Case Studies – Envase Technologies

Orangedale Transportation – Bearing the Fruit of its Approach to Logistics

The Envase Team — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 16:55:33 +0000

‘There has to be a better way.’

Jason Dembow kept saying this to himself as he worked in jobs in the freight brokerage and technology industries, feeling that there had to be a better way to run a logistics business than what he was experiencing.

“I just thought that it was a race to the bottom all the time – seeing who could provide the cheapest price to get the business.”

After eight years, in January 2017, Dembow decided to start his own freight brokerage company, based on the premise that adding value and offering clients unique and innovative solutions was a better way to run a business than just trying to get the next deal.

“As I say – We are never going to be the cheapest, but we are always going to be the best.”

A graduate of Arizona State University, Dembow runs Orangedale Transportation – a boutique third-party logistics company specializing in transportation management and services, located in Scottdale, Arizona.

“Orangedale is actually the original name for Scottsdale.”

As you navigate through Orangedale’s website, a picture of cactus from the Sonoran Desert that surrounds Scottsdale comes up, though Dembow’s relationships with his customers is anything but prickly. Rather, he has focused on building long term sustainable relationships with his customers by keeping his word.

“I want my customers to feel that their shipment is the most important one that we have, even if sometimes we have to extend ourselves or take a bit of a hit to make it happen. I want customers for life, not just one or two transactions.”

Having worked in technology, before he launched his company Dembow knew he needed a TMS to handle multiple key operational and administrative tasks such as generating rate confirmations, invoicing customers, tracking and paying carriers.

“When I decided to open my own shop, I had to get three things done – 1) get my Authority, 2) get insurance, and 3) find a TMS platform to run the business.”

Initially he looked at two transportation management software systems with which he was familiar, and after a quote of $4,000 per month for one of them, he felt that he couldn’t pass on the value offered by the Tailwind TMS.

“You know, at first when I looked at Tailwind, I thought it was simply ‘nice’ that it was a web-based system. But being on it now for 18-months I am finding it to be an essential part of the business.”

“I am on the road a lot, so I can check in on things online no matter where I am. I am looking at adding several employees to my business next year, so it’s nice that I can add good people in places where they happen to be located – it’s not like they have to be local and come into the office.”

Dembow has enjoyed early success achieving a profit in his first year of business.

“We were able to achieve our revenue goals and profit in our first year. Now I am working on margins and improving profitability. I feel that you can always get better.”

When asked as to why he chose Tailwind, Dembow offered,

“The free trial helped. I found it was easy to learn. I attended Jon’s free training sessions, went on the Tailwind YouTube channel to see the all the videos available to me on how to use the system, and I have gotten to know all your support group – I feel that I know everyone on the team, and they know me!”

When asked why he continues to use Tailwind on a month-to-month basis, Dembow again offered,

“It’s always getting better. You not only listen, but solicit my feedback, and I find that within a couple of months the features that I wanted or was hoping for appear in the application as you continue to build it. It’s now to the point where, if I was having to choose between the fully featured $4,000 per month solution and Tailwind, even aside from the price differential, I would have no hesitation in choosing Tailwind.”

Wanting to offer more value to his customers, Dembow suggests some new or enhanced features – alerts when a Carrier’s insurance expires, to arrival alerts from the Carrier Portal to their customers.

Orangedale continues to grow and improve its revenues and profitability with Tailwind’s transportation management software system.

With Dembow at the helm, Orangedale Transport is building great relationships with customers, while squeezing more juice from the operations of his business – perhaps a glass half full now, but soon to be overflowing.

Yard Space on Demand – ITS ConGlobal Case Study

The Envase Team — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 16:42:47 +0000

Over the past few years, SecūrSpace has grown from a niche marketplace with a handful of locations in Los Angeles to a nationwide network of hundreds of facilities offering on-demand access to yard space.

