Transport Technology Today July 2011 : Page 4
@ Business Process IT ■ Investing in management solutions One LTL carrier is realizing more than $1.5 million in productivity and profitability improvements from several enterprise man-agement solutions. Central Freight Lines, a less-than-truckload (LTL) for-hire common car-rier, recently announced that it is benefitting from its investment in enterprise manage-ment system technologies. The adoption of a comprehensive set of solutions has resulted in an increase in productivity cost savings total-ing more than $1.5 million. “The implementation of a number of enter-prise management, communications and operations analysis systems has had a very positive impact on our ability to profitably provide outstanding service,” said Donald A. Orr, president of Central Freight. “We now have unmatched visibility into our fleet oper-ations and have been able to reduce our costs by consolidating dispatch operations at sev-eral terminals into other locations in our net-work. However we measure it, these investments are paying off for us and our cus-tomers.” Central Freight is realizing numerous bene-fits from its information and communications technology investment. Included are: • A 7% increase in productivity, measured in bills per hour at cross dock facilities, that comes from integrated pickup and delivery information used to build linehaul loads. • A 5% to 10% decrease in miles per stop, improving vehicle utilization and cutting fuel costs. • A 99.58% claims-free operation, up from about 93% prior to the implementation of the management solutions. • A decrease in communications costs by equipping drivers with GPS-enabled cell phones and negotiating a favorable data plan with its cellular service provider. Central Freight said it is also realizing labor cost savings by consolidating dispatch opera-tions at 22 of its 77 terminals. With the new technologies, freight management and dis-patch activities at the “dark” locations are now handled from other ter-minals in the same region, enabling man-agement and dispatch person-nel to handle other duties. Implemented by Central Freight was the Cheetah Freight SaaS (Software as a Service) solution from Cheetah Software Systems Inc. The project also involved integrating data from Central Freight’s mainframe with LTL/CIS and Traffic/CIS cost and lane analysis solutions from Transportation Costing Group. The TCG integrations provide the carrier with a deeper ability to analyze data more rapidly, making its activity-based costing processes increas-ingly beneficial. “The technologies we’ve adopted let us move information back and forth rapidly,” said Mark Stein, director of operations serv-ices for Central Freight. “The ability to make more effective decisions leads to better cus-tomer service and more efficient operations. Our return on investment in these solutions has gone far beyond what we anticipated.” Central Freight Lines is a less-than-truckload (LTL), for-hire common motor carrier of gen-eral freight. Headquartered in Waco, Texas, the company operates 1,600 tractors and 8,000 trailers from 77 terminals nationwide. Founded in 1925, Central Freight Lines, pri-vately owned and operated, is recognized for its ongoing accomplishments in service, qual-ity and safety. T3 4 July 2011 T3/TMW Systems
Investing in management solutions
One LTL carrier is realizing more than $1.5 million in productivity and profitability improvements from several enterprise management solutions. Central Freight Lines, a less-than-truckload (LTL) for-hire common carrier, recently announced that it is benefitting from its investment in enterprise management system technologies. The adoption of a comprehensive set of solutions has resulted in an increase in productivity cost savings totaling more than $1.5 million.<br /> “The implementation of a number of enterprise management, communications and operations analysis systems has had a very positive impact on our ability to profitably provide outstanding service,” said Donald A. Orr, president of Central Freight. “We now have unmatched visibility into our fleet operations and have been able to reduce our costs by consolidating dispatch operations at several terminals into other locations in our network. However we measure it, these investments are paying off for us and our customers.”<br /> Central Freight is realizing numerous benefits from its information and communications technology investment. Included are:<br /> • A 7% increase in productivity, measured in bills per hour at cross dock facilities, that comes from integrated pickup and delivery information used to build linehaul loads.<br /> • A 5% to 10% decrease in miles per stop, improving vehicle utilization and cutting fuel costs.<br /> • A 99.58% claims-free operation, up from about 93% prior to the implementation of the management solutions.<br /> • A decrease in communications costs by equipping drivers with GPS-enabled cell phones and negotiating a favorable data plan with its cellular service provider.<br /> Central Freight said it is also realizing labor cost savings by consolidating dispatch operations at 22 of its 77 terminals. With the new technologies, freight management and dispatch activities at the “dark” locations are now handled from other terminals in the same region, enabling management and dispatch personnel to handle other duties.<br /> Implemented by Central Freight was the Cheetah Freight SaaS (Software as a Service) solution from Cheetah Software Systems Inc. <br /> The project also involved integrating data from Central Freight’s mainframe with LTL/CIS and Traffic/CIS cost and lane analysis solutions from Transportation Costing Group. The TCG integrations provide the carrier with a deeper ability to analyze data more rapidly, making its activity-based costing processes increasingly beneficial.<br /> “The technologies we’ve adopted let us move information back and forth rapidly,” said Mark Stein, director of operations services for Central Freight. “The ability to make more effective decisions leads to better customer service and more efficient operations. Our return on investment in these solutions has gone far beyond what we anticipated.”<br /> Central Freight Lines is a less-than-truckload (LTL), for-hire common motor carrier of general freight. Headquartered in Waco, Texas, the company operates 1,600 tractors and 8,000 trailers from 77 terminals nationwide. Founded in 1925, Central Freight Lines, privately owned and operated, is recognized for its ongoing accomplishments in service, quality and safety. T3<br />
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