Profit should be the responsibility of the entire trucking-company management team, with each person accountable for decisions and metrics that contribute to the bottom line.
Profit funds salaries, expansion, investment, and opportunity. Treating it as the owner's or CEO's private responsibility ignores how many operating decisions determine the result.
Build a Profit Team
Business and financial goals are often vague or arbitrary. Goals should instead be measurable, manageable, specific, and understood by the management team.
Rather than simply targeting 2,700 miles per tractor each week, a carrier should seek efficient equipment use at an optimal rate per mile. The revised goal connects activity with economics.
Changing the mindset requires more than a mandate. Managers need to understand how their roles contribute to profit and accept direct accountability.
A salesperson who meets a revenue target may still sell freight that uses the network inefficiently. Success should be measured by profit gained, not only sales dollars.
Profit Is Not an Unspeakable Word
Profit is the reason the organization can continue operating. It pays employees and creates the ability to grow.
Managers should therefore be taught to view all tasks through the profit goal. Their own success and the company's financial performance are linked.
Profit Mentality Quiz
A “no” answer to any of these questions identifies room for improvement:
- Is there a company-wide profit plan?
- Are managers accountable for metrics that contribute to profit?
- Is there an inventory of untapped profit ideas?
- Is the company profit-driven rather than merely sales-motivated?
- Is there a policy defining the types of customers the company will serve?
- Are long-term profit objectives considered when hiring?
- Does the company monitor changes in demand and competition?
- Does it measure customer satisfaction?
- Does it regularly reassess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?
- Does management discuss formal profit goals?
- Have those goals been communicated to the appropriate employees?
- Is there a written plan for achieving them?
- Are results evaluated and the plan updated?
- Does the company have a profit culture?
- Do managers understand how additional profit would be used?
- Do employees understand that they share responsibility?
- Are managers and employees rewarded for meeting profit objectives?
A carrier builds a profit mentality by linking daily work, accountability, and rewards to a clear financial plan rather than expecting the owner alone to produce the result.