“In our mind, making the driver experience as easy as possible is absolutely strategic. We need to provide the best experience for the driver so that our growth is sustainable into the future.”
Peter Covach
IT Director
Paper Transport, Inc., a carrier based out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, got its start by hauling corrugated cardboard and other products for a major paper producer in the state of Wisconsin. Its shipments went to warehouses and distribution centers throughout the Midwest and Southeastern United States. Since its founding in 1990, this regional over-the-road truckload carrier has expanded its operation to include hauling building materials and furniture, as well as products for a major beverage company. The company operates more than 795 tractors and 2,400 trailers.
Paper Transport takes pride in its philosophy of putting both its customers and drivers first through consistent on-time deliveries, while giving its drivers the best tools to do their job. To provide customers with quality service, the company is always on the lookout for the latest technology to enhance its operation. These tools also allow its drivers to do their job more efficiently.
“We were well ahead of other carriers in adopting ELDs, collision avoidance systems, and other technologies to improve our operation,” said Peter Covach, Director of IT at Paper Transport. “It’s important for us to be ahead of the curve — to create a working environment that makes life on the road easier for our drivers, added Covach.”
Investing in Innovation
“We’re always looking for ways to improve safety out on the road. The motoring public demands it and we, as a carrier, want to improve our safety. Honestly, drivers want to be safer as well. They have families too and need to get home at the end of the day,” said Covach.
One recent area the company decided to focus on was simplifying the technology used inside the cab to boost driver experience. Paper Transport had been using a transponder-based weigh station bypass system, but felt it was becoming an outdated technology.
“It’s important for us to be ahead of the curve — to create a working environment that makes life on the road easier for our drivers.”
Peter Covach
IT Director
“As a company that continues to grow, it’s important to have products and services that you know can grow with you,” continued Covach. “At the end of the day our philosophy is, ‘the carrier that treats its drivers the best is the carrier that’s going to win’. In our mind, making the driver experience as easy as possible is absolutely strategic. We need to provide the best experience for the driver so that our growth is sustainable into the future.”
Challenge
“The biggest friction that we had with the transponder was the continual maintenance,” explained Covach. “It took a lot of effort to install physical hardware into the truck and, subsequently, not knowing if the driver was going to use it.”
Finding a weigh station bypass service provider that offered a seamless “no touch” integration was what Paper Transport was after. “We wanted a service that could combine our existing technology services and be used on one device,” said Covach. “We found Drivewyze.”
“On the surface, it looked like the Drivewyze platform would be able to combine the services we wanted on our ELDs,” said Covach. “We were pleased to find out that, not only did Drivewyze offer weigh station bypass, it also provided other services [such as analytics] and worked with technologies like Omnitracs.”
“We wanted a service that could combine our existing technology services and be used on one device. We found Drivewyze.”
Peter Covach
IT Director
Solution
According to Covach, “The best part about Drivewyze is the fact that you’re not bolting on additional new functionality — it integrates into the assets that you’ve already invested in. It’s not another device, it’s not another platform that you have to manage. It seamlessly integrated into our ELDs”.
“You can see what happened just in the last year with the FMCSA wanting to have more integration directly within the truck,” Covach continued. “I don’t think that’s going to be an oddity moving forward. I think our regulators are going to continue wanting safer highways. Having Drivewyze PreClear on one monitor for the driver reduces the amount of distractions that the carrier is introducing. Therefore, by us reducing the amount of distractions, our drivers’ world has improved.”
“That’s a powerful experience to be able to light up 700 trucks overnight and have bypasses available. We couldn’t do that with our previous provider. Our ability to quickly enable functionality allowed us to provide this technology extremely fast.”
Peter Covach
IT Director
“Today, gone are the transponders and back-end simplicity has surfaced. This frees up much needed time for Paper Transport office staff. Overnight we could enable the functionality of Drivewyze and have it available to our drivers,” said Covach. “That’s a powerful experience to be able to light up 700 trucks overnight and have bypasses available. We couldn’t do that with our previous provider. Our ability to quickly enable functionality allowed us to provide this technology extremely fast,” added Covach.
The Coverage
“While that’s the “macro” view, the “micro” view tells a story as well. “We have one driver that has a line-haul going to the same place each day,” said Covach. “On that route there are four weigh stations of which he is able to bypass because of Drivewyze PreClear. For our busier drivers, they’ll average at about three weigh station bypasses per day.”
In Florida, the results with Drivewyze are even more stellar. “With all the weigh stations and Agriculture inspection sites in Florida (Drivewyze users bypass 36 Ag sites at a 95 percent rate), our drivers could be pulled in five or six times a day,” said Covach. “Our bypasses are through the roof and our drivers say they can’t live without Drivewyze,” stated Covach.
Moreover, analytics obtained through Drivewyze has shown the service coverage is more than double from what it could achieve through its previous provider. This has allowed significantly more bypass opportunities for Paper Transport.
Result
With Drivewyze, Paper Transport has simplified its operating devices in its trucks. Drivewyze has proved itself as “must-have” for its drivers. “If for some reason a driver is not activated with Drivewyze PreClear, we hear about it,” said Covach. “Drivers are asking for it.”
While Drivewyze has been a big win for drivers at Paper Transport, the result it’s seeing with bypasses is just as impressive. With Drivewyze, Paper Transport’s 526 trucks enrolled with the service are able to bypass inspection sites at a high rate. On average, time savings of more than 1,000 hours per month for the fleet, and thousands of gallons of fuel saved by not slowing and idling at weigh stations.
Covach added, “If I know of a carrier that had any sort of technology in their trucks and they haven’t implemented Drivewyze as their bypass provider, my first question is, ‘why haven’t you?’”
“I don’t know how any other bypass provider can keep up,” concluded Covach. “How can you compete with an app versus physical installation? You can’t. The fact that Drivewyze has the functionality to be enabled through software, as new [bypass] sites become available, is the future.”
Paper Transport, Inc. chose Drivewyze for weigh station bypass because it was the best solution for their rapidly growing fleet, and so easy to implement. How could Drivewyze power your fleet?
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