Shane Faulkner, project engineer for Shaw Transport, designed a tool for fleet managers to evaluate the efficiency of all drivers, customers and routes on a daily basis.

Analyze this. Two drivers work out of the same facility. One makes 20 stops, works 9.5 hours and travels 180 miles. Driver number two makes 15 stops, works 9.5 hours and drives the same number of miles. Which is more efficient? Based on the information presented, you probably would choose the first driver. Or consider two other drivers. One drives 150 miles and makes 20 stops, while the other drives 300 miles and makes the same number of stops. Is the second driver really more productive?

The number of stops and total miles traveled aren’t necessarily the best metrics. What’s missing is the quantity and type of products the driver delivered at each stop. After all, a trucking operation – especially a private fleet – is really in the business of delivering goods.

Until about five years ago, Dalton, Ga.-based Shaw Transport – a private fleet serving Shaw Industries, the world’s largest carpet and flooring manufacturer – lacked the tools to do that analysis. With a fleet today totaling about 900 trucks, Shaw Transport was and is organized into three principal operations – interplant, line haul and regional. The need for better efficiency analysis especially was apparent in the large regional operation, where routes and product deliveries changed each day.

So in 1999, Shaw Transport began to standardize performance measurements with a driver/route analysis report that compared drivers, routes, loads and many other key variables in a spreadsheet application, says Bill Forthman, manager of special projects for Shaw’s regional operations. Each day, drivers reported through paper forms and voice mail the number of hours worked, miles traveled, square yards and pounds delivered and the number of stops. Drivers also logged start and stop times, which was helpful in route analysis.

Administrative clerks at each of Shaw’s 31 regional distribution centers entered the data, which was reported in Lotus spreadsheets.

The driver/route analysis report represented a significant improvement for Shaw Transport and its parent company. Managers now could drill down to a measurement appropriate to corporate objectives – cost per pound – as Shaw Industries expanded its flooring products to include tile and hardwood flooring. Now, Shaw Transport had a key performance indicator that could be used for all types of products, drivers and routes, regardless of the number of stops or miles, Forthman says.