How long has it been since you took a close look at your manual truck scale ticketing process?
Even as the world goes digital, many businesses continue to fumble needlessly with manual systems.
For example, in the truck scale business, some companies are still using paper tickets. But paper truck scale tickets come at a high cost. And the time, hassle, and financial waste associated with paper tickets are high.
Paper scale tickets are a pain to keep organized.
It’s easy to accrue tens of thousands of paper scale tickets in a single year. And they can’t go straight to the recycling bin after a day or two. You’re obligated to store all that paperwork for a year or more for tax and accounting purposes. That’s a lot of filing cabinets—and a lot of valuable real estate. Storing all that paper costs your company money.
And all that paper storage can really slow you down if you need to check a months-old ticket. You have to leave your desk and rifle through files to track down what you need. If anything is out of order, you might have to search for a while.
When you manage truck scale ticketing by hand, you’re duplicating efforts—and wasting time.
Even if you use a paper ticket system for weighing, you’re probably doing your accounting on a computer. Every paper ticket has to be entered manually into your accounting software. This is essentially duplicate work, and it can claim massive chunks of time.
Here’s an example. Perhaps an average of 250 trucks go across your scale every day. You fill out a paper ticket for each one. It takes you 45 seconds per ticket to enter all that information into your accounting software.
Think about that in terms of a five-day workweek. You would spend fifteen hours every week copying paper tickets into your accounting software. And that doesn’t account for the time spent filling out the ticket in the first place.
The time cost of synchronizing a manual ticketing system with a digital accounting system is simply too high.
Bad handwriting leads to accounting headaches—and real financial costs.
Some businesses may do fine using paper tickets for their truck scales—but under one very specific condition. Every member of your team needs to have perfect handwriting.
Even before the age of typing and texting, flawless penmanship was tough to come by. These days, barely legible chicken-scratch handwriting is far more common. This may be harmless on a grocery list, but on paper scale tickets, it can really cost you. In fact, studies suggest that American businesses lose upwards of $400 billion every year due to bad handwriting.
Here’s an example. Let’s say two people on your seven-person team have truly atrocious handwriting. On half their tickets, there’s at least one number you simply can’t discern. 400 trucks come across your scale every day. That means you’re dealing with over 280 illegible tickets every single week.
Every time you come across an illegible ticket, you have two choices:
- Track down the person who wrote it and ask them. If they’re on site, that’s probably ten minutes of your time—or more. If they’re gone for the day, you’re stuck waiting until they get back. And that assumes they’ll be able to read their own handwriting or remember what it was supposed to say. You may end up scratching your heads side by side.
- Take your best guess. This may be the faster way forward, but it’s risky. A handful of mistakes can really throw off your accounting. Hunting down a weeks-old error can be exhausting—and fruitless. And the financial costs can be high. Transcription mistakes from paper tickets can cost you anywhere from five to fifteen thousand dollars every single year.
Good truck scale software can make a meaningful difference in operational efficiency for your business. Scaleit is an industry-leading truck scale software designed to streamline the weighing process. With Scaleit, you can protect your business from unnecessary financial and time loss.
Plus, Scaleit offers fast, unparalleled customer support. If you’re new to using truck scale software, we’ll teach you everything you need to know. We’re always available if you have questions or need help navigating a hiccup.
To see how Scaleit works, schedule a demo