The McCoy Group leverages suite of Trimble Transportation solutions for “Powerhouse” results
The McCoy Group of Transportation Companies, made up of three privately-held and family-owned bulk tank carriers – Foodliner, Quest Liner and W.W. Transport – has been in business since 1954, and today operates approximately 1,500 units and drivers.
Together, these two carriers are among the top 100 largest fleets in America, providing both food-grade and chemical, liquid and dry bulk transportation services across North America.
Earlier this year, The McCoy Group earned the “Platform Powerhouse” Ovation Award from Trimble Transportation during the 2022 Insight Tech Conference + Expo in Orlando.
Here’s a look at how this “power user” leverages leading solutions from Trimble for compliance, safety, more efficient workflows and more.
Enterprise solutions for back-office success
The McCoy Group has been a Trimble customer for more than 20 years, starting with the implementation of the TL2000 transportation management system (TMS) from TMW, now Trimble Transportation.
As the company evolved and grew over the years, The McCoy Group knew they needed a TMS that could keep up with changing customer requests for more real-time data, ultimately selecting and beginning to roll out TMW.Suite last year.
“Since we have multiple fleets, the intercompany sharing of loads used to be extremely cumbersome and resulted in double entry on both carriers,” said Tim Stueck, chief financial officer for the transportation division of The McCoy Group. “Now with TMW.Suite, basically all of the intercompany accounting is done for us, and the sharing of loads is not as painful as it was in the past.”
As a part of the transition to TMW.Suite, The McCoy Group has been able to bring electronic data interchange (EDI) in house, representing a significant cost savings, and time savings for their team.
“We’re able to set up a lot more automation on the billing, payroll and settlement side, which results in fewer errors,” Stueck explained. “It’s also allowed our billing team to focus on things that are more important -- managing the exceptions versus the routing stuff.”
Next-gen mobility solutions create flexibility
Within the last several months, The McCoy Group has also begun to roll out new in-cab hardware to drivers, upgrading from Trimble’s PD.5 devices to the Samsung Galaxy Tab A that connects their driver workflows and apps through the Trimble Transportation Cloud. The units are live in approximately 200 of the company’s 1,500 trucks, with more being phased in.
“This isn’t something we are doing in a very quick fashion, but we’re extremely excited about the move to tablets,” Stueck explained, adding that the tablet’s cameras are useful for drivers scanning paperwork, ultimately speeding up the company’s billing cycle.
Lindsay Lott, technology implementation analyst for The McCoy Group, adds that the flexibility of the tablets has also allowed the company to install SOTI mobile device management (MDM), which enables support staff to remotely access drivers’ devices to help troubleshoot issues and answer questions.
“We run a couple different applications on the tablets like our own driver app, Drivewyze and CoPilot,” Lott said. “It has been pretty great to remote-in with the drivers as well, taking what in the past could have been more than an hour-long troubleshooting phone call and condensing it down to 10-15 minutes. That’s going to save a lot of time for us.”
Maintenance shops get a digital upgrade
In addition to TMW.Suite and mobility solutions, The McCoy Group also uses the TMT Fleet Maintenance solution for inventory management for its 30+ shops throughout the U.S., having shifted from the IBMi legacy solution several years ago.
Originally, The McCoy group did not have any shop automation at all, operating “in the dark,” according to Stueck.
“Being able to monitor their reordering, and even just their shop inventory, has definitely helped us,” Stueck explained. “One of the bigger benefits we achieved through the use of TMT was also being able to monitor mechanic time direct vs. indirect, and that’s been extremely helpful so we can monitor productivity.”
“We’ve recognized a lot of benefits in the way of inventory management,” Stueck added.
Communication is key to successful implementation
With so many new solutions rolling out over the past several years, Stueck shared that communication is The McCoy Group’s key to success when it comes to bringing in new hardware and software solutions.
“We try to involve as many people as we can in parts of the decision-making process so it’s not just a top-level management decision,” he shared. “We try to explain to people the ‘why’ behind it – it’s not just changing for the sake of changing -- there’s reasons why we’re doing this, and we try to get buy-in as early as possible.”
Stueck also said that The McCoy Group will often set up smaller “pilot groups” within the company, particularly when it comes to mobility solutions, to test out the solution, answer questions and determine how management can proactively address any potential pain points to make the rollout as smooth as possible.
To learn more about Trimble Transportation’s suite of solutions for transportation organizations, visit transportation.trimble.com.