SmartBOL® Online – Carrier Revises Business Model with SmartBOL Online

Situation
An expedited freight carrier servicing the upper Midwest with a network of 16 strategically placed shipping terminals was finding itself mired in an antiquated, paper-intensive Bill of Lading (BOL) system. Such a system was resulting in an increasingly inefficient operation.

For example, data entry in preparing BOLs was proving to be quite laborious, trucks were being sent daily to regular shipping customers whether or not they had a shipment, and the volume of inbound freight pickup calls was becoming overwhelming and resulted in the need to hire additional staff simply to entertain these calls and input data.

Approach
SmartBOL was called upon to assess the company’s Bill of Lading system, and quickly ascertained that a web-based BOL system was needed to bring the organization’s mode of operation up to maximum efficiency. The goal was to streamline the backbone of the business operation, increasing productivity while reducing operating costs, and ensuring that the resulting technology fully supported the business requirements and Mission Statement of the organization.


Outcome
The implementation of SmartBOL resulted in a host of improvements to the overall operation of the company. First and foremost, the carrier was immediately impressed with the streamlined operation of the system. This resulted in a decision to rebuild its entire business model around its use of SmartBOL, which the company feels has given it a distinct competitive advantage over all other carriers in that region.

Advantages were numerous, including a significant reduction in data entry (and data entry staff), elimination of trap stops (trucks are not automatically dispatched to regular shipping customers if SmartBOL does not show the need), reduced workload for drivers (along with the ability for the carrier to do more pickups with few drivers), vast reduction of inbound phone calls from shippers, improved dock operation due to pre-routed shipments and increased new account activity for the sales department because of SmartBOL.

The carrier also noted its customers (shippers) enjoyed an equal number of advantages (other than SmartBOL being free of charge to them), including control over what is placed on the delivery receipt (special instructions, reference numbers, etc.), elimination of phone calls to create and schedule pickups, multi-user and multi-facility support, the prevention of misroutes thanks to an address book in SmartBOL, shipment history, shipment manifests, and additional cost savings with no purchase of forms.

And as the IT Director of this carrier also notes, “SmartBOL cuts costs for our customers as they get a shipper friendly, organized, online shipment system.”


About SmartBOL
SmartBOL shipping software products and services are used by shippers, freight carriers, and third party logistics (3PL) companies. SmartBOL delivers exceptional high quality service with great emphasis on customer care. Low overhead and efficient operation gives SmartBOL a competitive edge in pricing and performance. With years of experience developing client-server and web-enabled software systems, SmartBOL provides a core of expertise you can rely on. SmartBOL services are on demand, on time and on budget. Visit SmartBOL Online.