Drivewyze Delivers: Cumberland Farms Cuts Costs and Enhances Safety with Innovative Bypass Solution

About Cumberland Farms

Founded in 1938 and once a one-cow dairy, Cumberland Farms now operates a network of about 600 convenience stores and gas stations in about a dozen eastern seaboard states from Maine to Florida. The company operates its own grocery distribution and bakery operations to supply its stores, as well.

In 2019, Cumberland Farms was acquired by EG Group along with several other subsidiary companies; Certified Oil, Fastrac, Loaf N Jug, Minit Mart, Quik Stop, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill, and Turkey Hill Midwest. Their Store Support Center in Westborough, Massachusetts is now the Store Support Center for all these Companies, and is known as EG America.

The mission of Cumberland Farms is to be a leader in the industry by constantly evaluating and adapting their model to meet the needs of their customers. They aim to be a food service destination by providing fresh products on-the-go alongside their traditional convenience offerings.

Challenge

Since 1994, Cumberland Farms has worked with several other onboard computer (OBC) partners who provided transponder-based weigh station bypass and electronic toll collection.

“While these partnerships revealed the company’s issue with weigh station delays, they could not provide enough insight to its extent,” said Wayne Thornhill, Director of Petroleum Transportation Cumberland Farms/ Gulf Oil and Fleet and Safety Compliance Manager for Cumberland Farms. “They also didn’t provide many bypass opportunities, if any,” he added.

They expected that the discrepancy resulted from when drivers didn’t factor in additional time lost when entering and exiting the weigh station areas, when filling in their survey reports. This additional time was due to heavy congestion in and around the weigh stations. Through a process of elimination, Thornhill surmised roadside inspections at weigh stations was likely at fault. He was increasingly frustrated that even after changing fleet management partners twice, he had no clear answer.

Solution

In 2015, Thornhill chose Trimble as the company’s new fleet mobility provider because of the system’s ease of use among drivers. Trimble’s integration with Cumberland’s back office programs as well as Trimble’s customer service helped seal the deal. Shortly after Cumberland Farms became a Trimble customer, Thornhill learned about Drivewyze. Impressed with the system and its ease of use, Thornhill activated Drivewyze PreClear Analytics for his company’s fuel delivery division. Thornhill admitted that he was a bit skeptical given his prior experience with transponder-based weigh station bypass.

“There’s a cost to adding this weigh station bypass service,” he said. “But then I saw the number of hours and the number of inspections Drivewyze could help us avoid. When I took that time savings and plugged in our hourly rate, the potential savings I found that we could get with Drivewyze just blew me away

Result

Thornhill said that Drivewyze has also brought about a greater awareness of the importance of completing vehicle inspections and Hours of Service reports. It has helped drivers focus on reporting maintenance issues and taking greater personal responsibility for the company’s safety rating. The drivers see a direct correlation between the company’s safety rating and how many bypasses they can get through Drivewyze.

“Since bringing Trimble onboard as our fleet management partner and Drivewyze as our weigh station bypass provider, we are much, much more confident knowing that the efficiencies and safety of our operations as a private fleet are better off than they were without Drivewyze weigh station bypass,” Thornhill said.

• Avoided about 60 hours of weigh station delays over one month
• The additional driving time has helped most drivers haul many more loads per day
• Bypasses saved the company over $6,000 in operating costs and increased productivity per month
• What’s more, bypasses saved Cumberland 280 gallons of fuel and over 3 tons of CO2 each month, making a big contribution to sustainability.

Thornhill said that Drivewyze has also brought about a greater awareness of the importance of completing vehicle inspections and HOS reports. It has helped drivers focus on reporting maintenance issues and taking greater personal responsibility for the company’s safety rating. The drivers see a direct correlation between the company’s safety rating and how many bypasses they can get through Drivewyze.

Start bypassing weigh stations and enhancing safety with Drivewyze today!