‘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.