2009 Innovator: FFE Transportation #12

FFE Transportation Communicates With Its Drivers

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FFE Transportation Communicates With Its Drivers

Looking for an affordable solution to communicate with its drivers, FFE Transportation Services Inc. decided to go with terrestrial communications using cellular telephones.

Dallas-based FFE, a leading temperature-controlled truckload and less-than-truckload carrier, implemented a solution from Cheetah Software Systems Inc., Westlake Village, CA.

"After a long research process, we picked Cheetah Software. They were the only solution provider we found that could take care of both needs in a single package,” says Nick Cook of FEE. “They run their Cheetah Freight application over the AT&T network using RIM’s Blackberry 8310 with GPS enablement. This gave us real-time location based tracking as well as instant communication via lower cost data, instead of voice. We can push application updates over the air via the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) instead of touching each device.”

Cook says the company experienced immediate benefits with communications and driver acceptance was surprisingly positive. FFE’s customers now have real-time visibility of their shipments and the ETA for delivery, which has reduced tedious phone calls into the local service centers.

“The optimization and routing of the deliveries is expected to pay for the application through reduced out-of-route miles and efficient routes,” says Cook. “The benefit of customers having real time visibility has proved to be immeasurable. We have given them a tool that none of our competitors offer.”

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