Cadec covers
all the bases
for Cheney Brothers
Nov 9, 2009 2:00 PM
“Cadec helped us virtually eliminate excessive idle time and associated fuel waste,” said Haber. “We went from an average of 2,950 excessive idling hours per month to less than 200 per month—a reduction of more than 90%.”
The Cheney Brothers fleet has also reduced hard decels significantly since it began monitoring this behavior with Cadec, and Haber reports that as a result its accident rate has gone down. This in turn has helped reduce Cheney Brothers’ insurance rates.
“When we took our initial baseline measurements, we found 30 to 40 hard decels per week,” said Haber. “Now any instance of a hard decel is rare. Just bringing it to the drivers’ attention, and their knowing we are watching it, had a big impact on driving behavior.”
For the same reason, speeding incidences have been virtually eliminated, and mpg across the fleet is up, since Cheney Brothers started monitoring and measuring truck speed. In addition, unknown stops have decreased significantly.
Posting the reports in the office for all to see had one unexpected consequence, said Haber: “The Cadec reports have created some healthy competition among the drivers about who’s the best.”
Cadec has also helped Cheney Brothers with Department of Transportation compliance. “All of our logging is done via Cadec now, and we can automatically track things like hours of service,” said Haber. “Drivers don’t have to deal with paper logs, and we find the data is much more accurate than when it was self-reported. E-logs are saving drivers about 30 minutes each, per day, and have also helped reduce the back-office burden, because instead of inspecting all logs we now just review exceptions. That helped us eliminate one full-time administrative position.”
Mobius TTS has had a major impact on Cheney Brothers’ delivery procedures. First, it enables the firm’s dispatch team to know the precise location of every tractor in real-time, so that dispatchers can provide accurate delivery time information to customers.
“Dispatch can tell every time a driver moves, and can track on-time deliveries; we get alerts on exceptions. So if they skip a stop, we know. And if a customer calls and asks where driver is, we can give them accurate information on when their delivery will arrive,” said Haber.
Second, Cadec helped eliminate the three-ply paper forms drivers had used for many years. Because all pertinent delivery information is now captured on the OBC, the company was able to go to shorter one-ply forms that would be signed by the customer at delivery. That reduced paper use and paper cost by two-thirds.
Today, Cheney Brothers is working on eliminating that very last paper form by implementing Cadec’s DeliveryTracker module – an add-on to Mobius TTS that runs on handhelds, and provides drivers with:
- Bar-code scanning
- Full-detail invoice/manifest
- Payment/credit handling
- Electronic signature capture
- In-cab printing
Captured data is conveyed as an XML file from the handheld to the Cadec OBC, and then relayed via wi-fi or cellular network back to the fleet’s central office, where it can be easily integrated with enterprise applications such as Supply Chain Management (SCM) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.
Cheney Brothers began implementing DeliveryTracker in 2009. “Cadec’s DeliveryTracker will really transform our delivery process,” said Haber. “Drivers won’t have to double-check orders or invoices—everything just gets scanned, and the handheld will tell them when they’re done. For the first time, we will have complete accountability for every pallet on every tractor. It will also save a ton of time, which will help us with on-time deliveries and will enable us to add more stops to some routes.”
If drivers need to take an item off an order, they will do it using their handheld, and the information will go right into Cheney Brothers’ main inventory system, said Haber. It currently takes two to three weeks for a customer to get a credit. With DeliveryTracker, it will happen on the spot.
“DeliveryTracker will enable drivers to generate an accurate invoice at the time of delivery. And invoicing at point of delivery will mean that customers can pay us more quickly,” he said.
Importantly, DeliveryTracker will enable Cheney Brothers to eliminate that last paper form, which means its fleet will be entirely paperless.
“Cadec is helping us fulfill our vision of removing all paper from the transportation and delivery process,” said Haber. “That in turn will streamline delivery and improve customer service. Cadec has already helped us make tremendous strides in safety and efficiency.”
Haber is quick to point out the hard financial savings as well. “When you consider all the savings enabled by our Cadec system—paper, fuel, labor, and insurance—we estimate that we’ve reduced our operating costs by hundreds of thousands of dollars per year,” he said. “That’s had a significant impact on Cheney Brothers’ bottom line.”
“We’ve worked with a lot of technology vendors over the years,” said Haber. “Cadec is the best in the industry. It’s been a great partnership for Cheney Brothers.”