ITS Conglobal was one of the early contributors to the SecūrSpace marketplace, listing their facility in Los Angeles ahead of the SecūrSpace launch in August 2018, eventually expanding to Chicago, Oakland, and beyond.The SecūrSpace partnership with ITS Conglobal is a great example of what is possible when combining latent industrial real estate with an innovative platform capable of facilitating and tracking an unlimited number of parking customers and transactions.

The Problem

ITS Conglobal offers a range of intermodal, depot, auto, drayage, and maintenance & repair services. Since intermodal hubs are typically located in major metropolitan areas, the real estate required to offer these services can be costly. Maximizing the use of the space to drive ROI is among the company’s highest priorities.

While most of the space is committed to ITS Conglobal’s core business, their yards are often not fully utilized. They need the ability to flex for seasonal purposes while accounting for the growth of the business. Optimization would require opportunities to generate revenue on a short-term basis while not over-committing and hindering core operations.

One possible solution is working with subletters that use the additional space to park and store shipping containers. Not only does ITS Conglobal have the necessary real estate, but also provides a depot service, meaning an operation is already in place to accommodate in-gating and out-gating equipment. Prior to the partnership with SecūrSpace, ITS Conglobal would use this option opportunistically with larger, long-term customers. The benefit was not only the additional revenue but the simplicity of working with a single customer, making tracking equipment and collecting payment easier. The downside is that longer-term deals can significantly reduce flexibility in the yard, a major deterrent.

Most drayage trucking companies are small and medium sized businesses (SMB’s) that are priced out of real estate near major ports. In an ideal world, ITS Conglobal could work with these SMB’s to give them access to space that would help them run their businesses more efficiently while generating higher margins on a per space basis relative to larger block deals. Small, short-term commitments also ensure ITS Conglobal maintains control over their real estate and increases the likelihood of reaching maximum utilization.

The challenge with extending this service to smaller trucking companies is that managing so many transactions is a logistical nightmare. The specifics for each transaction – the company, number of spaces, reservation dates and more – would need to be collected. Contracts would need to be in place, invoices sent, and payments tracked. Usage also has to be recorded, as overuse of the reserved space is common. Customer support would need to be available to address any issues that arise. All of this must be in place to handle dozens if not hundreds of customers that are booking for only a few days or months at a time.

As a result, it simply was not possible for ITS Conglobal to take advantage of this opportunity without scaling their operation considerably.

The Solution

Understanding that the market for moving freight is incredibly fragmented, SecūrSpace built a solution that would maximize the use of a facility like ITS Conglobal’s, addressing the complex nature of providing on-demand access to yard space to so many customers. SecūrSpace aggregates the administrative, legal, and financial aspects of parking and storage into a single platform, allowing customers to book the space they need when they need it. By streamlining these business processes, SecūrSpace partners only need to handle the on-the-ground operation, which for ITS Conglobal was already in place thanks to their depot service.

Here’s how the SecūrSpace platform simplifies the transactional nature of parking and storing freight equipment:

Bookings – Similar to booking a hotel room, customers can search online for locations in the area where they need space and book ahead of time. ITS Conglobal receives a notification and can choose to accept or decline the reservation based on yard availability. These bookings simplify tracking a large number of customers by providing information on the company, how much space they need, what type of equipment they are storing, and how long they plan to use the space.
Payments – Customers pay up front when booking space through ACH or credit card, so there’s no need to invoice or worry about payment collection. Monthly customers on a recurring booking are automatically charged on the first of the month until their booking is canceled.
Legal/Liability – Each company offering space in the SecūrSpace marketplace may have different requirements for yard use. Before listing in the marketplace, partners upload a Reservation Agreement to their profile that customers must agree to prior to booking the space. Any liability policies are included in this agreement. SecūrSpace provides a template that partners like ITS Conglobal can choose to use as-is, amend as needed, or simply use as inspiration for their own Reservation Agreement.
Gate Management – To improve operations, SecūrSpace provides a Gate Management System (GMS) that allows partners to check equipment in at the gate under a customer’s booking. In this case, ITS Conglobal’s guards have tablets at the gate logged in to SecūrSpace. When a driver arrives, the guards find the company’s booking, ensure they have a reservation and record the container number, trailer number, license plate, etc. Customers can log in to their account and see current inventory and interchanges, which means less work for ITS Conglobal to provide this information. Overages are also tracked through the GMS and automatically charged to ensure all revenue is collected.
Customer Support – Handling a large number of transactions across hundreds of customers requires support. The SecūrSpace team, available 24/7 by phone or email, is the point of contact for all issues related to marketplace customers, easing the burden on ITS Conglobal staff. When ITS Conglobal needs to relay operational information to a customer or group of customers, the SecūrSpace team is always ready to assist.

