COMPANY: G&D Transportation Morton, IL
OPERATION: Regional intermodal and distribution drayage, as well as other specialized trucking services
James Richardson, CIO
Problem:
Founded in 1984, G&D Transportation is a multi-faceted operation that offers intermodal, dedicated, contract distribution, over-the-road, flatbed, just-in-time and other specialized transportation services.
And by working with sister firms, CDO Distribution and SPS Specialized Process Services, G&D offers cross-docking and commodities processing services. G&D's operations are concentrated in the Midwest and Southeast and it fields some 260 power units.
With all that going on, no wonder CIO James Richardson set out to replace an aging enterprise software system.
“The management system we had was internally developed with software written by an outside consulting firm that was too rigid to adapt,” he notes.
Richardson says G&D determined it needed a software package that was very “global,” in that it could address all the different applications its operations did.
Solution:
Richardson reports G&D found its transportation-management solution in the newest release from Maddocks Systems Inc. (www.maddocks.ca), Truckmate for Windows (TM4Win).
However, G&D sought a little tweaking to make the enterprise solution global enough to also provide coverage of the company's intermodal business.
“We liked TM4Win and over the course of things we evolved into partnering with Maddocks to develop the functionality needed for an intermodal carrier,” says Richardson. “They gained access in exchange for development costs.
“While the TM4Win solution is suited for the other trucking businesses we are engaged in,” he continues, “the intermodal part is what really drives us and that had to be addressed. Very few trucking management systems do intermodal well in a Windows environment. Now this one will.”
According to Maddocks, TM4Win is an enterprise-wide client server product designed to offer fleet managers the flexibility needed to run “their company their way.”
Key features of TM4Win include single-point billing entry, point-and-click dispatching, mobile communications and a flexible package of management reports.
Richardson notes that while TM4Win's global reach was a big selling point, G&D has opted to stick with its existing accounting and fixed-asset tracking programs because they work well with the multiple-company operation that is G&D and its sister firms.
He says he will also eventually integrate TM4Win with the fleet's Pegasus document-imaging system.
G&D began implementing the new system back in November and Richardson expects the whole shebang to go live in April.
“Right now,” he advises, “we are running the two systems side by side as we ease into the migration. We are currently finishing implementation of the maintenance shop management functions.”
