Small Transportation Business Competitive
Small businesses are the bread and butter of their communities, and yet many find it very difficult to compete with their big-name competitors. They don’t have the same resources, services, and reach as their large-scale competition can offer, but that doesn’t mean that your small business has no chance of succeeding. Increasingly people are turning away from big businesses in search of something that offers them more value or something that suits their budget better. A large transportation company will usually get big-budget B2B orders, yes, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance.
From working with the community as a courier to working with other small and medium businesses, there are many ways that you can make your small transportation business competitive and profitable.
Make Your Operations as Efficient and Safe as Possible
Human error accounts for the majority of incidents, and unfortunately, one of the hardest things for the human brain to do is stay alert in a stable environment. Traveling along a straight, relatively unchanging road for hours on end makes drivers road blind. Their attention, even though their eyes are on the road, shifts. This shift in attention is when avoidable road incidents happen.
So, how do you stop that attention shift, better protect your employees and cargo, and improve the efficiency and trust that your clients place in you? You use a system like the Mobileye 8 Connect. This is an automated tool that automatically checks for and warns the driver of speed limit changes, unintended lane departures, tailgating, pedestrians, and more. Think of it like an unfaltering, untiring second pair of eyes. The best part, of course, is that it can be adapted for any vehicle and any fleet size.
Make Your Prices Competitive for Small Shipments
Small shipments often end up being massively expensive because customers need to send a small item but rent out the large vehicle. While small packages can be handled by a mailing system, large, complex, or delicate items are out of the question. A good way to encourage more business without forcing your customers to pay a high cost is to organize different routes and try to book shipments based on the trip. You could go to one city from your home base on a Monday, for example, and then schedule orders for that route on that day. Customers pay a lower price because the total cost is split between multiple people.
Offer Family-Run Customer Service
People are increasingly looking for that warm, friendly, family-run customer service that used to be the norm in the past. This means having a face to talk to; it means being able to call up customer support and immediately have someone have the answer. Offer this person-first customer service, but use management systems to make it easier and seamless. You can easily set up a customer portal, for example, that offers live tracking of the shipment vehicle so that customers know exactly where it is and what it’s doing. Have someone on the phone or available at the chat to talk to from there. This offers customers the best of both worlds and makes choosing a small business like yours a no-brainer.
