A Good Investment

Continental Transport is a nation-wide car carrier, based in Brighton, Colorado, primarily hauling used cars between dealers and auctions across the U.S.

Tell us about your experience with Axon Trucking Software.

"We first went online with Axon on July 1^st of 2004. So far it has worked for every purpose that we need as far as payroll, driver settlements, truck settlements, equipment reporting, fuel taxes.

We're happy with all of the accounting that is included with the system. A lot of times, with industry-specific software, you have less than desirable accounting traits, but we haven't found anything we didn't like with Axon."

Describe some of the problems that you're solving with Axon?
"Just to be able to download the fuel bills from our three fuel suppliers and put them all on statements and settlements saves hours in data entry time. Tracking the cash and the checks, com-checks or t-checks that are given, tracking fuel rebates--everything comes through.

As for our driver and equipment settlements, prior to Axon we were doing everything on a spreadsheet. Every invoice and every load that was hauled had to be manually entered on the individual truck's spreadsheets, which of course leaves room for error. If the rate changed on a load, or if we had already paid it out, it was too late to get it back from the truck. If there were orders that the trucker said they hauled and there was no record--somebody missed putting it on a spreadsheet or put it on the wrong truck's spreadsheet--there was a lot of room for error.

As far as the time goes, we had one employee dedicated pretty much 100% of the time to the data entry of all the settlement information and we've now got that down to where we still have just one person doing it, but she can also do other things now because she isn't spending 100% of her day entering stuff on spreadsheets.

We've been able to eliminate the multiple entries we did previously. All of the AP invoices, the fuel downloads - basically everything can go in through the accounts payable system and it automatically posts to the truck. Then it's a matter of reconciliation at the end of the two-week payout period; making sure that things are where they're supposed to be.

As far as keeping our drivers happy; before, if the driver happened to write down the wrong date that he picked up the load, entering them on the spreadsheets you wouldn't always catch that and so it may postpone his pay for another two weeks. Whereas with this system, once it's entered, it's already set to go. We pay on pickup date and now, if the driver makes a mistake, dispatch knows when that load started and originated and it goes in where it's supposed to."

How has invoicing changed with the Axon System?
"We generate probably 300 to 400 invoices a day and we used to only be able to handle, maybe, 200. So the speed is there, the VINs are already there, it's a lot faster. Before, we sometimes didn't get stuff billed for seven to 10 days. Now, we can pretty much get any load billed within two days of drop off.

It's improved our cash flow by at least two weeks I would say. Each invoice is paid probably two weeks earlier than it would have been."

Has your staffing changed since moving to Axon?
"We have actually kept our staff the same, but our truck fleet has grown from 45 to 65.

We have been able to add 20 trucks to our fleet without increasing our staff. We are planning on adding at least 10 more before the end of the year, and there should be no change in staffing at all."

How has the staff's morale and working environment been affected?
"I have noticed that everybody can stay caught up. There are no huge piles of work for everyone to do. They seem to be relaxed - less stressed. You can answer a question without having to physically get up and find the dispatches and the loads and things like that.

The communication between the dispatch area and the support staff is a hundred times improved, mainly because we're all looking at the same thing now. There aren't surprises that come up where we have to ask, "What did you do with this?" or "Why is this one like that?" It's all pretty much right there in front of you."

Has your profitability and cash flow improved with the Axon trucking system?
"Now, the loads go in and they may not be billed for two to three days whereas before they were billed five to eight days later. So the main improvement is in the cash flow itself. This is a very high cash flow business. There's a lot that comes in and there's a lot that goes out. And a lot of trucking companies go under because they can't keep up with the outgo versus the income. So I would say, again, it's knocked at least two weeks off the time between when a load is billed and then paid. I would say our average payout has gone from forty-five days to less than thirty days."

Can you estimate your annual return on investment with the Axon trucking system?
"We basically saw our investment returned by the end of the year 2004. Basically in the staffing, and that we could increase the [number of] trucks.

The year end closing was simpler, faster, easier. 1099's are a big part of our year end. We end up producing between 100 and 140 1099's. Prior to Axon, it was a two-week closeout, spending the time to verify all the income for every truck. Once we had Axon, when I went to do the year end, it was basically a push of the button and my 1099's were done, ready, and out the door."

You're saying that the Axon trucking program paid for itself in six months?
"Yes."

How has working with Axon helped maintain or improve your customer relations?
"A lot of our customers will call in on a load that was, say, dropped earlier this morning or yesterday and they're looking for the rate so they can start selling the cars that we just dropped off. They need that rate so they can build it into their price. A lot of 'em were very upset if they could not get a rate immediately and what we'd end up having to do is go physically look through the dispatches, find that load, figure out the rate, call 'em back, and then if there was any mistake whatsoever, they, basically, wouldn't pay the difference. Once you tell 'em what the cost is, they won't pay anything else.

It's made many of our customers happier because, as soon as the order's entered, we know what the rate is. Dispatch has already entered it and we can rattle it off to the customer. We already have the order number; we can give to them so they can pay. Some of them like to pay before they even get their bill, which works great for us and, with our order number already built in, there's no looking for the bills and delivery receipts. I can basically answer their question in one phone call instead of "I'll call you back," go look for my stuff and then come back and call 'em--it cuts down on the phone time."

How would you compare your experience with Axon to other programs that you've used in the past?
"Our company has used Peach Tree and QuickBooks and then Axon. Peach Tree just wasn't set up for this kind of business. There were too many entries, too many things to keep track of, and, unless you have an entire staff of bookkeepers, nobody could keep up with what had to be done - the journal entries and then the spreadsheet on the side, trying to pay out the trucks. The 1099's would always get messed up. It was a nightmare. QuickBooks was better, but not much. They do have a more single-entry type system. If you set it up right, you could charge the trucks or certain things, but you still had to then turn that basically into a vendor's invoice, and then pay it out. And again, the 1099 information would get screwed up. One person entering those would make a mistake, and it would mess up all kinds of things, whereas with Axon it's pretty much there."

If one of your peers in the industry asked you about Axon Trucking Software, how would you describe your experience?
"I would tell them it was a good investment; it was definitely worth the price; and that they won't know how they did without it."