ALK|FleetSuite Tolls Case Study
Dart Transit
COMPANY
Dart Transit, based in Eagan, Minnesota, is a dry freight truckload carrier
serving numerous manufacturers, retailers and other shippers. The company
owns and operates nearly 7,000 trailers and utilizes the services of about
2,300 owner-operators.
CHALLENGES
“Several years ago,” says Dan Lyddy, Director of Information Systems, “we
developed a system to calculate toll costs based on road segments. We discontinued
use of this system because of the excessive maintenance required to keep the
system up to date. This system was important to help us calculate our costs
and our margins on each lane. We also wanted a precise system to help reimburse
drivers fairly and quickly. We realized that we needed a standardized database
that was always up to date.”
At the same time, according to Lyddy, Dart was in need of a system for providing
accurate directions to its owner-operator contractors. “We provided directions
to locations if a contractor requested them,” he explains, “but
they were generic and had to be constantly updated. The directions did not
take into account the direction driver would be approaching the point from,
and required a lot of work to be maintained.”
SOLUTIONS
An early adopter of ALK’s new Tolls module, Dart Transit is using the
software to address both of its toll cost issues. “With the Tolls product,” Lyddy
states, “we have exact, up to date figures to pass through to customers.
We’re also able to streamline the reimbursement of independent drivers
for toll expenses. That equals over $800,000 per year. Now, as we implement
a large change in our billing and settlement system, the investment in the
Tolls module will easily be justified by being able to validate driver toll
expenses quickly and easily.”
Dart Transit is also testing the new Directions Server developed by ALK to
provide customized and automated directions, including nationwide and/or street-level
truck-specific driving directions that can be transmitted to any on-board communications
system. The directions are reduced to the lowest possible character count and
can be sent by the scalable server at a rate of thousands per hour.
“This capability will allow specific directions to be sent to drivers
for each route from an actual origin point to a given destination,” Lyddy
says. “It will be fully integrated with our custom-built dispatch management
system. We are also planning to implement PC*MILER|Streets to improve mileage
calculation in our growing city operations.”
A user of ALK PC*MILER, Dart also recently added the product’s multi-version
capability to its operation. Enabling the company to access multiple versions
of the mileage, mapping and routing software, this tool provides a single interface
for the carrier and its customers that are using previous versions of the software
to calculate rates and for billing purposes.
QUOTABLE
“We expect to realize a return on our investment in numerous products
from ALK Technologies in some very important areas. ALK, in general, has been
very responsive to our input and suggestions, especially as they developed
the Tolls module and the Directions server.”
Dan Lyddy
Director of Information Systems
Dart Transit
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