Tom's Trucker Travels & Audio Podcast is a great blog and podcast perfectly suited for trucking companies. Tom goes through everything from how to be a trucker to finding the best wifi truck stops and more.
If any of your drivers are blogging or podcasting, let us know about it. I'm creating a special "what drivers are thinking..." page on the web site and would love to link to it.
I know in a lot of demos I use the term Push and Pull when discussing our e-services. Generally I promote the fact that we are PUSHING information to those who ask for it, instead of trying to make customers go find it. The argument goes that if you are waiting for your customers to go to your web site to VIEW the information, they likely aren't going to do it. Therefore our e-services do it for you- by sending them an email.
Recently though, there is a technology called RSS. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it's all about publishing information in a way that others can get it without having to bother you for it (in short, PULL vs. PUSH). With RSS, users subscribe to a piece of information and then they retrieve it whenever they want.
The subscription is simply a file that can be pulled into what is called a News Aggregator. See the
Wikipedia for a better description but for example, you can get all of the news from our web site without having to go to it by clicking the RSS button and subscribing to it. Then in Outlook or your web browser, all of the news is instantly made available to you. If you looked at the RSS file itself, it would look very messy - the news aggregator is what makes it readable.
It's a concept that is radically changing the way information is passed around, from "blogs" to "podcasts" and other formats as well.
MTI is using RSS in a variety of ways. You can subscribe to this blog via RSS, the News release page or just the basic Web site itself. But I'm working at bringing this technology into the product as well.
ExecView summarizes key information but doesn't make the details easily available, except via an email. With an RSS feed, individual stats could be made available as they change with full details. Almost like an audit trail - more advanced than the one we currently use.
But maybe more importantly, RSS could change the way you identify delivered shipments to customers. Each one of your customers could have their own RSS feed. Anytime something happened in Horizon that affected that customer, be it a new load, new invoice, cash payment, anything, it would be logged to their RSS feed. Your customer would then be able to see at a glance everything that is happening in real time. They wouldn't need to ask you for the information - they would be PULLING the information from your feed. You wouldn't even have to send email, or use the e-services to do this.
It's an interesting idea... stay tuned while we explore it further. If you have ideas on this, please let us know.
Gnomedex Keynote
LJ Rogers and MTI - Crucial to Our Success
The LJ Rogers Company located in Mebane, NC has been an Melton Technologies (www.mtihorizon.com) customer for many years. The family-owned company was started by L.J. Rogers, Jr with a single truck and has now grown to a fleet of over 125 trucks with over 100 owner/operators and two terminals, one in Mebane and another in Louisville Kentucky. With that many non-company drivers, one might think that the turnover would be extremely high; yet LJ Rogers keeps their drivers and owner-operators happy by getting them home regularly and treating them very much like part of the family. Horizon trucking software is a huge factor in that accomplishment, removing all redundant communication and automating their 3-person dispatch operation with integration with QUALCOMM and PeopleNet mobile communication systems.
While the main fleet handles 80% of their business, LJ Rogers uses MTI's Brokerage solution for the remaining traffic. One of the key features in the Horizon Broker system is the Find Carrier feature, that shows the carriers that a company has used in the past to provide a certain leg of trip. "Being able to produce the rate confirmation sheets and finding carriers we've used in the past has been extremely helpful for our dispatchers", Ronald Rogers, vice-president and part owner, explains. "Our dispatch screen highlights any lapses in insurance so nothing is missed."
Altough the company uses DAT services for posting their loads and finding carriers, they maintain a stable of 15-20 standard carriers that they regularly use. Horizon's advanced brokerage features allow companies to track favorite and available lanes for carriers, reducing the need for companies to keep notes on what lanes carriers like to run. "Trucking companies are quickly seeing that if they provide the same high level of service to their carriers that they provide to their customers, they get better results and Horizon's favorite and available lanes feature gives dispatchers that ability," said Andrew MacNeill, Technology Marketing Manager for MTI.
Looking forward, Ronald Rogers sees further integration with the Internet and their other systems. LJ Rogers introduced electronic settlements for their drivers, allowing a settlement sheet and pay stub to be emailed directly to a driver's inbox, two years ago and Ronald is excited by what the future holds. "With the new mobile communication devices and wireless scanners, we are looking forward to reducing our paperwork even more, scanning bills of lading in the truck and sending out emails to our customers, as the load is delivered, " he notes in describing his ideal vision for his company. "We're already taking the necessary steps to automate our warehouse and maintenance inventory and the benefits this will have for our dispatchers and drivers. MTI has been very pro-active in this regard - they are crucial to the success of our company."
