Truck Topics
Stu Sutton's vision: The GPSNet Technologies story
"I started in the transportation industry in 1995 when I worked for a company called TST Expedited in Windsor, Ont.," says Stu
Sutton, now president of GPSNet Technologies. "It was at that point that we saw that various carriers were faxing in where their trucks were available in the morning. As loads came in, if we could cover it, we'd start rifling through the faxes and try to find a carrier that had a truck near the pickup."
"It was a very inefficient way of finding equipment. Likewise, we would share where our equipment was with our partner carriers. We saw an opportunity where this could be automated and make things easier."
Sutton, who possesses a degree in computer science along with a Masters in Business Administration tells us, "My partner Ed DeLeon and I started off on our own in 2001 by developing an online means of sharing this information among expedited carriers to make them more efficient. We wanted to give them the opportunity to meet three key objectives:
1. Turn every phone call into an order. To do that, the carrier has to have access to equipment. So, we provided an online means where people could post their equipment and find equipment.
2. Turn every order into repeat business. To do that, one has to have control of that order. If a carrier has the order on its own truck, it has control, but if it's brokered out, control is lost.
3. Keep the drivers happy. If you can keep your drivers moving and keep them busy, you keep them happy. If you put a driver in a remote area where he can't get out for two or three days, he gets very upset sitting around doing nothing and making no money. This objective can be achieved by posting trucks where people could see where those trucks were available.
"By April of 2002, we had the software working so that people could post their trucks and post their loads. We had an initial meeting in that month with 16 carriers and they all agreed to try out the system. We had hand-selected those companies based on people we knew from across North America."
"We gave those companies intensive support and it worked for three or four weeks, but then we started to see it wane a bit. We then organized a second meeting and the group all committed their resources to make this work. Within a couple of months, we had enough critical mass that the system was working and companies were making money from it. Once that started, it just kept growing."
Today, that system is known as AllianceConnect.
"Instead of being a twenty truck operation with two dispatchers trying to move those trucks, a carrier could become a multi-national conglomerate of trucking companies that shared where the trucks are available. This enabled the carrier to say yes to the customer more often and keep the drivers moving with freight."
Sutton says that objective #2 is a little more difficult when a carrier is limited to posting trucks and posting loads. The idea of turning every order into repeat business becomes easier when a carrier moves up to the full program that his company has developed, a dispatch software tool called AlliancePro.
He explains, "Let's say two companies are on the full program. I broker the load to you and a copy of that order is placed in your database. As you run that load, it automatically updates me with everything that is happening with that load. It's like the freight is on my own truck and I still have control over that load."
"The AlliancePro program has dispatch, billing, driver pay, customer track and trace and a number of other features. We kept adding modules and functionality to the software and because we're Internet based, we can make the software changes everyday. Because of this, our customers receive the latest and greatest software. It makes it very easy for us to deploy technology."
He continues, "The idea is that we will be the carrier's technology partner and this gives them the freedom to grow their business."
"We lease them the technology that is continually being enhanced and grown and hey don't have to worry about the hardware and software - we manage all of that for them."
"We don't do any marketing or advertising, our customers do that for us. Two or three times a day we will have companies calling us about our software. We will bring new customers in at the entry level - our AllianceConnect program. This allows them to connect with everyone else in the program, to share trucks and to share freight, to find trucks and to find freight."
Sutton tells us that the people from the customer's Operations side of the business are quick to grasp the concepts of what his company offers.
"They see what we do and say, 'Oh, I see how this works.' Sales people love it because instead of selling a twenty truck operation, they can offer a customer a six thousand truck operation. When we show the tool, we get a lot of favorable response."
Sutton comments on a reality of the trucking industry:
"The customer calls an expedited carrier because something's gone wrong in the supply chain. The shipper throws it over the wall to a carrier to resolve it and they don't want that problem thrown back over the wall to them. As long as a carrier takes responsibility for that piece of critical freight, many shippers don't care whose name is on the truck."
Although GPSNet doesn't provide it's solution to the individual owner-operator, Sutton says that his company's technology will benefit the driver as well.
"If an owner-operator or driver is working with a carrier that is on the Alliance program, he will probably find more opportunities for good-paying freight. His truck will be posted and thousands of people will see where his truck is available. If he is prepared to run, he will probably do more miles."
"I've had customers tell me that they have taken their deadhead and moved it from forty percent of their loaded miles to ten percent of their loaded miles. It has had a huge impact on their business. Their drivers are not getting stranded in remote areas
and they're finding return freight."
TEANA
"The Expedite Alliance of North America (TEANA) is a subset of the carriers on our program. The organization has established a code of ethics that says they will not backsell each other and they will not steal each others drivers."
"We do industry analysis and we share that information with our customers (TEANA members). We show them how they compare to one another. We have an annual meeting and we give out awards for year to year growth, , on-time performance, etc."
"The Expedite Alliance is a marvelous concept that has paid tremendous dividends for our company. The GPSNETINC software makes the Alliance work and the carriers more efficient but the driving force behind the success of the group is the sharing concept."
"It was Stu Sutton's visionary and innovative thinking that brought the "Alliance" concept to light. Through Stu's vision, the excellent software package and the dedication and hard work of many expedite carriers, The Expedite Alliance has grown from it's infancy of 12 pioneer companies to a powerful and functional group that enhances each companies success on a daily basis."
Scott Klever
The Expediting Co., Inc