Software helps logistics company offer improved service
October 8, 2003 – Excerpted and edited
BY SANDRA GUY SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
A freight-logistics company in Lake Zurich is using Web-based technology to improve communications and customer service.
Newly installed Express Technologies software at New Age Transportation, Distribution and Warehousing Inc. enables the company's biggest customer, a cable TV and telecom company, to electronically transfer its purchase orders to New Age. The system is called LoadTech.
"Price of technology is always an issue, but the key is service," said Carolyn Gable, founder, president and CEO of New Age, which manages the transporting, distribution and warehousing of inbound and outbound freight.
New Age keeps close tabs on the electronic purchase orders. Though the cable TV company is the only customer that has set up the software system to transfer its purchase orders, Gable expects other customers to do so within the next year.
Paul Maloney, president of Express Technologies, the company that provided the software, said New Age's investment is unusual because other competing transportation and logistics companies are "notoriously late" in adopting new technology. New Age’s investments gives them a competitive edge.
But deregulation of the trucking industry in the early 1980s forced the freight industry to take a harder look at technology. Motor carriers from that era now must compete with a slew of low-cost competitors while paying higher fuel costs and meeting customers' growing demands for quality service and just-in-time deliveries. Technology is the major way to gain advantage.
Gable, 52, a single mother of seven, has led 15-year-old New Age to a projected $15 million in billings this year. The company employs 42.
She offers customers the most detailed and up-to-date information about their orders, whether they are for widgets or office supplies.
The LoadTech software enables New Age to see critical details written on customers' purchase orders, such as the date a customer wants the supplies delivered. That gives New Age the upper hand against suppliers who may try to rush a sale, which could unnecessarily raise shipping costs for a customer.
As a result of the system, the customer saves money, and New Age enhances its reputation.
Home