The Sky is the Limit
Marickie Global Transportation
is a midwest regional carrier based in Indianapolis, Indiana.
In this interview, Marickie's Mark Brown talks
about their growing company and the Axon experience.
"The [Axon Trucking Software] system is making
our lives here very, very much better than what it was," says Mark.
"We have free time, we're able to focus on areas that we need to
focus on instead of pushing papers and struggling with the computer
system . . . ."
"Quite honestly, with the ease of the Axon
system, now I can grow without spending a ton of time trying to
teach and everybody trying to learn. I think the sky's the
limit."
Tell us about your company, Mark.
"We're running, right now, 39 trucks. We run them around the clock
seven days a week. They are out and back mainly. We don't really
have any over-the-road drivers per se. It's pretty much a
local operation. We also have a brokerage operation."
Tell us about your experience with Axon.
"There are many things that I'm very impressed with. Number one is
just the people at Axon. They are professional, always willing to
help. It's just a very friendly atmosphere. And then the trucking
program itself is so user friendly to people who have any experience
in the business and even folks that do not have experience in the
business. They can catch right on; it's just a very
user-friendly system."
What kind of problems are you solving
with the Axon system?
"We had bought some cheaper programs because, obviously, being a
smaller company, we didn't want to get involved in big costs. Most
of the transportation software programs that I'd looked at were
long-term commitments with high overhead or huge amounts of up-front
money. And we could never find a system that was
dispatch-friendly, accounting-friendly, fuel-tax-friendly. But
now that we've found Axon, it just pulls all those pieces together,
and it's just very user friendly and works throughout each
department."
Has Axon changed the way you do fuel tax?
"Actually, it does it automatically. I had a girl who did nothing
but just go through it, page by page, and fuel ticket by fuel
ticket. It's just opened up so much time for her.
We're using the
fuel company interface to download our transactions, and it's
remarkable. Just the click of a couple of buttons and it's all
filled in, and it's over with. It's just a huge timesaver."
How has it changed the way you do your
driver settlements?
"The thing I really am impressed with is when I go to pay our
drivers and print out their settlement sheets - they're very easily
understood by the drivers. There are no misunderstandings. Each
order number is there. It tells where they went and what day they
went. It breaks out how many miles they ran, and it shows how much
they got paid for the run. It's just such a great information piece
that the drivers have very few questions.
A lot of the systems that I've used, when you pay
folks, it's kind of in jargon that the driver doesn't understand,
and you're always getting calls and questions, "I didn't get paid
for this." Well, really they did, but it was not easy for them
to understand. The settlement sheets that come out of Axon are
just excellent for the drivers to understand."
How has your invoicing process changed
with the Axon system?
"Well, the big thing with the systems I was using, they were
smaller-based systems. We had to use QuickBooks on the side. And
there was so much added entry on the financial side.
With Axon, once you put a load in, once that load
is finalized, it just follows right into all the areas that you
need, into the right accounting files, into the payroll. It
just makes it a very smooth and easy operation."
The
equipment revenue report helps you determine how much you're
making with each truck. Were you able to do that before?
"No, I was not able to do that before. Not without it being a - I
guess what you call a weekend of math. You would sit down, and it
would give you the numbers, but it wouldn't put them all in a file
where you could sort through it individually. With Axon, it takes
each individual piece of equipment, you can assign your cost as you
give them to that truck, and you just hit a button and there it is.
You know exactly what you've spent and what each vehicle costs."
Has it improved your staff's
productivity?
"Oh, absolutely. We now have free time to focus on a few other
things that we want to do.
One thing I wanted to tell you - one of my truck
dispatchers was from Missouri and had a chance to move back home,
and he took that job. So I brought one of my best drivers in, and
set him down in front of this system, and within three days -- and
this is a guy that had no computer experience whatsoever -- he had
the gist of how it worked, and that just says, to me, volumes on the
ease of being able to train somebody on how to do this."
How do you think this system will handle
your future growth?
"Right now, with the staff I have, I can see us
putting anywhere from 65 to 100 more trucks on, without ever adding
any more people to our staff. It's just that easy. "
Has your staff liked using the software?
"I have nothing but positive feedback from everybody. They
just love it! They have just responded great to it."
Has Axon improved your customer relations
or given you more time to spend with your customers?
"Absolutely. I have already made so many more appointments and set
up so much more time to get out and do face time with my customers
because I'm not tied to a computer all day trying to just keep up.
I can see that, in the future, it's just gonna give me time to . . .
maybe even go hang out and do nothing!"
How have your trainer and client project
manager helped you implement your system?
"They have just been fabulous. When you have a question, 99% of the
time they have the answer and can fix it immediately for you. And
if they don't know, they tell you, "Hey, I can put you on hold" or
"I'll be back in twenty minutes." They'll call you back. It's
just been super!"
Compare
Axon's trucking software to other systems you've used.
"Well, I've been in the industry for - gosh, I almost hate to say -
27 years now and I've used all kinds of different computer systems.
The thing I like about Axon is, number one, it's very simple to
understand. It gives you the information without having to jump
around to 97 different screens.
You know, if you're in the dispatching screens,
you can get everything pretty much from that area. When you're in
the financial area, it's all there. You don't have to change and
jump and move around the system just to get two or three pieces of
information; it's all right there at the click of a button."
Has the real-time, total integration of
the system helped you?
"It has. It's freed up a bunch of time for me. I can go through
payroll way faster than I used to. I can update and look at
numbers, see where we're at, see where our trends are. It's
freed up my time tremendously."
How would you describe your experience
with Axon to your peers?
"It's just been a very good experience. I can't say enough how much
it has pleased me to deal with you folks. Every time that I need
anything everybody is so helpful.
The system is making our lives here very, very
much better than what it was. We have free time, we're able to
focus on areas that we need to focus on instead of pushing papers
and struggling with the computer system and waiting on reports to
come up and trying to cue up reports.
The one thing I love about it is that you can
customize so much of it and it just makes it to where, hey, I need
this, this, and this and you can put it in there and it fits right
into your system to just make your life the way you need it to be."
Where do you see your company in the next
ten years?
"Quite honestly, with the ease of the Axon system, now I can grow
without spending a ton of time trying to teach and everybody trying
to learn. I think the sky's the limit. I really have no clue where
we're going to end up. I just know that, right now, I feel as
good about growing as I have in a long time."
You have peace of mind?
"Absolutely! Absolutely! The big thing with me is I can click one
button and I know where I'm at. And that's huge on my part."
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