To Fax or Not Fax, that is the question

And what about your land line to add to it at the house...

laugh about it anyway you want.

So it's $8 for your fax line.

How many OTHER $8 items do you have that are, "not doing anything to my overhead". 3? 5? 10? They add up. Before you know it, you can trim $100-200 from the monthly budget when you put all those silly things together. Over a year, that's easily $1200. Enough to fill the tank once or more, enough to skip one load that week of Christmas or any of a dozen things.


So it goes to say.....


reduce fixed overhead.

ANY good business should strive for that.

 

First, if you use an electronic fax service, the understanding is you already have a printer/scanner. There is no additional line needed for it. You just use that.

And with Adobe Reader, you do NOT need to print things out to sign them, fill them out, etc. You can open a PDF file (such as via email or e-fax), add all the text you want wherever you want, add your signature or initials where needed, save it, and then email or fax it back. Never once using a sheet of paper.

And it only costs me $8/mo for metrofax and I can send and receive emails via fax. Get the first 500 or so pages free a month and it's $0.03/page after that (which I've never reached that point).

I guess the point the e-fax crowd is saying is, if you want to limit yourself. Limit yourself. But there's still some old school brokers that do things via fax. And a dirty little secret is, those guys have been in the business so long because they know how to get good freight, and keep the carriers paid well enough to keep coming back. So, they like their paper-copy fax system. Let them.

I've had $113,750.44 revenue for the first six months of the year on 44,372 miles (total miles driven). My fax service for the year has cost me $47.7. Or just about one-tenth of one-cent per mile. If that will make or break you, you've cut your margins too slim.

 

what landline at the house????? why do houses need landlines???? landlines are obsolete.

you forgot the part i said 21st century electronic fax. my fax bill and my cell phone bill. my cell phone takes care of all my internet needs. at home or the road. and my fax works off the internet.

i'm not laughing. i'm just saying.

what works for some doesn't work for others. and some prefer the complicated method and don't like learning new and easier methods.

sort of like some of you prefer to pay for that wifi card when you phone can do the same job. now i know some of you have said that you can't talk and surf while in 3g. so you pay for both. but i've never had to talk and surf at the same time. i use the laptop to find the loads. i use my phone to call on the loads. and it receives the same fax my laptop does. if a load is questionable. my phone gets me the accurate miles. and tells me where i'm going before i decide to call on a load.

if my gps breaks. i have the same software on my phone. it makes my calls. it does my faxes. it does my routing. and plays my music. it basically does everything i need. it's my most critical tool. and my only tool. so naturally, if it breaks. i'm dead in the water. i don't pay for a air card. that's the extra overhead you all don't need.

my laptop. does everything for me also. i can watch tv by plugging the antannae into the usb port. i can watch movies on dvd. and surf the internet tethered to my phone. i don't have a tv or satellite system.

i do however, have satellite radio.

i'm not laughing. i'm just saying. that's my cheap overhead and the easiest way to do things.

electronic faxes are also on the company server that i use. i've had the service 2 years now and every fax is still there.

you already know why i don't use the email system.

 

I know what the e-fax crowd is trying to say. All too well.

You see that one item as $90 for the year.

I am saying, "How many of those "$90 items" can you cut out in the year. 1? 3? 5? 10? laws of multiplication start to add up with you start to get to them.

Next thing you know, you've saved enough to pay for your cargo insurance for the year now. And the IRP tags at the end of the year.

 

mndriver.

how much did you say you were paying for that aircard????? 80 a month.

i'm paying 96 a year for electronic fax. 700 pages a month. your paying 960 for that air card. that you don't need.

 

I pay $58 per month. It also provides me with internet wherever I go and allows me to use email, load boards and the internet wherever I am.

It also allows me to hook up to the network at the house and use my computer there that maintains all of my accounting packages and load records.

It is set-up that way to allow my wife to also access the information from wherever SHE is and do a load packet for me if needed.

We can sit here and piss and moan about is it worth it or not all night long. Enjoy your discussion.

I have other places I care to put that $80 or $96 annually.

 

there ARE cloud services that can be used for free. you really don't need a network.

create an account. upload and download on any computer. anywhere in the world.

just saying.

 

I do not care to exist in a cloud. It's my data and mine alone. I will leave it in my house on my equipment under my shield.

I won't have it subject to someone else's "security".....


This existence is costing me nothing I don't already spend money on.

 

LOL.

now that's funny.

 

Phone, air card, metrofax, load board subscription.

Those are my monthly expenses for being out on the road. Everything else is either truck or authority related (insurance, trailer payment, etc).

I just spent $14 for a parking spot last night. Why? Convenience.

Do things the hard way, it may not cost money, but it costs time and opportunities.