Industry: Distribution & Delivery

The Situation: UP Special Delivery of Kingsford, Michigan, utilized inefficient manual tracking techniques to plan and oversee operations. Radio transmissions and phone calls were heavily utilized by managers, dispatchers and drivers to ensure delivery, and inefficiencies were eating into profits. At the same time, however, the company lacked the resources to purchase and implement an expensive logistics system.

The Cheetah Solution: UP Special Delivery adopted the Cheetah Freight™ logistics optimization and dispatch application utilizing an inexpensive Application Service Provider (ASP) model. Instead of paying high upfront costs for hardware and software, the company pays a low monthly fee per truck.

The Results:  With very little start up costs, the Cheetah Software System has enabled UP Special Delivery to increase efficiency while greatly improving customer service.  Guesswork has been removed from dispatch and customer service operations. Customer Service Reps can now confidently tell customers exactly where a package is and when it will arrive. As a result, UP Special Delivery can now compete with national and large regional carriers while maintaining high margins.

“The Cheetah system makes it possible for us to know exactly what our drivers have accomplished any point in time and it enables us to communicate with them in the most efficient manner. 

“Rule of thumb: determine how long it takes to get paid back on cost – and you usually try to make your decisions based on the shortest time frame. Cheetah’s ROI puts the Cheetah System at the top of the list.”

— Tom Griggs, Vice President of UP Special Delivery

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UP Special Delivery Discovers Easy ROI with Cheetah’s Real-Time Logistics System

Established in 1975, UP Special Delivery Inc. of Kingsford, Michigan, currently has 120 trucks and 264 employees. It provides many specialized services including dedicated delivery, LTL, logistics, exclusive use, expedited, truckload, air freight, consolidation, warehousing and distribution. Some of UP Special Delivery’s largest customers include JC Penney, and Briggs & Stratton.

With over 25,000 travel miles per month, their primary focus is overnight delivery to locations in their regional market. This includes points in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Ontario, Canada. UP Special Delivery also offers their customers the ability to move shipments to the U.S. and Canada through their customized routing center.

Using manual processes, however, it proved difficult to answer customer queries and provide accurate ETA’s. The company was also forced to hire more dispatchers to maintain efficiency, which lowered profit margins.

But UP Special Delivery did not want to have to invest in expensive hardware and software. Instead, it adopted Cheetah Freight’s Application Service Provider (ASP) service to increase fleet communications, improve its ability to respond rapidly to customer requests and level the playing field amongst major competitors.

“With very little start up costs, the Cheetah Software system allows us to increase internal efficiency while improving our customer service, because of the system’s unique features,” said Tom Griggs, Vice President of UP Special Delivery.

UP Special Delivery rents the Cheetah Freight system on an ASP (Application Service Provider) basis for a low monthly fee per truck. An ASP offers access to applications and related services via the Internet. ASP services make sense for small companies, those with a reduced technology budget, or those who wish to outsource technology services.

“The Cheetah system made it possible for us to know exactly what our drivers have accomplished any point in time and it enables us to communicate with them in the most efficient manner,” said Griggs.

When a customer calls UP Special Delivery, for example, to find out when a delivery will occur, the Cheetah system makes it possible for Customer Service Reps (CSR’s) to tell them quickly and accurately.

“I can even let the customer know WHERE the driver is at that exact moment and how many blocks away he is,” said Griggs. “That's what customers want to know.”

Along with superior technology, the Cheetah ASP model offers the easiest way for small and mid-sized fleets to adopt automated real-time logistics in their company — and it is done in a way that any company can afford.

UP Special Delivery’s Griggs, for instance, has a background in accounting. He was a Chief Financial officer for a number of years and before that a financial comptroller. His company has realized significant financial gains from the adoption of Cheetah.

“Rule of thumb: determine how long it takes to get paid back on cost – and you usually try to make your decisions based on the shortest time frame,” said Griggs. “Cheetah’s ROI puts the Cheetah System at the top of the list.”

As UP Special Delivery is not a large company, it needed an inexpensive means of implementing a sophisticated real-time logistics system. In order to compete with large regional and national carriers, UP Special Delivery needed to reduce costs while sharply increasing efficiency. And that's exactly what occurred.  

“With the Cheetah system’s affordability, we are now able to compete with the big boys,” said Griggs.