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Background
Collins Trucking, a family-owned carrier with a rich legacy dating back to 1962, operates a fleet of around 100 trucks. They specialize in the transportation of paper and lumber products using dry vans and flatbeds, transporting goods throughout the Southeast and Midwest utilizing the best people, late model equipment, and reliable service. During a recent visit to their facilities, we had the privilege of meeting Dylan and Dakota Collins, the fourth generation of the Collins family to lead the business. With a history of public service—both their father and grandfather having served as U.S. Congressmen—the Collins family has deep roots in their community.
Under the leadership of Dylan and Dakota, Collins Trucking has embarked on a mission to modernize their operations including purchasing the latest equipment to serve customers better and retain safe drivers.Their focus has been on leveraging the latest technology to streamline processes, enhance driver experience, and improve retention.
Challenges
As Dylan and Dakota took on the day-to-day management of the company, they identified a significant challenge: optimizing fuel expenditure. Fuel is one of the largest, yet highly controllable, costs in the company’s expense structure. However, a review of their drivers’ fueling habits revealed inefficiencies. A sample audit conducted by Dakota showed that only about 20% of their drivers were making optimal fueling decisions along their routes, while the remaining 80% were missing opportunities to reduce costs.
The Collins brothers identified three primary challenges:
- Fuel Efficiency: Maximizing fuel efficiency is crucial to improving profitability. The audit revealed that drivers were often fueling at non-optimal stations, resulting in higher costs.
- Convenient, Standardized Communication: Drivers expressed a preference for receiving fueling directions in a consistent and convenient manner, ensuring they can easily access the information they need without distraction.
- In-Network Fueling Compliance: Drivers fueling at out-of-network stations were incurring additional costs of 20 to 30 cents per gallon. Even when drivers fueled in-network, they sometimes failed to select the most cost-effective stations, leading to an overpayment of approximately 3 cents per gallon.
Given the substantial impact of fuel costs on their overall expenses, Dylan and Dakota sought a solution that would provide intelligent, route-specific fueling recommendations to their drivers, allowing drivers to focus on timely deliveries while minimizing fuel costs.
Results
After implementing our solution, Boon ran an audit in tandem with Collins to understand how drivers were using Boon’s fuel recommendations, and what savings could be generated. We found the following:
- Significant Cost Savings: Boon identified $8,340 of savings per month to be realized via Boon’s optimized fuel recommendations.
- Improved fuel station selections: In the immediate months after implementation, Collins observed improved fuel station selection by their drivers. Previously, the team estimated that only 20% of their drivers fueled at the optimal fuel station. After implementation, Collins discovered that 34% of its drivers were now fueling at the optimal fuel station.
- Streamlined review process: The management team spends less time auditing fueling decisions manually, as the system automatically directs drivers to the lowest-cost stations along their routes.
- Driver Satisfaction: Drivers receive standardized fueling notifications via text message at the start of each day, directly to their tablets. This consistent communication has been well-received, enabling drivers to make informed decisions with minimal disruption to their routines. Additionally, owner-operators working with Collins benefit from fuel recommendations allowing them to take home more of the profits they receive from their load assignments, thus increasing driver retention.
Conclusion
By incorporating Boon’s Fuel Recommendations, Collins Trucking was able to address a controllable expense item, and subsequently audit their drivers’ utilization. Boon’s Fuel Recommendations allow Collins owner-operators to route themselves to lowest-cost fuel stations along their route, allowing them to take home more of their rates, and improve their driver retention.
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