When ITS Conglobal first listed in 2018, wheeled storage at their facilities was nearly non-existent. In the first five months as an active partner in the SecūrSpace marketplace, ITS Conglobal earned over $600,000 in revenue. Since joining the marketplace, over 7,300 Bookings have been placed at ITS Conglobal facilities generating total revenue of over $26Million. Since the operation was already in place to accommodate this new business, additional operational costs have been minimal, meaning marketplace revenue has had a material impact on ITS Conglobal’s profitability.

How You Can Benefit

The SecūrSpace marketplace can be an excellent option for anyone that has extra capacity in their yard. How much you can earn as a SecūrSpace partner is dependent on several factors – where you are located, the pricing in your area, how much space you have available, and if your facility is secure with 24/7 access. If you are responsible for operating or managing a yard located near a major seaport or rail hub, the SecūrSpace-ITS Conglobal story is particularly relevant. Markets like Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, New York City, and Miami are demand-heavy, meaning it’s
possible to realize the financial benefits of listing almost immediately. As this example has shown, the potential upside to partnering with SecūrSpace is substantial and the risk is limited – listing is free and our request-based system ensures you maintain control of your real estate.

Pacella Delivers With New Automated Rate Platform

The Envase Team — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 17:08:57 +0000

“When I saw how DrayMaster worked, I thought it was a great idea. We could have all of our rates in one spot and everyone on our team could have access to them."

Tony Pacella

Chicago-based Pacella Trucking has been in the intermodal drayage trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a fleet of over 200 trucks dedicated to the Chicagoland area and surrounding states, as well as experienced office personnel, the company has built trust and confidence as a long-term intermodal partner. Its excellent record of on-time service and making rail cut-offs has built a reputation of offering the best quality intermodal trucking services in the region.

Challenge

Pacella Trucking tracked all of its rates on paper, which was inefficient to manage and prone to human error. “We had tons of paper with all of the rates on it,” said Tony Pacella, CEO of Pacella Trucking. “If we wanted to make a change, we had to print out all of the paper again, so it wasn’t easy to manage.” An industry colleague recommended that Pacella look into DrayMaster, an automated rate management platform that could transform and improve the company’s rate quote process.

Solution

The DrayMaster rate management platform is unlike anything else on the market. It gives truckers, brokers, 3PLs, and freight forwarders a single source for managing rate complexities of intermodal drayage moves. With up-to-the-minute quotes that include current fuel and accessorial charges, DrayMaster customers have an instant snapshot of their network. Trucking partners can respond faster to potential customers and offer detailed rates in a trusted and secure environment. “When I saw how DrayMaster worked, I thought it was a great idea,” recalled Pacella. “We could have all of our rates in one spot and everyone on our team could have access to them. It would be really easy to change rates and everyone would have updated, accurate information.”

Results

From start to finish, the rate quote process has become faster, easier and more accurate for Pacella Trucking. They now build rates faster, more accurately and deliver better customer service by leveraging DrayMaster’s single source platform for managing the complexities of their intermodal drayage moves.

