Berry & Smith Attacks Detention Time Reporting Using PeopleNet Canada's Onboard Computing System

Canadian carrier looks to PeopleNet's PACOS feature

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario - March 7, 2005 - PeopleNet Canada, the leading provider of onboard computing and mobile communications systems to the transportation industry, today announced that Berry & Smith Trucking Ltd., a Canadian over-the-road and intermodal carrier, has converted to PeopleNet's onboard computing and mobile communications system.

Based in Penticton, British Columbia , Berry & Smith Trucking traces its roots back to 1954 when they began hauling fruit out of the orchards in the local area. Since then, it has grown to become one of the premium regional carriers in the Pacific Northwest. With an increasingly diverse customer base, the company continues to expand.

One thing that has contributed to the company's success is the company's belief in its people. "Our success," says Dorothy Vankoughnett, controller and IT manager for the company, "is a very talented group of drivers, support staff, dispatchers and managers - all together an extremely dynamic team of talent. This team's priority is to work with the customer in providing the most efficient, cost effective service available."

The diversification of fleet operations led Vankoughnett to look for a better way of tracking and dispatching the truck fleet. The result was the PeopleNet onboard computing and mobile communications system, a solution Berry & Smith Trucking began implementing in February 2004.

"Prior to the installation of PeopleNet, our drivers were using cell phones to advise us of their driving status," she says. "They would call dispatch when they picked up the load and when they delivered it. Converting to PeopleNet allowed us to send the change of status information automatically. Not only did that save us a couple of hundred dollars each month on every driver's cell phone bill, it allowed our dispatchers to spend more time dealing with customers."

The improvement of communications with the customer has been a tremendous selling point for Berry & Smith. Not only has it enhanced communications and service, it has increased transparency of the fleet to the customer, many of whom have the ability to get on the fleet's website and monitor the status of their loads.

"They may not use all the technology features available with the system," Vankoughnett says. "But they are impressed when you bring the technology to the table."

It is in that vein that Vankoughnett is taking that communication to the next level. Using PeopleNet's PACOS Automated Messaging and Exception Management tool with Maddocks Truckmate, she is automating pick up and delivery times even further. While the solution is still in the design stage, "we are looking at enhancements to make it more seamless."

Here's how it works. Berry and Smith has placed a geofence around shipper and receiver locations. When one of the two units configured for PACOS arrives at a shipper destination, the information automatically appears on a screen, sending out an automatic message to the driver asking whether they have picked up the load. All the driver has to do is respond yes. Prior to PeopleNet, the driver had to call in and report the change in status. Now using PACOS, the status updates will make it easier for drivers to keep their status current.

The system automatically records when the load was picked up at the shipper, and again once the driver arrives at the consignee an alert is sent asking for confirmation. "PeopleNet gives us the ability to send as much information in one data call," she explains. "We don't worry about how many messages we transmit since we are not charged on a per-character basis."

"The primary benefit of the system is to help reduce waiting time and enforce accessorial charges," says Vankoughnett. "After an agreed unload time (either 1 or 2 hours), our drivers get paid waiting time. In the past, they would call us and let us know how long they had been waiting and then we would have to notify the customer. PACOS gives us the ability to set timeframes. What that does is automatically notify us if a truck has been waiting for longer than the prescribed time. Plus it automatically notifies the shipper or the receiver - eliminating the driver check-in calls."

"Customers love the fact that information is factual and in real-time," she says. "That allows them the data that they can manage to. They no longer have to take our driver's word against that of their own people. It allows them to be much more proactive in managing their facilities."

With a fleet that is primarily owner-operators, Berry and Smith has not overlooked the driver part of the technology integration. "While we make PeopleNet a contractual condition of coming to work with our company, we are so confident of the benefits of the system that we don't charge them for product or the satellite time," she says. "Nevertheless, to get their complete buy-in, we show them that there's value in this product by helping them to reduce their costs and improving the accuracy of dispatch."

One of the features of the PeopleNet solution that Berry and Smith did not count on was the online fuel tax reporting program. Because the PeopleNet system constantly tracks the location of each of the company's units, it can send provincial and state line crossings directly to the company's fuel tax auditor, eliminating the need for a position in-house while boosting accuracy.

The PeopleNet system has become the standard for GPS-based location tracking, two-way voice and data communications, electronic driver logs, and Internet-based fleet business tools to provide consistent, reliable communication between business owners, dispatchers, drivers and shippers.

Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, with U.S. headquarters in Minneapolis, PeopleNet is the fastest-growing provider of Internet-based onboard computing and mobile communications systems to the transportation industry, including truckload, LTL, private, and service fleets. The company serves several Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. and Canada and has signed more than 1,000 customers since its inception more than 11 years ago.

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CONTACT:
Ellie Walradth
PeopleNet
888-346-3486 x247