When Vincent Sardono joined Go Xpressit, every worker was an employee; now, many are instead independent contractors.
The Phoenix-based company provides LTL, courier, last-mile delivery and warehouse services across Arizona and California with 15 company trucks and 20 contractor vehicles and through interline agreements with other carriers. And some of the drivers of those contactor vehicles once worked in the Go Xpressit office or warehouse.
In the three years Sardono has been part of the company, he has helped seven employees become drivers of their own trucks with the help of automation. Go Xpressit implemented the Carrier Logistics Inc. FACTS solution – a freight management software for LTL fleets. The software the company previously used was not designed for LTL.
The initial implementation of the software included core operations modules, followed by accounts payable and general ledger solutions. GoXpressit has since enabled the CLI residential delivery automation system with its automated scheduling and appointment confirmation capabilities and will soon launch the CLI dock management system to streamline its cross-dock operations and eliminate paper-based, manual shipment handling processes.
“We’ve already realized a return on our investment in FACTS by significantly reducing our payroll costs,” said Sardono, co-owner of Go Xpressit. “Since we started using the CLI software we’ve been able to handle a growing volume of freight with fewer front-office and warehouse personnel. There’s even a benefit from that reduction in staff because most of those people are still affiliated with the company. With our help, they were able to buy their own trucks and work for us as independent contractors.”
Similar to 2023 CCJ Innovator Brakebush, which recruits drivers from different departments within the company, instead of altogether losing office and warehouse employees because of automation, Sardono has helped those employees become business owners and continue to work for Go Xpressit as contractors.
He said when he has to let someone go, he offers to help them set up an LLC and guide them through the process of becoming an independent contractor that can then work for him. He said he has only lost one person; the remainder have taken him up on his offer and converted over.
“There have been really good people that were on my staff that I didn't want to lose, but it got to the point when we started automating a lot of this stuff, I didn't really need those people, so I helped them start their own businesses,” Sardono told the CCJ.
After guiding them through the process of opening an LLC, he connects them with a broker that can set them up with a DOT number. He then pairs them up with an accountant and helps them acquire insurance. He has also helped find trucks and provided guidance in attaining loans for trucks.
It isn’t a quick process, he said. Sardono is helping one of his employees right now to fix their credit so they can get a loan – and it has been a six-month process so far.
He is helping them become “free,” he said, adding that the entrepreneurial spirit is what drives them to get behind the wheel of their own truck.
“The employee-model in trucking I don't think really works because I truly believe you need to hustle. If I'm going to do an employee model, I have to super, super follow up with everybody and micromanage them, know where they are and what they're doing. The technology that goes in on that to try to track every minute of their day,” Sardono said. “It just wouldn't be how I want to live my life.”
