Delivering Productivity
By Diana Britton, Managing Editor
Pak West Paper & Packaging, Santa Ana, Calif., used to have a major problem with the amount of overtime hours its delivery fleet drivers were racking up. Among its 14 to 15 drivers, Pak West was averaging about 100 hours of overtime per week, something that really started hurting the company financially.

"There were weeks where we had 160 hours in overtime," says Gary Smith, operations manager for the company. "We had to reduce driver overtime and ensure that our drivers were not operating outside of their routes so that we could be more efficient when last-minute requests came in."

After the company's chief operating officer kept hammering Smith to get overtime down, he decided to install Networkfleet's GPS-based Automatic Vehicle Location technology and remote diagnostic monitoring capabilities. The solution provided Smith with increased visibility into what drivers were doing as well as the ability to keep drivers accountable. After implementing the tool, Pak West managed to cut overtime hours in half, averaging under 50 hours a week.

"On average we're saving the company more than $100,000 in overtime each year," Smith says. "This doesn't include savings from lower fuel usage and improved fuel efficiency from being able to monitor drivers' speeds."

Many distributors have found that being able to deliver parts customers need when they need them gives them a competitive advantage. But unless you can run your delivery trucks efficiently, the cost of running them could offset the revenue from that additional business.....

It's Time For Telematics
By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor
'Aftermarket companies will be the primary drivers of many all-new product and service opportunities for both the consumer and commercial-vehicle industries," predicted the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association in a detailed report published late last year.

There has been much talk about telematics on the car side of the automotive business, with GM the highest-profile early adopter with its OnStar product. Yet trucking had the car people beat by 20 years. The early adopters there were trucking companies Schneider National and Roberts Express among the six beta-developers of the Qualcomm OmniTracs system.

This helps answer a question posed early in the AAIA report: Who plays the game better - OEMs (the vehicle manufacturers) or the aftermarket companies?

In the example here, despite GM's branding and the marketing behind OnStar, the customer response to re-up the service after the first free year is disappointing. But trucking has been quite the opposite. The ubiquitous Qualcomm antenna, the keypad and the back-office system were a huge enabler for a host of other applications, not least of which was computerized dispatch.

Getting information into and off a moving vehicle - telematics at its most basic - was a game-changer for trucking, but it has become a commonplace thing today.....

Parts By Number: VMRS Codes
By Deborah Lockridge, Editor, and Jim Beach, Contributing Editor
Back in the late '60s, some people in the trucking business got together and decided to come up with a system that used numbers to describe parts and maintenance activities - a system that could cut through the mistakes made when using the written word to describe parts and maintenance activities. That system, the Vehicle Maintenance Reporting Standard, or VMRS, was unveiled in 1970 by the Technology and Maintenance Council of the American Trucking Associations. About 10 years ago, an updated version perfect for today's computerized systems was unveiled: VMRS 2000. The system is becoming more widely accepted today, and is spreading beyond the fleets it originally was designed for - including to parts and service providers.

The system was designed to provide a "universal translator for communicating from the shop floor to the people in charge of the money," says Jack Poster, VMRS services manager for TMC.....

The Smart Shop: The Latest in Shop Management Software
By Diana Britton, Managing Editor
When Eric Adkins, president of Nationwide Truck Service, goes on vacation to Cancun, Mexico, he'll certainly be at peace sitting on the white beaches, watching the sunset and the waves.

But he'll also have peace of mind knowing that his repair shop back in Louisville, Ky., is still productive, profitable, and operating at optimal levels even though he's in another country. With Pluss Corp.'s PTM shop management software, Adkins can monitor the shop's performance from anywhere, to see who's productive and who's slacking off back home. "I'm the type of guy that needs to see everything," Adkins says. "It gives me a lot more control and oversight."

Shop technicians have not always been known for being technologically savvy people. But software has become more user-friendly, and with a new slew of young talent coming in the door, you can't ignore the fact that technology is more critical than ever to help a shop run more efficiently and improve the bottom line - in the shop as well as in the back office.....

Ordering Parts Online
Most parts distribution and warehouse operations use sophisticated management and inventory control software. Likewise, most truck dealers also make full use of technology and software, often in concert with the OEM. For smaller, independent shops and repair facilities, the level of automation is somewhat less. But even in these smaller venues, technology is being used more often, especially in inventory control.

Smaller shops find that automating parts inventory and ordering makes a "dramatic" difference in shop operations, says Jeffrey Sipio, Intermec Technologies Corp., which offers inventory asset optimization and supply-chain information technologies such as bar coding.....