Tools we recommend to FedEx Ground contractors

The default small-business ledger — and the P&L format most lenders and buyers expect.

Whatever tool you audit settlements with, the money still has to land in real books. QuickBooks is the format banks, CPAs, and route buyers ask for, and a clean chart of accounts that separates settlement revenue, chargebacks, fuel, and payroll makes every downstream question — taxes, valuation, financing — easier to answer.

Worth knowing: Remember that a Saturday–Friday settlement week never lines up cleanly with calendar-month books; book revenue by statement date and let the month boundaries be what they are.

Modern payroll that small fleets actually run themselves.

Payroll is most CSAs’ largest expense, and the payroll report is half of every labor-versus-revenue comparison. Gusto handles multi-state driver payroll, contractor payments, and clean CSV exports. If you can, set the workweek to align with the FedEx Saturday–Friday week — it makes weekly labor cost per route a real number instead of an approximation.

A fleet fuel card without the legacy-card fee maze.

A fleet card does two jobs: per-gallon discounts and — just as valuable — per-vehicle, per-driver spend controls and reporting, so fuel stops being one blended number. AtoB is the newer entrant with straightforward pricing and broad station acceptance, which suits P&D fleets that fuel at retail pumps rather than truck-stop diesel lanes.

Worth knowing: Compare net cost, not headline rebate: a card with a bigger discount but monthly account fees can lose to a simpler card at your actual gallons.

App-based diesel discounts at truck stops — no card required.

If part of your fleet runs larger vehicles that fuel at truck stops, Mudflap’s app-based discounts can be meaningful per fill-up with zero commitment — it coexists fine with a fleet card.

Worth knowing: Its network is truck stops. A van fleet fueling at retail gas stations will rarely use it.

A marketplace that shops commercial coverage across 350+ agents and carriers.

Commercial auto for a delivery fleet is expensive and quotes vary wildly between carriers for identical operations. A marketplace that makes carriers compete is the fastest way to benchmark whether your current premium is fair — worth doing at every renewal, not just when shopping.

Worth knowing: You’ll get phone calls — that’s how the model works. Have your fleet list, driver roster, and loss runs ready before you submit.

SBA and equipment financing brokerage — the route-acquisition capital path.

Route acquisitions are commonly financed with SBA 7(a) loans, and vehicle replacements with equipment financing. A broker that packages the deal across lenders saves the serial-application slog. Whoever you borrow through, walk in with clean books and the seller’s actual settlement history — diligence and underwriting want the same documents.

Worth knowing: Brokers are paid on funded deals. Always compare the packaged offer against a direct quote from your own bank.

Direct lender for equipment financing and working capital.

A direct-lender alternative for financing replacement vehicles or bridging a cash gap — useful as the comparison quote against a brokered or bank offer. Speed is the selling point; price for that speed varies, so read the total cost of capital, not the payment.

Worth knowing: Short-term working-capital products can carry high effective rates. For planned vehicle replacement, term equipment financing is almost always cheaper.

Fee-free business banking built around multiple accounts per business.

The settlement hits one account, but the money has four jobs: operating costs, payroll, tax reserve, and vehicle replacement. Relay makes multi-account allocation (the Profit First pattern) native — up to 20 checking accounts with automatic percentage splits — so the weekly deposit gets divided the day it lands instead of in your head.

Online tire buying with commercial coverage and installer delivery.

A P&D van eats tires on a schedule you can predict from route mileage — which means tires are a cost you can plan and price-shop instead of paying whatever the shop quotes on a breakdown day. Buying online and shipping to your installer routinely beats walk-in pricing, and the order history gives you per-vehicle tire cost for free.