Fleet Manager Skills

Welcome to the Fleet Manager Skills Section of the Learning Center!

Section 2: Fleet Manager Skills is dedicated to outlining the practical abilities and procedures that Fleet Managers (FMs) must master to effectively manage their assigned drivers and loads. This section translates the knowledge of the Bright Trucking Company Network (BTCN) and its systems, discussed in Section 1, into the daily tasks and workflows performed by FMs. Mastering these skills is crucial for ensuring driver efficiency, maintaining compliance, and maximizing profitability. The section covers a wide range of essential functions, including:

• Planning Loads: This involves several key skills such as analyzing driver communications (Comms), effectively using Hours of Service (HOS) rules for trip planning, advertising the availability of trucks, efficiently scanning loadboards using specific criteria (Dollar Per Mile, Dollar Rate, Pickup Appointment, Delivery Time/Pace, Delivery City), and conducting thorough lane research, including verifying city-to-city distances using Google Maps, researching lane averages, and analyzing market conditions.

• Bidding on and Booking Loads: This builds upon load planning, focusing on understanding markets and lanes, negotiating rates, and following a specific process for searching and booking loads, including verifying distances in Google Maps and recording load information.

• Onboarding New Customers: This skill is part of the FM's responsibilities.

• Navigating Rate Confirmations: Understanding and working with Rate Confirmations (RCs) is a distinct necessary skill for FMs.

• Navigating Template Emails: FMs utilize standardized email templates for various operational workflows, such as "Meet Your Fleet Manager," "Dispatch," "Visibility Chain," and "Load Update," among others.

• Assigning (and Transferring) Loads: This critical task involves creating and managing communications related to assigned loads, including the process for creating Master Email Chains using Google Mail (Gmail) to organize correspondence for specific drivers by using driver tags for filtering.

• Adding Loads into LoadOps TMS: FMs are guided through the process of entering new loads into the LoadOps TMS, which is critical for load tracking and management, involving uploading RCs and filling in load details.

• Managing Customer Communications: This includes skills like sending "On Schedule" template emails and adding interested parties to visibility chains, which involves updating both the Master Email Chain in Gmail and the tracking tab in LoadOps TMS.

• Sending Early Notifications/Warnings for Possible Detention: A specific skill involving proactive communication regarding potential detention events.

• Completing Loads: This encompasses several skills related to finalizing loads in the system, particularly invoicing procedures for loads completed without detention, with detention, with lumper payments, with overages, shortages, or damages (OS&D), and with Truck Ordered Not Used (TONU) payments.

• Canceling Loads: The process for handling load cancellations is also covered.

• Labeling and Filing Documentation: An important skill for maintaining compliance, this involves properly labeling various documents (Vehicle Records, Driver Records, Receipts) with a standardized syntax and filing them in the Google Drive.

By detailing these skills, Section 2 provides Fleet Managers with the necessary knowledge and step-by-step procedures to execute their daily responsibilities effectively within the Bright Trucking operational framework.