Best of all Pacella Trucking can:

Build rates for thousands of destinations in seconds
Deliver more accurate rate quotes
Get rates to customers faster

One source for all rates

With DrayMaster, Pacella’s team doesn’t need to spend time calculating point-to-point mileage. “DrayMaster has all of the destinations, so everything thing is just right there and so easy,” he said.

The DrayMaster Bid Tool

DrayMaster’s Bid Tool enables trucking customers to quickly build rates for multiple-destination RFPs, saving them an enormous amount of time and ensuring better accuracy for the quote. Pacella explained, “If I get a bid and there’s a 1,000 destinations, I don’t need to look up all 1,000 anymore. DrayMaster can match them up with my rates in seconds. Before DrayMaster, I had to do all those rates individually on the computer, and that was not fun.”

Managing changing toll charges

“Tolls used to be a big challenge because they kept changing around here,” explained Pacella. “With DrayMaster, we can pull out what the current toll costs are. That’s a great feature because it helps us quote our customers more accurately.”

Mobility

Pacella and his team leverage the mobility of DrayMaster, using it on desktop computers or on mobile devices outside of the office. No matter where a DrayMaster user is, he or she can pull a rate and send it. As a result, Pacella Trucking’s customers get a seamless service that puts accurate rates in their hands, fast.

From implementation to support, the DrayMaster team has been in a lock-step partnership with Pacella Trucking. “Everyone is helpful and very responsive,” said Pacella. “If there’s ever a problem, the DrayMaster team is easy to get a hold of and they have been great to work with.”

F2F Logistics – Driven by A Sense of Mission

The Envase Team — Sun, 10 Apr 2022 17:32:00 +0000

“Sometimes we look at each other and say, ‘Don’t overthink it, we just have to get it done’ – and then rely on our ability to adjust and adapt to whatever comes at us.”

– Caleb Donehoo, F2F Logistics

Those words spoken by Caleb Donehoo of F2F Logistics captures the essence of the business model of this Tomball, Texas based logistics business, located in southeast Texas, near Houston and the Gulf of Mexico.

Partners Carl Kiser and Caleb Donehoo joined up with Matt Jones and Daniel Peterson to launch a logistics business, leveraging their backgrounds in the US Marine Corps and project management with one of the top 5 Fortune 500 companies – creating a business that delivers tailored logistics solutions for local, domestic, and international shippers in the Energy, Industrial, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Aerospace and Automotive industries.

“We understand, and appreciate, what it means to perform in demanding situations, the importance of communication, and of trusted relationships. We felt that all of these elements in combination would play a role in our logistics business,” said Kiser.

Driven by a sense of mission, the will and resourcefulness necessary to accomplish a goal, the partners have an innate understanding of the requirement to act and initiate, stemming from their training on the ‘70% solution’ operating principle of the US Marine Corps.

F2F is 'First to Fight' taking action with foresight

The 70% solution speaks to the need of soldiers in the field to take action, since waiting for the remaining 30% of information and resources, could mean the difference between life and death. The principle lends itself well to the business world, and especially to the logistics industry, where things are constantly in motion, and the competition can be fierce.

“No movement is worse than making a move and encountering obstacles,” said Donehoo. “We know that access to information combined with good communication can overcome the barriers that inevitably arise in logistics.”

F2F is an acronym for ‘First to Fight’, another principle of the Marine Corps. And while F2F embraces this the courage and ‘can do’ spirit of the Marine Corps, it is particular about where it chooses to apply their time and resources. Carefully screening and choosing customers that it feels it can best help, and in the very same way, with carriers to determine which are up to the task.

“We are very customer focused, and we like to build long-term sustainable, mutually beneficial relationships – not only with our shipper/customers, but with our carriers as well. And we try to align the two as much as possible so that they [the shipper and carrier] build a trusting relationship as well, one where they can rely on pick-up and delivery times, where people know each other and the way they will handle a particular type of shipment,” said Kiser.

