Logistics
A Fortune 500 company and premier provider of diversified business process outsourcing and information technology outsourcing solutions to commercial and government clients worldwide developed a transponder-based system that allows truckers to be instantly screened at weigh stations and other checkpoints throughout the United States. A trucker’s onboard transponder communicates with a weigh station or check point’s system, providing the trucker’s safety record and details about the vehicle’s weight and size. Using a green or red light indicator, the trucker is told by the transponder whether to proceed or to stop for further inspection. The system handles more than 90% of the nation’s electronic pre-clearance of commercial vehicles. The company currently has 280 sites in 28 states facilitating approximately 4.7 million bypass transactions each month. By enrolling only the safest carriers, the system enhances highway safety and efficiency, freeing state weigh and inspection operators to concentrate on unsafe vehicles. All customer service and interaction between the company and its customers was being handled by phone and by mail, resulting in a high volume of phone calls and in turn, labor costs. They recognized that by automating some of these processes, it would greatly reduce operating costs and increase efficiency within its own organization, thus providing much better service to its customers.
The company envisioned a solution consisting of a web site that provided potential customers with information about their system, provided the functionality to allow potential customers to apply online for it and allowed existing customers to maintain their accounts online. The solution greatly reduced the call volume in order to support the system, resulting in a reduction of labor costs. Neudesic was called upon to create this web site and its extremely important back-end programming. Neudesic used Microsoft technology to create an interface between the new web site and the company’s CRM platform.
With the implementation of the new web site, they have been able to greatly reduce the labor cost of answering incoming phone calls. In fact, today, 93% of all new customer enrollments are originating from the web automated customer service system. While the system enrollment process once took 7-10 days, 60% of all enrollments now process within 24 hours, and 84% process within 48 hours. The site has also created a much greater efficiency within the company’s Commercial Vehicle Operations, allowing for the System to take on an even greater volume of customers. While the company already serves 90% of the nation’s electronic pre-clearance of commercial vehicles, the volume of vehicles, and thus transponder transactions, is expected to increase dramatically over the coming decades as there are more and more trucks on the road. The site ensures that they are ready to handle the additional volume of customers without any reduction is customer satisfaction.
