Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/759228
COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2016 49 INNOVATORS CALARK INTERNATIONAL Little Rock, Ark. CalArk provides retail pool distribu- tion and white-glove residential service across more than 16 metropolitan areas and six states across the Southeast. Part of its success is due to its develop- ment of and investment in a robust ware- house and transportation management system that enables real-time inventory and delivery tracking for its clients. Maximizing e ciencies With a growing array of services and the additional customers they bring, CalArk realized it needed more ways to ensure it was maximizing its service potential across all of its operations. at's what led the company to develop its own "E ciency Auger." e internal tool was spawned from internal data mining, data warehousing and per- formance management concepts. e tool's origins can be traced back to about a year and a half ago. at's when Malea Still, vice president of develop- ment and sustainability, said company president Rochelle Bartholomew "shared her vision of where she wanted the com- pany to go." Still knew it would be a large project for a midsize carrier and said CalArk "could have outsourced this, but we decided to do it in-house" with com- pany talent. ey wanted a product that was tailored to CalArk's speci c needs and could be modi ed as the busi- ness changes. She gathered a team of "forward-thinking" employees who were "not afraid to address limitations." CalArk's in-house data mining maximizes efficiencies, service BY DEAN SMALLWOOD T he bigger the company, the harder it becomes to keep tabs on the everyday myriad of information created by its own operations – and the possible out- comes caused by numerous day-to-day employee decisions. CalArk International (CCJ Top 250, No. 174) realized this and was able to get in front of the additional data generated by its own growth and nd ways to maximize e ciencies in all of its separate service o erings while maintaining its own high stan- dards of customer service. e Little Rock, Ark.-based company is an irregular-route general commodities contract full truckload carrier, serving 48 states with door-to-door service and Mexico via Laredo, Texas. " e Wheels of American Business" – as CalArk refers to itself – was founded over 40 years ago and today owns more than 600 tractors and 2,200 trailers. It posted more than $124 million in revenue in 2015 and has more than 1,000 employees companywide. In 2014, CalArk was able to expand its business capabilities to include contract warehousing and distribution services by purchasing a 650,000-square-foot ware- house close to its main facility in Little Rock. CalArk has warehouse locations in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee as well. e company's warehousing customers normally fall into one of three categories: manufacturers needing pre- and post-production storage; transloading customers who need short-term warehousing; and redistribution customers who need sorting, cross-docking and last-mile delivery services. The truckload carrier develops its own tools to keep a real-time watch on loads, lanes and customers.