I am sure you have heard the expression, “Time is Money!” There has been nothing truer than that statement in life. Time is the one factor that links everything we do together in our life. It links how long we work, how much time we spend with family, how we are paid, and how much recreational time we have. It links everything and most people don’t give it a second thought as to how it is affecting their lives. Yet we all want to make more at our jobs and have more quality time for ourselves. For many the way to make more money at their jobs is to work longer with overtime, or in the case of the truck driver to run more miles. If you understand how time works however you realize you will never be able to sustain that momentum for very long and you may earn more money, but you will lose your time along with it.

So how do you make money with less time? That is the magical question that all are trying to find out. You already know how many hours you work per week and we certainly are not looking to increase those working hours, we just want to work smarter. So how do we increase the amount we make while using the same amount of hours? A few ways to do this are by increasing your efficiency, delegating your workload, getting a raise, or having a product or service that can work for you on the off hours. For most of us these are the areas that will help us make more money. Now I am not suggesting you will get rich from these ideas but if they can bump your pay up by a little bit for each hour you will be doing good.

Let’s look at the easiest ideas first. Can you increase your efficiency for your job so that you have more time for yourself, that is the same as giving yourself a raise? Increasing your efficiency is the easiest way to increase your pay especially as a driver. That starts with good trip planning. How about delegating some of your work? For owner operators if you feel your per hour rate is $50 per hour, should you be spending time doing your bookkeeping when someone else can be handling that for you at $30 per hour. Let them handle that duty and you try and get more miles where you are making a higher wage. Another way to increase your wage is to plain ask for a raise. Good luck with this one, but if you have been a good employee and it has been a while since you had a raise in the past then it may work. As for drivers most likely won’t see a raise unless the company bumps up the wage for everyone, however specializing in a certain area such as hazardous material or flatbed, or getting a dedicated run is the same as getting a raise and is very possible at any time. The final way to increase your income through time is to create a product, a service, or invest in something that doesn’t require your time but will bring in a return. Be very careful about this as it brings in all kinds of areas where you can lose money as quickly as earning it. The fact is that there are many ways to increase income, maybe you have a hobby that you can sell product through as a side business. The first step to taking control of your time is to seriously look at where it has been wasted. Figure out where you can best increase your profits within your realm of opportunity and you will see your income grow. Remember every penny helps.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is an entrepreneur with over 30 years experience in the transportation industry from driver to consultant. He is the author of the books Driven to Drive and Running by the Mile and offers training and consulting through his consulting business. For more information please visit his website at www.outridgeenterprises.ca