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Carriers go High-Tech to Battle Spiraling Fuel Costs

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Carriers go High-Tech to Battle Spiraling Fuel Costs

Written by Kathy Wattman

Wednesday, 26 March 2008

For further information contact: Kathy Wattman (818)230-2308

Altoona, PA (March 26) According to Bill Graves, President of the American Trucking Association, fuel is gaining on labor as a carrier’s largest expense. Current industry forecasts estimate that truckers will spend over $135 billion for fuel in 2008, and fuel surcharges don’t come close to covering the cost of fuel for most companies.

Faced with such significant increase in fuel costs, regional LTL carrier Ward Trucking evaluated its largely manual processes and realized that real-time automation opened the door to greater profitability. “We needed to figure out how to break the back of escalating fuel costs by boosting driver efficiency and slashing costs,” said Greg Confer, Vice President of Asset Management for Ward Trucking. Faced with this realization, Ward engaged in an exhaustive study of the LTL software market and discovered that Cheetah Freight, from Cheetah Software Systems, Inc., possessed a unique approach to improve productivity, customer service, and profitability. Perhaps just as important, Cheetah Freight offered all of this with a nominal up-front investment and minimal ongoing costs.“We researched about twenty vendors and Cheetah came out on top," said Confer. “Cheetah provided us with a one-stop shopping alternative that contained the same advanced functionality as other solutions that would have cost us ten times as much. And, by opting for (Cheetah’s) SaaS approach, we were able to implement the solution with a relatively small amount of work by our IT staff.”Almost immediately, Cheetah Freight helped Ward increase its number of stops by 10% while reducing the miles driven by 6%, by intelligently optimizing routes and responding quickly and effectively to in-route events. In fact, according to Greg, “The decrease in miles driven alone has saved us over a million dollars per year” in fuel savings.

While Ward improved the efficiency of its P&D operations via Cheetah Freight, its service improved as well. Consequently, Ward sees Cheetah as an important competitive advantage, giving them the ability to not only survive economic adversity, but to thrive. By reducing labor costs in addition to fuel usage and miles driven, Ward has strengthened its competitiveness and increased customer satisfaction and profitability—in spite of the rise in fuel costs. “With Cheetah, a dispatcher can quickly determine the most efficient routes and update them, on the fly, in real time, allowing him to make meaningful reductions in the miles driven and, thus, in fuel usage,” said Stephan Karczag, Vice President of Cheetah Software. “We are gratified that we have helped Ward revolutionize their speed of service, and save money doing it.”

About Cheetah Software Systems:Founded in 1987, Cheetah Software Systems, Inc. provides dynamic, intelligent, wireless solutions for automating and optimizing pickup, delivery, dispatch, and customer service. Fully scalable and Web-based, Cheetah solutions increase productivity and profitability for carriers of any size with minimal up-front costs. Cheetah’s private fleet and LTL customers utilize GPS-enabled phones and PDAs to schedule, route, and track drivers and shipments. Cheetah - Revolutionizing Speed of Service. www.cheetah.com

About Ward Trucking: Ward Trucking is an LTL carrier headquartered in Altoona, PA, formed in 1931. Its fleet serves Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, and Chicago. It has 25 trucking terminals and a fleet of 450 trucks.

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