Ward Trucking

"We have lowered the number of miles driven per stop and our ROI has been tremendous. Cheetah saves us over $1,500,000 a year in fuel and labor." - VP of Asset Management, Ward Trucking.

Industry: LTL

The Situation: Ward’s old manual dispatching system was inefficient. It required clerical data entry and continual voice instructions for drivers over two-way radio. Dispatchers had to call drivers to ask if they had made their deliveries and if not when they would arrive. There was zero visibility into the fleet. Drivers were delayed up to an hour each day before they received their pickup assignments and clerks spent hours at the end of each day entering data into the system.

The Cheetah Solution: Following a detailed study of the LTL software market, Ward chose the Cheetah Freight™ system for P&D automation and route optimization running over Nextel® GPS, Java-enabled phones.

The Results: Clerical data entry has been reduced by several hours a day at each of 20 facilities. Dispatchers can now accurately track the location of every truck in the Ward Trucking fleet. Drivers no longer have to wait for pickup assignments. Phone and radio traffic between the dispatcher and drivers has been virtually eliminated. The number of miles driven per stop has been greatly reduced. Real-time ETAs are available to customers for the first time. Payback achieved within six months.

Customer Comments

“We have lowered the number of miles driven per stop and are on target to achieve ROI within six months. Without a doubt, the Cheetah software has improved the efficiency of our P&D operations while at the same time improved the timeliness of data on shipments.”

“Cheetah has enabled us to eliminate an hour or two of data entry at the end of each day, and eliminate up to an hour each day of drivers waiting for pickup assignments. We have virtually eliminated phone and radio traffic between the dispatcher and drivers.”

— VP of Asset Management, Ward Trucking.