Stevens Transport is one of North America's most widely recognized irregular route refrigerated truckload carriers, servicing the contiguous 48 states, Mexico and Canada. Stevens currently operates a fleet of over 1200 tractors. The entire fleet is equipped with the latest Qualcomm satellite-based tracking and communications system, taking full advantage of advanced technology to service their customers.
Challenges
Stevens, like others in the industry, had been faced with a shortage of qualified and experienced drivers. To address the situation, Stevens created a state of the art training facility for new drivers. As part of their training program, Stevens offers a co-op placement to enable new drivers to work as they go through training.
Making effective use of these inexperienced drivers provided Stevens with some challenges. Stevens' drivers were frequently preoccupied with operating their tractors safely; driving an efficient route was a secondary concern. As most of the co-op drivers were new to trucking, they didn't know the truck network let alone the locations of Stevens' customers. While "canned" directions helped to some degree, drivers frequently drove out-of-route to approach the destination using the fixed steps outlined in the instructions. Moreover, the canned directions did not help the drivers stay on the truck network or aid them when they were lost. Stevens' phone costs were significant and their dispatchers were frequently occupied resolving driver issues.
Solution
Maptuit FleetNav helped resolved Stevens' challenges by providing:
Dynamic Positioning and Directions. As FleetNav automatically captures the current location of the truck, Stevens' drivers are not required to figure out where they are. At the touch of a button on their OmniTRACS terminal, they are able to dynamically request directions to their next stop without entering any information. These directions start at the current location of the truck and provide the least-cost route to the destination while staying on the truck network.
Optimized Door-to-Door Routing. FleetNav is based on the highest quality and most comprehensive road network data available. NavTech® and GDT™ data sets are seamlessly blended to provide the industry's most comprehensive road network comprised of over 6 million miles of roadway and 45 million road segments. This comprehensive network has been augmented with Maptuit's truck network to provide over 500,000 miles of 53'/102" trailer-designated roads, toll costs, and thousands of low clearance locations. Maptuit's patent-pending routing technology goes much further than traditional least-distance routing. Maptuit's routing engine respects the truck network, restrictions and prohibitions to calculate a route that trades off time, distance and toll costs as defined by Stevens' management.
Full Integration with the Dispatch Application. FleetNav integrates fully with Stevens' ICC dispatch application - so while the driver requests directions, the dispatcher is free to accomplish other tasks. Each dispatcher gains approximately 2.5 hours a week in time savings.
"One of the key elements of FleetNav is that the directions actually start from the current location of the truck and the driver is not restricted by canned directions from one entry point to the city." said Matt Welding, Director of Quality Assurance, Stevens Transport. "By reducing out of route miles, FleetNav pays for itself as early as the third day of every month; the results are impressive."
Conclusion
Not only does Maptuit's navigation system ensure that Stevens' drivers get to their destination in a safe and legal way, it saves the company money by optimizing for time and distance. Stevens forecasts that the FleetNav service will save them time and money, based on out of route miles, toll charges, communication costs, driver manager time and safety costs.
"FleetNav's easy to use directions based on the truck's position report have proven to be of significant benefit to Stevens' drivers. Our drivers are using FleetNav extensively and we are very pleased with the results. Not only are our drivers not getting lost anymore, driver managers have more time to focus on other business, " said John Norris, 15 year Veteran Driver and Driver Manager, Stevens Transport.
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