Naming Your Trucking Company (Yes, There is a Trick to This)

Over-the-road transportation is all about speed and communication and the people who are successful in this business know that. They know the difference between getting a high-paying load v.s. a break-even load and that can be a difference that can happen in as little as 5 seconds. Successful Carriers know, "If you can make it easy for people to do business with you then you'll have more business." However, you would be amazed at the number of people who don't get this. There are tips & tricks when it comes to choosing your business's name that can help you be on the right side of that 5 seconds or the wrong side and I want to break those tips & tricks down for you right now.

To start let's look at 10 trucking company names that people have named their businesses. 5 are horrible names and 5 are great.

HORRIBLE:

1.) WE GONE MAKE IT TRUCKING COMPANY LLC --> (It's too long.)

2.) PB07 TRANS INC --> (Complicated & not rememberable. You want a name that's simple and easily memorable.)

3.) THE 7KIELS TRUCKING COMPANY LLC --> (Too complicated and can be confused when a Broker types it into their system to look up. More follow-up questions will be needed to clarify the spelling. It's complicated and that can cost 5+ seconds and the Carrier will lose the load to someone else.) 

4.) POW3R C1RCLE LLC --> (Yes this is clever, but it's not system friendly when a Broker needs to look up the Carrier by name. They will have to ask more questions. This is not practical or helpful for a database system and your company name will be in hundreds of databases.)

5.) F & E AND SON'S TRANSPORT CORP --> (Too long and too complicated and not memorable. You have the "&" symbol, which will not work well with a database. It would have been better to use their last name and then say "Son's".) 

GREAT:

1.) INTEGRITY TRUCKING LLC --> (Easy to remember and plug into a database.)

2.) WOLF EXPRESS FREIGHT LLC --> (Same as above.)

3.) TOTAL QUALITY TRUCKING LLC --> (Smart play on TQL so this guy will be very memorable.)

4.) PATTERSON LOGISTICS LLC --> (Easy to remember and plug into a database.)

5.) LOAD IT UP BOX TRUCKING LLC --> (Short, memorable and describes their equipment type... smart!) 

I imagine by now you can see the obvious points that I'm trying to make. Yet, from day-to-day I see MORE silly, over-complicated, and stupid names compared to good ones. A.) You want to be memorable, so it's easy for the Broker to think of your business name. "PB07? What the heck does that stand for... I'm not going to remember that"... "WOLF EXPRESS FREIGHT, yeah those guys ran a load for us last week let's call them again". B.) The name needs to be database and system friendly. The name of your business is going to be plugged into hundreds of databases. If you're using a company name called "THE 7KIELS TRUCKING" or "POW3R C1RCLE LLC" you're adding a step to the process; the Broker will need to ask you a follow-up question and... Time is Money. If you think I'm joking you'll find out quickly that this little detail really does matter in the long run. As a business owner, you want to take any task that's five steps and turn it into three steps or even two... simplify, simplify, simplify! If you have the opportunity to make someone else job easier, you do it. Again: "If you can make it easy for people to do business with you then you'll have more business." It's that simple.