Choosing Tailwind as their trusted software

When F2F looked at launching a business they understood that importance of teamwork – of marshalling both people and resources towards a goal. So they started looking for a TMS system that was flexible and accessible, offering them the features they needed, and something that didn’t break the bank because they were just starting out.

“Since we had worked with information systems in logistics before, we knew the importance of controlling and managing the information that was coming in, and going out,” said Donehoo. “We were wary of trying to do it with spreadsheets and the challenges of version control.”

“We had worked with a previous logistics software system before, but we found it wasn’t flexible to our needs. We selected Tailwind because it was web-based which helped us because we are a small business and we need access to information, and we needed to be able to communicate with customers, carriers and with one another.” said Kiser.

“We liked the way Tailwind flowed, how it allowed us to interact with our carriers, and the one entry system, where all of our data and information was centralized and connected to the things we needed to do in our Operations and in our Administration.”

“We have been happy with the pace and speed of improvements that have been made to the system in the past seven months that we have used it – especially the Customer Portal. Your team – EG and Mark – have been easy to work with and very responsive.”

F2F shared that they would have liked to have executed a bit smoother transition of data from the old to the new system, but other than that, they have encountered a smooth transition owing to their familiarity with TMS systems, and what they can, and should do, for a logistics business.

Not content to sit idle, interested in finding ways that technology could better help them grow their business, Kiser offered that he would like to see some additional capability in the phone application – “a document reader or scanner would help,” he said.

Equipped with Tailwind TMS and the drive of mission

While F2F Logistics, the business itself, is far from ‘mission accomplished’, they are invigorated by their journey and growing in confidence as to what they can do, and how they can grow in the freight transportation industry in the months and years ahead.

As such they are in the field of battle, moving quickly, and adapting along the way.

They are motivated with a sense of purpose, by values – a genuine commitment to doing the right thing, and doing it the right way.

They are driven, no doubt, by a sense of mission – something built right into their company DNA.

Loop Integrated Solutions – When the Fortune 500 Meets the Indianapolis 500

The Envase Team — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 18:28:00 +0000

For a business to become great, it must run on an engine of continuous Improvement — it must get better each day while operating at top speed to stay ahead of the competition. For Loop Integrated Solutions, an asset-based logistics business located just 30-minutes from the famed Indianapolis 500 — the loop of continuous improvement is at the core of their early business success. It was Fortune 500 meets the Indianapolis 500, and Loop Integrated Solutions has stepped on the pedal without looking back. With over 50 years of combined experience in the Trucking industry, Loop’s five founders have developed a partnership that focuses on delivering excellent customer and carrier service. “The partnership between our trucking company, Renewable Transport Services (RTS) and Loop has been great. We have grown very quickly from a start-up brokerage to now doing about $10 million in annual sales, and doubling our fleet at RTS — going from 15 to 30 trucks since 2017,” shared Mundo Sanchez, CFO of Loop and RTS.

“We wanted to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace by being more open and transparent with our customers and carriers – ‘keeping them in the loop'”

Nate Fry, CEO, Loop Integrated Solutions

Giving customers and carriers access to data and information more quickly is a key part of Loop’s business strategy

“We are strong believers in running an information-based business — in using data to drive better decision making. Aside from cash, we feel that data is next in line to king, as it gives us strategic insight into our business and helps us identify areas we want to pursue, to continuously improve,” said Sanchez.

A laser focus on their relationships with customers and carriers is a key success factor

Loop knew they needed to gain insight from data, as well as share information externally with key stakeholders — so they looked for a TMS system that could marry the operations and administrative sides of their business; a TMS that was flexible enough to fit their model, so that they could run Renewable Transport Services while building out a brokerage. They wanted a TMS that would do all this, be accessible over the web, and not break the bank, as they were a new brokerage and needed to manage cash flow tightly.

