Three Easy Tips to Reduce Your Risk During Peak Shipping Season
By: Tracy Neill
Tags: Transportation, Shipping, Logistics, Freight Shipping, Trucking

Let’s face it — sometimes things don’t go as planned. Even your best laid plans can be ruined when something goes sideways. Perhaps your load is damaged in transport or your driver is involved in an accident. Maybe you’re the victim of a theft, a severe weather event or a mechanical failure that results in breakage. Losing a load or part of a load means a big financial loss, especially if you are an owner operator or trucking company that is underinsured. (And, if you are, you’re not alone. Millions of uninsured and underinsured loads are transported across the U.S. each and every day.) The stakes are even higher during peak shipping season, the busiest time of the year for most truckers and carriers. One or two lost loads can erase your profit margins in the blink of the eye.

Check out the top three ways that you can easily reduce your risk and keep those wheels rolling during peak shipping season.

1. Protect Your Business with One-Click, Per-Load Spot Market Cargo Insurance

Thanks to Trucker Tools’ new partnership with Loadsure, you can reduce the risk of financial loss on spot loads right in the Trucker Tools driver app or in our free platform for carriers. What makes Loadsure different from other types of load insurance is that you get instant access to freight insurance quotes and can insure spot market loads on a load-by-load basis. One of the big reasons Trucker Tools has partnered with Loadsure is convenience. Thanks to our partnership with Loadsure, you can get a quote and insure a spot load in a matter of minutes. You can also file claims easily with Loadsure, accelerate most claims from days or weeks to minutes, and get near-instant access to claim payments. With Loadsure, you can reduce your annual insurance costs by as much as 80 percent-and potentially save even more when you ditch your annual cover and purchase per-load cargo insurance.

2. Quickly Book Your Safe, Secure Overnight Parking Spot

Labor Day through the end of December is the peak season for freight and for theft in trucking. According to CargoNet, cargo theft increased in the third quarter of 2020 by 23 percent compared with Q3 2019. CargoNet also reports that on average, each theft cost $151,452. One of the best ways to reduce the risk of theft is to park in safe, secure, well-lit locations, especially when parking overnight. We’ve partnered with TruckPark and SecūrSpace to bring new overnight parking options to the Trucker Tools’ driver app. You can now find, reserve and pay for safe and secure overnight parking right in the driver app. Before you book for your spot, tap on the parking lot’s Description and Features to see what kind of security measures the lot has in place. Most of the parking spots offered in Trucker Tools’ driver app are on private, independent lots that include good lighting, gating, 24-hour access, fencing and surveillance cameras.

3. Take Care of Yourself

When you’re busy, it’s easy to let healthy eating habits fall by the wayside. It’s already difficult to eat healthy on the road since fast food restaurants and truck stops often serve high-fat and high-calorie food. Since COVID-19 hit, it’s no secret that it’s become even more difficult to find places to eat and grocery stores where you can park your truck. That being said, it’s important to make your health a top priority and that includes eating well. After all, getting sick may take you off the road completely and during peak shipping season, that can hurt your wallet. Did you know that you can find nearby Wal-Mart grocery stores right in Trucker Tools’ driver app by tapping on the Wal-Mart button on the home screen? Tap on filter and you can search for Wal-Mart locations that include a supermarket.

To learn more about Loadsure, visit https://www.loadsure.net.

Read Save Time, Find Loads Quickly with Trucker Tools’ Broker Advantage to learn how you can spend less time looking for loads and calling your broker and more time behind the wheel. To download the Trucker Tools driver app, visit https://www.truckertools.com/web/carriers/.