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Berry & Smith Trucking Boosts Efficiency and Saves Money with Trimble

The Challenge:

Serving a variety of customers presents a mix of operational challenges and information needs for Berry & Smith Trucking. The 62-year-old family operated business runs about 100 company-owned and owner-operator trucks in the western regions of the US and Canada. Based in Penticton, British Columbia, the diversified carrier hauls dry freight, hazardous materials, specialized, flatbed and step deck loads and intermodal containers.

Meeting customer needs, as well as the needs of staff and drivers, is a key goal for the company. “When a customer asks, we need to be able to look into our operations and find a way to deliver information efficiently and effectively,” says Dorothy VanKoughnet,  IT/IS manager. “We also need to provide our staff and drivers with solutions that make it easier to deliver customer services cost-effectively and efficiently.

“We have a variety of management and administrative reporting requirements,” she continues, adding “information helps us maintain strong relationships with customers, employees, and suppliers so we can continually improve operations and profitability.”

“Trimble continues to strengthen our organization in many different areas. It allows us to be more efficient and effective, and to meet our customers’ needs in a profitable manner.”

 

 

The Solution:

Berry & Smith Trucking has been using the Trimble TruckMate transportation management system for more than 20 years, and has expanded its use of the company’s broad portfolio of products to include maintenance management, digital imaging, and integrated routing and communications solutions.

The ability to seamlessly integrate a variety of solutions adds significant value to the TruckMate platform, according to VanKoughnet. “Standalone products have an additional layer of work for managing processes or dealing with problems,” she explains. “With Trimble we’re not spending hours on development or talking to different companies.”

 

The Result:

Berry & Smith Trucking has realized a variety of measurable benefits through its use of the TruckMate software and related solutions:

  • $100,000 in annual savings by handling accounts payable, accounts receivable and driver payroll functions on a single platform and with a single part-time person. Additionally, savings are realized by reducing office space and taking advantage of vendor discounts for faster cost-effectively processes.
  • $30,000 to $50,000 per year by reducing administrative time and telephone expenses through enhanced communication between drivers and operations personnel.

 

“Trimble also has helped us improve profitability just by the way its database is set up. We can use the software for financial reporting that’s specific to power units and lanes we service, and look at all our costs. Because the information in Trimble software is linked together in one database it’s a lot easier to determine which customers and loads are profitable.”

– Dorothy VanKoughnet,  IT/IS Manager, Berry & Smith Trucking