sIf you’re an independent trucker, that means you’re running your own business on wheels. You have to do everything on your own, including finding loads, planning the routes, tracking your expenses, and staying safe – all while keeping your truck rolling.
However, the good news is that you can do all of this with the help of one technology: your smartphone. With the right apps, It can be your best business partner.
In this blog, we’ll list the right apps for truck drivers that they can use to make their lives easier and help them make more money on the road. Let’s dive right into it!!
Top Must-Have Apps for Independent Truckers on the Road
Whether you’re new to trucking or have been driving for years, these apps will help you work smarter, not harder. From planning the best routes to landing good loads, you’ll find the best apps for you in the following list.
1. Apps For Navigation and Route Planning
Getting from point A to point B may sound simple, but not when you’re hauling 80,000 pounds. In the trucking industry, you can’t rely on the regular car GPS, as they are not made for trucks. For truck routes planning and navigation, the following apps are best:
- Trucker Path: Trucker Path is a go-to apps for thousands of truck drivers. With this app, you can find truck-friendly routes and truck stops, weigh stations, and parking spots. This is like having a trucker buddy in your pocket. It even tells you what other drivers are saying about different locations. And the best part? It’s free and made by truckers, for truckers.
- Waze: Waze is a free community-driven navigation app that provides real-time driving directions and traffic updates. This app uses its large community to gather real-time information about road conditions like traffic jams, accidents, or police.
- Google Maps: You probably know Google Maps. It’s a straightforward app that gives you real-time road updates and helps you plan your stops more easily. It’s reliable and works almost everywhere.
2. Apps For Fuel and Expenses
When you’re an independent owner-operator, you know every penny counts. With the help of these apps for independent truckers, you can save your money and track your spending altogether.
- Gas Buddy: Gas Buddy is an app that helps you by showing the cheapest gas price in your area. You can get real-time prices at truck stops and gas stations, allowing you to compare the prices and choose accordingly. When diesel prices change daily, this app can save you serious money over time.
- FuelBook: This is a simple and professional app that helps you to look for diesel prices at truck stops nationwide. FuelBook has live diesel prices of over 5000-12000 truck stops, and you can even watch trends and compare prices of different stops.
- Expensify: Expensify is an app that keep an track of your expenses and manage them. This app helps in automate the tasks like expense tracking, receipt management, and reporting, making it easier for you to stay up to date with your taxes and accounting.
3. Apps for independent truckers to Finding Loads
As an owner-operator, you know how important it is to find good-quality loads because this is where you make your money. These load board apps connect you with freight that needs a driver.
- DAT One: DAT is one of the biggest load boards in trucking. You can search for loads by location, pay rate, and equipment type. It also shows you market rates, so you know if you’re getting a fair deal. Many brokers post their loads here first.
- 123Loadboard: This is another popular choice, as thousands of loads are posted daily. It’s user-friendly and has good search filters to find exactly what you’re looking for. They also have a mobile app that’s easy to use while you’re on the road.
- TruckSmarter: This newer app focuses on making load searching simple. It learns what kinds of loads you like and shows you the best matches first. It’s worth checking out if you want something different from the big names.
4. Apps For Safety and Compliance
Staying legal and safe isn’t just smart – it’s required. Your safety on the road is most important, and there can be many unexpected things that can happen. These apps help you in staying safe on the road.
- Weigh My Truck: Weigh My Truck is a mobile application that allows professional truck drivers to weigh their trucks at CAT scale locations. You can even pay transactions electronically and receive their scale tickets directly on your smartphones, all without leaving your truck.
- Drivewyze: Skip the weigh station lines when possible. Drivewyze connects with participating weigh stations to let you bypass if you’re legal and safe. It saves time and fuel, and it’s used by many big trucking companies.
- Motive: Motive is known as a fleet management platform designed to streamline trucking operations. This app helps with electronic logging (ELD), vehicle inspections, and hours of service tracking. If you need an ELD solution, this is one of the most popular choices among independent truckers.
5. Other Helpful Apps for independent truckers
Other than the apps related mainly to trucking, these apps will help make sure that your journey on the road is enjoyable and great.
- Adobe Scan or CamScanner: Turn your phone into a mobile scanner. These apps let you scan documents, receipts, and paperwork and can turn them into clear PDF files. Perfect for sending paperwork to brokers or keeping digital copies of important documents.
- Spotify: Long hours on the road go by faster with good music, podcasts, or audiobooks. Spotify has it all, and you can download content to listen offline when you’re in areas with poor cell service.
- The Weather Channel: Weather can make or break your trip. This app gives you detailed forecasts, radar maps, and severe weather alerts. Know what’s coming so you can plan your route and schedule accordingly.
Conclusion
Well, in the end, having the right apps can make your trips less stressful and a lot more enjoyable. Start with the basics – navigation, load finding, and expense tracking. Then, add other apps as you see what works best for your operation.
But if you’re someone who loves driving and doesn’t want to waste time on these additional tasks, then you can work with truck dispatch for owner operator services. They handle the planning, paperwork, and load booking for you so you can keep your attention on the road.