Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/339485
38 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | JULY 2014 technology R oute planning systems come in a variety of forms. Finding the best fit will depend on the type of problems that need to be solved, some of which are complex. The shortest route between two points is rarely the solution. Many vari- ables have to be considered, especially with hours-of-service regulations and electronic logging devices adding a constant stream of fluctuating infor- mation to the mix. For John Christner Trucking, driver turnover reached crisis levels after it started installing and using electron- ic logs in December 2011. When the Sapulpa, Okla.-based company began its implementation, it had 800 trucks, and by April 2012, the software was running in all 700 that remained. The majority of the 100 drivers who quit were independent operators; the rest belonged to the company's leased oper- ator program. John Christner specializes in tem- perature-controlled truckload services and operates a fleet comprised entirely of owner-operators, and the reason the drivers quit was obvious. Their earnings had decreased along with the company's productivity, as measured in miles per truck; productivity had de- clined 9 percent in five months. "We knew we would need some help," said Quek Song, vice president of information technology. Automated routing Song and other executives focused on load planning. Drivers no longer were using paper logbooks to cover up inefficiencies in their routes, such as detention time at shipping and receiving locations. It was difficult, if not impossible, for load planners to take everything into account to stay compliant while also keeping drivers happy and maintaining high customer service levels. "We had a culture of using manual processes," said Jim Gomez Jr., vice president of operational compliance. "In the e-log world, efficiencies are what they are. We needed technology to help us to improve on the ineffi- ciencies that are out of our control and those that obviously we had direct control over. We needed a tool to help us plan." During its e-log rollout, John Christner also implemented the Virtual Hours of Service software from Add- On Systems. The tool uses dispatch and real-time tracking data to monitor drive time and project the number of available hours for drivers over the next two to three days. With this tool, load planners no longer had to be experts in hours-of- service regulations to determine when and where drivers would be available for the next dispatch and how many in focus: MILEAGE AND ROUTING In full view Route optimization systems consider many variables to achieve optimal results BY AARON HUFF Sapulpa, Okla.-based John Christner Trucking implemented Manhattan Associates' optimized load planning tool, Driver&Load, to eliminate manual processes.