How SMT easily onboards new planners and dispatchers

“Our P&D pre-planning became more efficient, resulting in a measurable improvement in our operating ratio. We realized that if we added real-time capabilities found in the dispatching and driver apps, that we could obtain a fully connected P&D ecosystem for even greater results.”

Robert Bernal SMT VP of IT

Background and challenge: 

Southwestern Motor Transport (SMT) started operations in 1930 with a single truck in Southern Texas. Since, the company has grown to serve their customers not only across the US, but also into Mexico and Canada with a fleet of 425 tractors and 950 trailers.

As SMT has scaled their operation, planning became more complex and required specialized knowledge for each city to craft routes and dispatch drivers. This led to long onboarding times for new planners and dispatchers and inefficient routes. When a team member retired, called in sick, or was unavailable for any reason, other personnel with city knowledge would step in to get the company by, creating further inefficiency.

Solution: 

In the modern era of work, employees expect intelligent easy-to-use systems. It’s a requirement not only for attracting and retaining talent, but also for competing operationally. As workers require more flexibility there also becomes a need to dispatch trucks from home and do it efficiently. 

Cloud-based systems like RouteMax can facilitate work from anywhere. Plus, it creates a standardized process and workflow that systemizes tribal knowledge with built in validations, suggestions, and decision support tools. For example, when an SMT planner from their San Antonio terminal is out on vacation, a colleague from another terminal could help fill in for them without the need for local knowledge.

Results: 

By centralizing information like operating hours, customer needs, driver preferences, and more, SMT was able to quickly onboard new planners and dispatchers. This information was stored in easily accessible and intuitive workflows built by Optym with leading LTL carriers. 

After implementing RouteMax, SMT were able to onboard planners and dispatchers quickly to run operations anywhere, whether they were a new team member or filling in for a coworker. Plus, these decision support systems ensure planners are considering more variables to minimize missed pickups and wasted miles, improving customer service and lowering operational costs. 

See for yourself