New Update for Trip Interface
A minor update was posted on Thursday for Horizon Trip Interface, our fuel tax reporting and integration module for the Horizon trucking software family.
Version 2.0.42 of our Horion Trip Interface Fuel Tax integration piece resolves a few performance issues recently reported. This problem has only been seen with customers who have over a large amount of trip interface data, typically over a year's worth. Once the new version has been installed, select File Maintenance from the Tools menu and choose to Reindex your files.
Check the option to Remove Deleted records and click OK. Horizon will add some optimized performance tags to your transaction files, making the system run faster for regular operations.
The new release of Horizon Dispatch lets you track more information about miscellaneous customers including the street and phone #. This information is now kept with every shipment, making it easier to work with. Download it today using the Horizon Installation Manager.
Posted by Hello
What To Do After You Install Horizon
I just went through installing a brand new version of the Horizon trucking software so I can do some more demonstrations on the new features found in the June 2005 release. Now, before I do, I want to identify the common features that are available in Horizon but are NOT installed by default. You may also have some of them loaded but likely you are missing a few. All of these can be installed by selecting Manage Services from the Tools Services menu and then clicking on Add.
If you need help using any of these services, enter their name in the Search box and their documentation will be available. I just want to make sure you are aware that they are available.
Dispatch Services
Quick Dispatch. The file name is QUIKASGN.SVC.
If you are a truckload carrier, there is pretty much no reason why you shouldn't be using Quick Dispatch. If there is, PLEASE let me know. This tool makes dispatching quick and painless and offers some very useful features so you can dispatch without having to go to the Assignment screen.
Custom Booking. The file name is CUSTBOOK.SVC.
This lets you completely customize your booking screen. But more importantly, it lets you move things around, rename fields and more. By default, it will look JUST like the old booking screen. The new version also ensures that you CAN use the book LTL loads as Part of a manifest feature, which was missing from older releases.
Form Validation. The file name is FORMVAL.SVC
If you have ever had problems ensuring users are filling information in, then you need to turn this on. The new version now comes with rule template that you can use. Check out the video
here.
Manifest Planner. The file name is MFSTPLAN.SVC
This is similar to why you would install QuickDispatch. Manifest Planner lets you do scheduling of drivers and manifests from the Dispatch screen without having to go to the Assignment screen. It also supports Slip seating of drivers.
Shipment Tracer. The file name is TRACER.SVC
The ever-popular Shipment Tracer lets you track any load, PO#, Reference #, B/L#, driver, tractor, trailer, customer from the time it is booked into the system to the time it is settled. The latest version shows you tractor and carrier pay as well.
File Transfer services. The files are MAKEBILL.SVC, SETTTRAN.SVC, DIHTRN.SVC.
You don't have to get out of Horizon to move information from Dispatch to Billing to Settlements or anywhere else. Before you install these, make sure you do your last File Transfer first. That way, you won't be surprised by not being able to find loads with the new services. An overview of MakeBill is right
here.
Excel Import and Export. The file names are XEXPDATA and XIMPDATA.SVC, respectively.
There was a time when you may not have needed to make changes in Excel but recent new features in Horizon (including the wonderful Billing Surcharges) use Excel to make it easier to maintain your rates.
Billing Services
Custom Billing. The file name is CUSTBILL.SVC
If you want to take advantage of our new Billing surcharges features, you need to be using Custom Billing. It gives the same great flexibility that custom booking does but in Billing. What's not to like?
Billing Surcharges. The file name is SURXCHRG.SVC
This service replaces AutoSurcharge and adds the functionality found in Effective Surcharges. What does that mean? It means saving time when billing loads. It means that you can now manage those darn fuel costs by charging different rates each week without having to worry about when they change. The rates can change based on any date as well: invoice, pickup, delivery even the order date.
I'm sure there are some more. One that I like but not every one does is Power Filter (POWFILT.SVC). This makes every filter instantly available to you when working in Horizon. Need to create a new filter? Right-click and build it on the fly.
Can you think of others? Let me know.
Just posted a new training video on how to use the new Form Validation found in the June 2005 release.
Unlike our other online presentations, this is "full" video, playable via Windows Media Player.
We'll be adding more videos online, most of which will be linked to directly from the
training page.
Let me know how you like them.