Loop choses Tailwind’s SaaS-based transportation management software

“If you had asked me a year ago, I don’t know if I could have recommended Tailwind because we had such profound needs as to how we wanted to use information and operate our business. That said, I can’t emphasize just how responsive Tailwind and its customer service team has been to our needs — addressing both the depth and speed with which we moved — because remember, we were growing very, very fast. Now I can safely say, that we would recommend Tailwind to any small and emerging logistics company,” offered Sanchez.

“Tailwind centralizes all of our information. It has also delivered significant cost savings. We’ve reduced our cost of producing an invoice by over 75%, and feel that we can still reduce it further. We reduced the cost of making a payment by over 50%. The net result — we haven’t needed to add another AP clerk to the team — probably $30K in savings there as well,” added Sanchez.

“I can’t emphasize just how responsive Tailwind and its customer service team has been to our needs… We’ve reduced our cost of producing an invoice by over 75%… We reduced the cost of making a payment by over 50%… We have built out our offering using the Tailwind TMS to the point where carriers are telling us that we are doing things better than some of the biggest players in the industry!”

Mundo Sanchez, CFO, Loop Logistics

Coming from a Fortune 500 company (Eli Lilly), Sanchez brought the insight of a major corporation to a small business, and has applied tracking and measurement to all facets of the operation. He’s applied metrics to the cost of producing invoices and payments, as well as to the number of inquiries made by carriers. He’s analyzed the opportunity cost of labor that could be applied to higher-return activities by automating internal processes.

“We had one person, where 80% of his time was spent responding to carriers and their questions around payments. We needed to do things differently.”

Loop utilized Tailwind’s Customer and Carrier portals and its open API (Application Programming Interface) architecture to customize the TMS’s capability with some of their own custom programming. They now compete with some of the biggest players in the industry.

“We have built out our offering using the Tailwind TMS platform to the point where carriers are telling us that we are doing things better than some of the biggest players in the industry!” Sanchez continued.

Loop built on the Tailwind API to extend its offering to customers

“We were delighted to hear that Loop extended their capability on our platform. Being a true web–based business we feel that our API is a key piece of the unique value we offer customers,” said Murray Pratt, President & CEO of Tailwind Transportation Software.

“I never want to be in a business where our ego says that we have to do it all,” he added. “I feel that our model is similar to Loop’s in that we strive to be open and transparent — wanting to do things WITH our clients, and not TO our clients,” said Pratt.

And for Loop Integrated Systems, this mutually reinforcing loop has driven much of its early success. The logo captures the essence of the Loop brand. From the loop of a truck on its route, to the information loop that keeps stakeholders in the know, to the loop of continuous improvement that is now a hallmark of Loop’s business success.

“We strive to get better each and every day,” said Fry

TCB Logistics Gets it Going

The Envase Team — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 18:55:00 +0000

‘Without it, it would have been a nightmare. I guess I would have used some spreadsheets, or done it all on pen and paper, I don’t know,” said Carmine Iorio, the founder and CEO, of TCB Logistics

A new two-person brokerage company out of Clearwater Florida, Iorio founded the company in early 2018 launching out of his home office along with another part time agent.

Iorio shared his thoughts on what Tailwind’s Transportation Management Software-as-a-service platform is doing for his business.

“It brings everything together and allows me to track on my business.”

While new to freight brokering, Iorio has come into the industry open-eyed, with a couple of customers who believed in him and his vision for the business. Along with his background in shipping & logistics and IT, Iorio had the recipe for success.

“We use Tailwind to keep track of all of our customers, vendors, and pick- up and drop-off locations, as well as for invoicing. It just keeps things organized for me.”

“Perhaps I look at things a bit differently,” said Iorio. “Since I have been a customer of freight services companies, and have a background as a Developer, I looked at how I could apply my knowledge of both logistics and information technology to grow my business.”

So, it was natural for Iorio to turn to the web and look for a TMS system that was attuned to his particular needs as an emerging freight brokerage business. He first looked online for a system that he could get up and running quickly, something he could use to launch his business with little cost.

