Logistics industry is the backbone of nearly every industry in USA, yet the business challenges faced have grown significantly in the last decade. Trucking companies in particular are experiencing severe distress due competition, regulations, manpower and growing accounts receivables.
Common issues faced by Logistics/Trucking companies include
- Unpredictable fuel costs and competition
- Driver shortage, retention and truck parking issues
- Customers expect greater tracking of their goods resulting in increased expectation and unwillingness to pay for any additional expenses.
- Ups and Down in the economy
- Government laws and environment issues like anti-idling and other emission reduction regulations.
- Difficult to implement newer technology and Business process improvements.
- ELD Mandate and Hours-of-Service rules.
- Controlling operating costs
But far the biggest challenges faced by trucking companies is accounts receivables. Other business challenges are still controllable, but non-payment ( or delayed payment) by a client after the service has been provided can exert tremendous pressure on trucking companies. They have to pay for insurance, driver salaries and recurring expenses, regardless the owner gets paid on time by their client or not.
Trucking companies have a small back office clerical staff, and they are certainly not trained to handle tough debt collections. Debt collection is further be divided into Commercial and Consumer collections. After 60-90 days have passed due to non-payment, it is highly recommended to transfer the account to a debt collection agency.
A debt collection agency adopts a diplomatic approach to attempt to preserve the relationship with your client. They have various tools and tricks to get the account settled, after all that is what they do all day long.
For Commercial Collections, the contingency fees is usually between 25% to 40% depending on the outstanding debt. For Consumer collections, a collection agency will typically send low cost collection letters, before switching over to contingency collections which has a 40% recovery fees.
The biggest mistake trucking companies make is to wait longer for the payment, hoping that they will magically get paid. The fact is if a client has not paid for 90 days, the likelihood of them paying goes down substantially.
Involvement of a collection agency puts tremendous pressure on your client, due to the very fact, they know that a Collection Agencies are skilled debt collectors.
Contact us for your debt collection needs.