whats your most valuable sofware you would recommend?

I use Drivers Daily Log for just about everything, logs (DOT hates it)
More often than not when DOT see's that I use DDL they say never mind Otherwise its just a quick glance.

Fixed and Variable expenses, Invoices, Fuel-milage tracking, IFTA, revenue, manifests, maintenance schedules, repair costs and much more. You can even scan in your signature, removing the "reguirement" to print it daily just to sign it. I can't say enough good things about it.

Also Microsoft Streets and Trips with Truckstops Plus added. Great for trip planning, fuel stops, scales(although I have no idea why you would need to know the locations of these in advance) even Walmarts are listed. Just be sure to double check routes for restrictions with your atlas.

 

Google earth is a nice program and its free.

 

Open Office from Sun Microsystems. A complete office suite package that rivals MS Office, yet unlike MS products, it is totally FREE!! Not a day goes by that I don't use the Open Office to track my business stuff. Runs on XP, Win 7, Linux, OS X, Unix, etc.

I have been on Dos, Win 3.1, 95, 98, XP laptops for several years. Bought an iMac to replace the home system about a year ago. No brainer. I am going with Apple for my next laptop. Will replace my current laptop in the next few months, and going to a MacBook Pro.

 

OpenOffice.org is decent for what it is but I don't think you can say that it "rivals" Office. Especially given that most people are familiar with Office, OO can be confusing to switch to/use. It is free, but that's about the only thing it has going for it IMO. I'm certainly not a Microsoft fanboy but Office is pretty much the standard for good reason. However, if you don't want to buy or don't otherwise have access to a copy of Office it will do in a pinch.

 

I was hoping someone would suggest something that is Mac compatible. I've got a strong dislike of windows.

 

for ease of use and complete detailed info try hammerlane software .try it for free. My tax guy loves it. Just remeber, any software is only as good has the info you put in it.

 

You can skip the "Trucker's Helper" software if that is the boxed one you see in truck stops. I'm sure it works fine but there are so many annoyances with how things are handled in it, the workflows, the design and structure that I couldn't use it any more. From a user-oriented perspective, it is not a user friendly or well designed software product.

 

you might also like neat receipts. I have been using that little gem for 2 years. no more paper! I run everything from my rolling office from finding the freight to billing so time is important. hammerlane alows me to keep records, print invoices, Iffta taxes are a 1 button push away. coupled along with the neat receipts scanner I have all i need to run my business. good luck with whatever you decide to use.

 

There are quite a few trucking specific software packages on the market. I am fairly familiar with three of them. Truckers Helper is a good package. It is available in several different versions from driver to owner operator to fleet operator and carrier. The cost varies according to the number of features.
Depending on the version it can do everything you need including your IFTA, invoicing and payroll. One nice feature one version has is that it has all of your DOT compliance information in the program, as I recall. Another feature that I like about this program is that it will do your payroll based upon mileage, hourly or percentage. I have spoken to a couple of people who think it is a little more complex to use than some others, but it is a nice program. www.truckershelper.com. Another that I am familiar is Easy Trucking. It will do about everything you need other than payroll. It will do your IFTA calculations, basic bookkeeping, invoicing and aging of receivables. I have owned it for several years. I am not too fond of the way it does some things, but it is a decent program. www.easytrucking.com. The one I prefer is Trucknpro by foglinessoftware. I have owned it for several years as well. It is simple to use and will do about anything an owner operator needs other than IFTA and payroll. It will do your state mileage and fuel calculations, but won't actually do the complete calculations for your fuel taxes. I have one friend who runs his own authority and he uses it. Another friend who uses it is leased to a carrier and he has been using it for several years. They are always doing things to improve the software. It works very well if you are leased to a carrier. I like it for it's simplicity. www.trucknpro.com.

I believe all three of these programs have either an on line demo or trial version you can try before you buy. Any of the three can do what you want, including maintenance. It is a matter of personal preference. I believe all three offer a discount if you are a member of OOIDA. I would suggest that you go to their websites and check them out for yourself. There is no one package that is right for everyone. As I said, Trucknpro is the one that I prefer, but any will do the job for you.

 

Yup, nothing beats this type of software. Just an FYI, Microsoft ended sales of MS Money last year. That is not to say that folks won't be able to find the software in the bargain bin somewhere, but updates and further support won't be there. Personally, I like Quicken, and there are variations of Quicken available for business users as well.