“Tailwind was actually the first system I looked at,” he related. “I attended a demo and I liked the user interface, the ease of use, and I just felt that that I would be supported as I worked with it. And that has proven to be the case, whether it has been through the live chat in the application, or phoning in to the Support department.”

Carmine Iorio, Founder and CEO, TCB Logistics

Getting to the first 100 loads has been important to Iorio as he is learning more and more about freight brokering each day. Like most folks new to the industry he is open to working with all sorts of customers, just looking for an opportunity to get a foot in the door, a chance to prove his value to customers.

“I feel that I have just touched the surface on what I can do in this business,” he shared. “And it’s probably the same for how I am using the Tailwind application – I am sure I will use it even more as my business grows.”

And never far away from his Developer roots, Iorio offered up a couple of suggestions for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Tailwind application.

“Hey, I gotta push you guys sometimes!” he said, “I push myself in my business, so I want to make sure you keep up with me.”

Yes, TCB Logistics is up and running, and Carmine Iorio has got it going.

Knaggs Trucking – Building a Business, One Truck at a Time

The Envase Team — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 19:26:00 +0000

“There isn’t a book that tells you how to do all this stuff. It’s not like someone gives you a manual that tells you how to build a trucking company. You have to figure it out by yourself– trial and error – learn from your mistakes. I did it before when I would take vehicles apart and then put them back together. I did pretty well the same with my trucking company.”

Arnold Knaggs, Owner, Knaggs Trucking

When you talk to Arnold Knaggs about his business, about trucking, even life in general, two things stand out:

His unyielding belief in the power of self-reliance; and how perseverance can lead to growth and success, when lesser souls may have just given up.

“People don’t fail due to outside circumstances – due to other people, due to the economy, or a particular situation – they actually fail ‘themselves’, their belief in themselves.”

It’s an attitude born of growing up and living in dairy farm country in North East Michigan, just 20 miles from where he was born – a farming community about 90 minutes north of Detroit. It has been a tough go for the locals there: the economy has been difficult owing to turbulence in the worlds of auto-manufacturing and dairy farming.

“Around where I live, it’s one of the most challenged areas economically in Michigan. It started many years ago – used to be a lot of dairy farms here, but some closed down and others merged. For me, after working on dairy farms for 22 years I realized that I had to do something different. So, I started earning a living with one truck, no money and a credit card – and went from there. For me, trucking is not so much of a job as it is ‘my life.’”

Growing Up

Knaggs grew interested in trucking from a relatively young age.

“My neighbors used to haul milk from the farms, and I liked to go for rides with them in their trucks. As a kid I just wanted to be in one of those Big Trucks… I remember even as a kid getting a big package in the mail from the Mayflower Moving company. I had applied to be a driver. I don’t think they knew that they were sending it to a 13-year-old!”

Today

Knaggs now runs a 40-truck operation out of Carsonville, Michigan, with a second location in Dearborn. He provides primarily flat-bed service, hauling scrap metal to a brass manufacturing facility, and then hauling out finished product to stores and warehouses across the US. His Dearborn location provides dry van service to a local Amazon facility, and to several other smaller customers. He had 5 trucks back in 2006 and has seen his business surge to over 40 trucks as he grew in a measured and prudent manner over the years.

“We stayed at it. We looked at expanding before, but it was 2008 and things were not good then. Now it’s a lot better, and we feel good about where we are.”

His Philosophy on Life

No doubt Knaggs has seen tougher times. And it informs the way he approaches his business today.

“I don’t do ‘rich’ well,” he shares, a profound statement that could resonate with a lot of other trucking company owners whose primary goal is to build a great business and provide a legacy to their children their community.

“I grew up poor. I understand and appreciate what it is to work. I didn’t get into this to be rich, I got into trucking to make a way for myself, to work for the things I wanted to achieve – security for my family, employment for others in my community.

