Rand McNally announced that Red Classic Services, a full-service transportation company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., has implemented its TND 760 mobile fleet management system. The TND 760 devices replace a previous system that handled electronic logging and mileage recording for International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) processing.
Red Classic considered more than ten different platforms during a one-year period. Rand McNally’s TND 760 was selected due to its robust functionality and software that was intuitive for drivers, operations and customer service staff to use, the company said.
“The heart of Red Classic is a pledge to our customers of a consistent long-term relationship filled with outstanding, reliable service,” stated Ron Drogan, President of Red Classic. “Rand McNally’s solution will enable us to continue to deliver on that commitment.”
During evaluation, Red Classic wanted to ensure that the new system would be able to process customer shipments quickly, correctly, and automatically. Red Classic focused on access to real-time information to provide customers estimated arrival time of shipments and the ability to intervene if delays occur. When a truck enters or exits a pickup or delivery location, the information needs to be transferred without driver intervention to the company’s transportation management software, TMWSuite from TMW Systems Inc., to be used by dispatch, billing and customer service areas.
“We analyzed all orders processed over a one-year period and found that 80 percent were handled automatically. While that sounds fairly positive, processing any transactions manually is time-consuming and sometimes inaccurate, causing additional work,” explained Jason Meares, transportation systems manager. “Our expectation with the TND 760 is a substantial increase in our automatic processing rate, allowing for information on those orders to be immediately available to our customers.”
“We also look forward to capturing data that will provide insight into a vehicle’s progress and performance in addition to hours of service and mileage reporting,” Meares added.
The Connect integration from Rand McNally provides the ability to import thousands of locations from TMWSuite and create geo-fences to automate arrival and departure notification; update the TMWSuite system on a driver’s available hours of service and duty status; send dispatch information to specific drivers rather than specific vehicles; and automatically synchronize messages on the TND 760 and TMWSuite through a single process.
Besides the TMWSuite integration and real-time data, Red Classic executives said other considerations in selecting a new solution were low subscription costs, an easy-to-use device for the drivers, low-cost installation, a proven product, and the ability to export data into reports that can be used by a variety of business areas.
Red Classic also has implemented a new TND 760 feature – the use of secured Wi-Fi. As Red Classic is a 24/7 operation, drivers return at least once per day to one of fifty Red Classic terminals. While trucks are within each terminal’s secured Wi-Fi area, data will be rapidly exchanged at a low cost.
“Many of our vehicles operate across relatively remote locations, where Wi-Fi is not available and cellular service may be spotty,” said Meares. “This feature will enable uninterrupted data transmission, and allow us to avoid data overage charges.”
