Create a free Commercial Carrier Journal account to continue reading

What processes do you outsource and why?

user-gravatar Headshot

“We have someone else align the suspensions of our trucks and trailers because we don’t have the equipment. All of our top repairs we have someone else do, but all our general maintenance is done here.”
Sharon Tucker, dispatcher
Jimmy Tucker Trucking, Broken Bow, Ark.

“We outsource some of our printing work. We have forms printed instead of using our copy machine. A print shop in town prints our manifests, worksheets, logbooks and other internal paperwork. We have six different forms. We also don’t have an auto body shop anymore. In fact, a lot of our shop work we don’t do ourselves anymore. We don’t overhaul or replace motors or do service runs anymore. We used to make them but now we have a network that we call when we have a break down. As far as truck-related outsourcing, that’s about it. We also outsource our cleaning service. We used to have a maid come in on the weekends, but now we use a cleaning service.”
Bill Hayden, president
M&M Cartage, Louisville, Ken.

“We outsource maintenance and tires. We don’t do any in house.”
Corky Schrenk, manager
Thomas & Sons, Coos Bay, Ore.

“As far as outsourcing, we do not have our own maintenance shop for any of our major repairs. We do not even do our own oil changes or any other maintenance. It really seems from our standpoint that it is more efficient that way. We have a shop that we deal with next to two of our facilities, one in Casper and one in Cheyenne. They are right next to where we park our trucks, wonderful service and reasonable prices. They take care of our equipment and eliminate the expenses of buying and losing tools, hiring mechanics and all other associated costs and headaches. We do our fuel taxes in house. We do have an IT person that we outsource – our computer guru. He builds our computers and is mostly a hardware person, but he does software as well.”
Terry Thomas, transportation manager
Quality Petroleum, Casper, Wy.

“We’re outsourcing our payroll to a service provider. The combined payroll expense is less through them than it would be on our own, mostly because of the workers’ comp rate.”
Darrell Wilson, president
Wil-Trans, Strafford, Mo.

“We send out transmissions and rear ends to be repaired, but we also do some major repairs ourselves. It just depends on how busy we are. Maintenance is the only thing we outsource on a limited basis. We don’t outsource our receivables or anything like that.”
Gene Jenkins, general manager
Terrain Tamers Chip Hauling, Dillard, Ore.

“We’re in a pretty rural area in Montana, so we outsource very little except for major repairs when they are not under warranty. We actually do all of our own payroll, general maintenance, dispatch and computer support. We outsource very little simply because we’re in such a rural area and would have to drive a considerable distance to get our maintenance done.”
Mike Molitor, vice president
M.S. Molitor Trucking Inc., Boulder, Mont.