When you Grow from Zero to One Hundred Trucks in just Ten
Months, Who can you Turn to for Help to Keep Control?
 Billy
White is the founder and general manager of Hourglass Transport, LLC
of Coleman, Oklahoma. Billy spoke to us about his Axon experience.
Tell us about Hourglass Transport.
“Hourglass Transport was founded in February of 2003, mainly for the
purpose of transporting horse, camping, and cargo trailers. We use
light- to medium-duty trucks, and we go throughout North America in
all 48 states and Canada.
We originally started out with only two of
us—myself and a safety director. We had no office equipment; we
didn’t have anything. But we had a desire, and we quickly grew to
close to 100 owner operators within the first 10 months. I hired
seven more office personnel within that 10-month frame.
We are headquartered in Coleman, Oklahoma, and I
was able to open another terminal within 18 months of startup in
Edwardsburg, Michigan.”
Tell us about your experience with Axon.
“In October of 2003, when we started using Axon, we did not have any
kind of a program whatsoever, so it was immediately a big help to
us. By October, we were generating almost $500,000.00 a month in
gross receipts without a trucking program.
But Axon had everything we needed to get the
company organized, and thank goodness it wasn’t overly complicated
because we needed to learn it fast. I knew that it was very
important for us to be up and running quickly.
It’s been wonderful for us; it’s simple, and we
haven’t had to make any changes since we’ve come on board. Everybody
is friendly when we call and ask questions. And also we appreciate
the nice little gifts we get from Axon.”
Many companies receive complaints from their
drivers who don’t understand their
settlement statements. Has that
been a problem for you?
“That was a problem prior to Axon. After Axon, the statements are
laid out very clearly for these guys so we do not have any serious
questions. Since Axon, it has not really been an issue.”
Do you think this has helped your driver
retention at all?
“Oh, absolutely. It takes away the guessing game. If you can make
sure the drivers are not confused about anything, they have more
confidence in the company. And because drivers always seem to be
looking for mistakes, the simple settlement statement is a big plus.
It does help in retention, just the mere fact that there’s a trust
factor there.”
Has Axon been helpful to your office staff?
“Yes. Mainly it’s just more time efficient. Everybody has access to
most of the same information, at least as far as the basics of the
trucking business. They’re not allowed access to everything, but the
important stuff, as far as dealing with the drivers and customers,
they are. If someone steps out of the office and needs to be gone
for a little while, someone else is there to answer their questions.
It’s just so time efficient.
If a driver or a customer has a question, they
can call in and someone can answer right away, instead of having to
say ‘hey, you need to call back when this person makes it back from
vacation’ or back from wherever. Someone can access any information
they need right there so there are not all the phone calls back and
forth to sort out a problem. When it’s just a simple question, we
can answer it right away because the information is at our
fingertips.”
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“If you can make sure the
drivers are not confused about anything, they have more
confidence in the company. . . . the simple settlement
statement is a big plus.” |
Has Axon helped you manage your Accounts
Receivable?
“Yes. Everything is tied to the order, so actually our accounts
receivable is sitting at approximately 94% current, so there’s
something good about it. We’re proud of that one.”
Can you estimate your return on investment for
what you paid for the Axon software?
“You know, I can just tell you that it’s quite a bit. I don’t think
there’s any way that I could nail that down to a certain figure, but
I’m sure it’s up there pretty good. I would think that it’s paid for
itself at least a couple of times over!”
Has Axon helped you in terms of dealing with
your customers?
“Yes, it has. Any time a customer has questions or concerns, Axon
has all the information about them and the status of any of their
loads.
If a customer calls in and needs to know an
answer, and the person they are looking for is not available, anyone
that has permission [to access the programs] can pull the
information up about the customer and their order and satisfy that
question or concern immediately.”
How do you feel about the training and the
support that you receive from Axon?
“Axon has been the only trucking program we’ve used. Our initial
training was excellent. I don’t recall the length of time that it
took us right out of the gate, but I know it wasn’t very long –
maybe a few days or so – and after that we’ve been able to do most
of our own training if I had new employees come in because initial
training was so good that we understood it very well in a short
amount of time. I was impressed with that.
The support, well, it seems to work so well for
us that we don’t require a whole lot of support.
But I know when we have needed to call, it’s been a quick response
time and I’ve been very pleased with that.”
One of the most difficult things that human
beings have to deal with is change. Axon represents a huge change
for a trucking company. Did this create any problems for you?
“No, because we’ve only used Axon. We were lucky. Axon has worked
well enough for us that we haven’t looked for any change. So, yeah,
we’re one of the lucky ones there. We got to use Axon right out of
the gate.”
Do you remember the moment that you decided
that Axon represented the right direction for your company?
“Yes, it was four and a half years ago, the moment I compared it to
some of your competitors, in particular, Prophecy. Considering the
cost and the ease of use for our company, it was not a difficult
decision to make. So, yes, I remember that decision clearly.”
If you were to speak with any of your peers in
the industry, how would you describe your experience with Axon?
“Well, it’ll be a short statement right there because it’s simple,
but it’s detailed, and it’s pretty much problem-free. No one needs
headaches, so I would recommend Axon, especially to anyone of our
size; I can’t go into the really, really big trucking companies, but
I’m sure it would work well for those guys as well. But for us, and
anybody that I’ve dealt with, I would highly recommend Axon.”
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