A Q&A with Santa, and Fleet Manager Mrs Claus, of North Pole Inc
In Part I, I caught up with Adolfo De La Herran, President of Pointdirect Transport, Inc. on why he’s getting ahead of the ELD mandate and the benefits he expects from the new Teletrac Navman ELD solution. In Part II, we talk about how GPS fleet tracking has helped him grow his business and improve his bottom line over the past five years.
What initial benefits did GPS fleet tracking deliver when you first started your fleet five years ago?
Adolfo: When I first started with Teletrac Navman GPS fleet tracking, it was all about routing efficiency. Half of Pointdirect Transport’s fleet is solos and half is teams of two. They both run cross-country. Knowing the exact location of each of our trucks and drivers was a big competitive advantage.
"Now everything we need to assign routes efficiently is right at our fingertips, and our customers’."
About a year ago when we implemented elogs, we added another layer of information. Now everything we need to assign routes efficiently is right at our fingertips, and our customers’. Hours of Service (HOS) data paired with location data lets our dispatchers make decisions on what they can pre-book and how they can assign certain teams to freight without having to make phone calls and figure out how many hours each driver has left. This has been game-changing for efficiency as well as customer service.
You mentioned being able to improve customer service. How has technology helped with this?
Adolfo: We’ve been growing at just over 20% each year since I started the business. A big driver behind this is how the fleet management technology has helped improve our customer service and communication.
When a shipper is trying to provide us with freight, our up-to-the-minute elogs ensure we’re assigning a driver that can complete the job without running into HOS issues. With GPS fleet tracking, we know exactly where a vehicle is and provide customers accurate ETAs. This then helps our dispatchers assign the vehicle to the correct service lane. The technology affords us a lot of efficiency, but it also brings efficiency to our customers.
2015 was our biggest growth year of all. We were able to pick up a large direct account and service them really well thanks to the technology. They’re a happy customer, knowing we can track and give them transparency into all trucks and loads at all times.
You’ve been able to achieve a lot of topline growth. Have there been any bottom-line savings?
Adolfo: Absolutely. In the past, we often got HOS violations during DOT inspections at weight scales. They’d be for improper completion or because logbooks weren’t current. Now the electronic logs force drivers to be accurate and on time. There’s no way to cheat the system like with manual logs – it takes it out of the drivers’ hands and things have to be done by the books. Our drivers have adopted it well and see this is the right way to do business.
"We just went through our insurance renewal, and that year-over-year improvement got us a huge reduction in insurance cost. "
We’ve seen overall improved driver behavior and reduced costs associated with violations and maintenance. We get an alert if a driver is in violation and can stop them from continuing with that violation. We can also see when a driver does their DVIR at the beginning of the trip and look at those results for proactive maintenance cost-savings.
Our SMS scores have also improved dramatically. We just went through our insurance renewal, and that year-over-year improvement got us a huge reduction in insurance cost. There’s been a big impact on bottom line.
To see how GPS tracking can improve your fleet operations, request a demo at http://www.teletracnavman.com/director-demo.