I didn’t finish high school, I didn’t go to college – not because I couldn’t – but because I looked at it this way. In life ‘you work’, or ‘you don’t work,’ and living in an economically challenged area, I decided that this was the best path for me. I was going to find a way to work. For me, it’s not about trying to get rich, or being rich – it’s more about working because that is just what I do.”

Using Tailwind

Knaggs decided to invest in Tailwind software back in 2006. At the time he was one of the earliest adopters of new technology that could ‘separate him from the pack’.

“I could keep track of everything on paper, and in my head, when it was just one truck. But then we moved to 5 trucks and we tried doing it all in QuickBooks… and we couldn’t. It wasn’t made for trucking – it’s an accounting system. There were not that many software systems around, but I remember how good the Tailwind people – like Jon, who I think is with you guys even today – how good they were to work with. We needed it primarily to keep track of all the invoicing to make sure that we got paid. Every dollar counted back then, just as it does now.”

“And I remember asking if you could connect my office and my home so that my wife and I could access things from both places – and you guys set that up allowing us to remote in. I always felt that having the internet and using it would help our business.”

Converting Over from Tailwind Legacy to Tailwind Online

This past year, after 12 years on the Tailwind CMS system, Knaggs made the decision to convert over Tailwind’s online version.

“It’s a natural evolution really. We used to remote in to the office. We understand the Cloud – it’s something everybody is using these days, so we thought it made sense as we grew to two offices here in Michigan.

For us it’s been a good move because the software is the same. It does all the same things, but it does have a newer, more modern interface, but it’s the same application with some additional benefits. What’s really helped is the fact that we were able to port all of our documents and data over. And the service and help we got was great.”

And in Arnold’s direct and honest manner:

“I am not sugar-coating this, or blowin’ smoke by saying this stuff, because I happen to be talking to you – you guys did this…

If you want to build a business, you first have to believe in yourself. Then you find good people, you invest in some equipment, and you invest in some technology like a TMS application, that is going to help you, so you don’t have to throw more and more people on it. We run pretty lean with 6 people – my wife and I are two of them – and we are running the 40 trucks – a combination of owner-operators, contractors, and company drivers.”

“Some people, when they look at technology, and they see a threat. They get fearful of new things and wonder why they need to do it. But take ELDs for instance. Yes, it adds cost, more overhead. But I didn’t focus as much on the added burden as much I do to the fact that I can now see if one of the drivers is sitting idle and running his engine for 20-minutes.“

Benefits of Web-based System

With a successful transition from Tailwind’s Legacy software over to its online application a few months back, Arnold looks forward to all the ways in which Tailwind’s web-based software can help his business now.

“I can see a complete picture of both our locations and better manage the growth of two offices. I have all the information in one location – no dialing in using remote desktop – I can now access all the information from both offices and from home, or when I am traveling.”

Which is not to say that he thinks Tailwind is the perfect application. “Yes, there are a couple of things I would like to see added – more visibility into some of the costs of a truck and the driver – and I have already submitted those requests. That ‘in-app chat’ in the new online version is a good feature. I send them a message and they get right back to me.“

The Road Ahead

With a wellspring of determination, an openness to trying new things, combined with the insight from over 20-years of trucking experience, Knaggs is in a position where he has more options than ever. But he has never forgotten the power and value of a good day’s work and knows that his success was driven by the original hunger he had to change the course of his life.

Much like the scrap metal he hauls to the manufacturing facility, he has been able to take all the pieces and resources available to him in his life, and roll them all together to create a strong and durable finished product – one that endures.

Today, more and more of his trucks roll further and further than before, more often than before, running better than before, and they all return back home at the end of the week because of the company’s 5-day workweek policy – a nice work-life balance for his drivers, and for their families.

And while many people aspire to create vast empires to accumulate wealth and prestige for themselves, Arnold Knaggs is a man with his feet planted firmly on the ground, on the farm soil of northern Michigan. Comfortable with himself and with others, serving as a model to everyone in his community, by his presence, by the success of his business. He knows that some of the best things in life are found not in faraway lands, but right here at home.