Summary
- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Van Eerden Trucking Company needed a solution to fully digitize the billing process and go paperless
- They decided to use Origin Mobile, Microdea’s smartphone app, to get images of their BOLs back to the office immediately after delivery
- With a simple user interface and friendly design, driver adoption of the app has been over 90%
- Staff no longer have to handle paper and documents flow directly into their TMS with no indexing required
- Invoices are now being sent out days sooner than before, with a completely paperless, and more efficient process
The Company
Founded in 1980, family-owned since day one, and based out of Byron Center, Michigan, Van Eerden Trucking Company operates a fleet of 150 tractors and 300 trailers serving the West Coast, Southeast, Southwest and East Coast. They provide high-quality transportation services with a commitment to integrity, passion and continuous improvement.
The Challenge
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees at Van Eerden wanted to be cautious about having multiple people handling the same piece of paper. “We were quarantining our bills of lading for a week when we received them back from drivers,” said Marlo Schantz, the HR Lead at Van Eerden. “And being that we’re an over the road trucking company with our drivers out for several days, this was delaying our billing.”
They knew they needed a better, faster, safer way to get BOLs back from drivers, into their system and sent to customers, ideally while removing some manual steps along the way.
The Solution
After thorough review of various technology solutions, Van Eerden decided to go with Origin Mobile, Microdea’s smartphone app, for 3 reasons:
- It allowed drivers to send images of BOLs back to the office immediately upon delivery, speeding up the billing process and eliminating the need for staff to handle paper.
- Images would arrive already indexed under the correct load in their TMS, saving staff time on indexing and sorting documents.
- Drivers would be able to view important load information right on their phones, like appointment times and pick-up and delivery numbers.
"Microdea did what they said they would do," said Marlo, "The implementation was done in a few weeks and we were able to have our drivers start using the app. Our technical support person, Jas, was great to work with!"
The Results
Since implementing the app, Marlo has been pleasantly surprised with how quickly drivers have adopted and adapted to the solution. “We had several positive comments right from the beginning. National Driver Appreciation was the first of September which brought several employees into the office and several of them commented on the Origin app and what they liked about it.”
Van Eerden drivers like how easy the app is to use, and the fact that it shows them all their pertinent load information right on their phone makes life easy. In fact, drivers actually made requests to see additional information. “Once we were live we realized that we needed to make a few adjustments to the application view and Jas was always accommodating and able to quickly make the requested changes.”
Drivers are now using the app to capture both delivery documents, like BOLs and lumper receipts, and driver documents, like drivers’ licenses, repair receipts, scale tickets and other payroll reimbursements. Having a single solution in place keeps things easy and organized.
Van Eerden has now been using the app for several months. The invoicing bottleneck has been removed and billing is happening quicker than ever. There’s less manual work for office staff, life is easier for drivers and no one has to worry about touching paper.
“We look forward to our long term use of the Origin App!”
– Marlo Schantz
HR Lead at Van Eerden
