Bison Diversified Raises The Bar

Bison Diversified, Inc. is one of Canada's most successful dry van haulers covering irregular routes over all of Canada and the U.S. Their biggest customer is a Canadian distributor for WalMart. The Challenge With a desire to improve customer service to a 95% satisfaction rate, Bison wanted to make operations more efficient with total visibility to all assets and orders.

They were also concerned about improving profitability by reducing empty miles driven and increasing revenue per mile. They felt if they could analyze their data more effectively, they could manage their entire enterprise to foster stronger more effective strategic and tactical decisions. A flexible-computing platform with the appropriate transportation software would enable moves into other business segments and provide the ability to offer more services to existing customers.

Their challenge was to implement a system that would help them raise their own bar on superior customer service. At the same time, the system had to allow their in house I.S. staff to work in tandem with their dispatch operations software vendor to create modifications and added functionality. This functionality would have to customize to Bison's expanding needs and integrate smoothly with other systems. The system had to be suitable for future expansion and assist Bison in their ongoing quest to attract and retain the best in human resources – both drivers and office staff.

"We've built our business on great customer service," says Mike Ludwick, Director of Systems for Bison Diversified, Inc. in Manitoba, Canada. Making maximum use of technology is another big reason for Bison's tremendous growth. They make extensive use of Internet-based load finders and keep a highly detailed contact management program for locating brokers and freight.

Bison considers their partnership with TMW for the past ten years a significant part of their technology savvy approach. They converted from a TMW legacy system to their Windows client/server product, TMWSuite. "We had a very successful implementation," said Mike. "And we're very pleased at how easy it was to work with TMW."

Bison takes a collaborative approach with TMW to make the product even more responsive to their needs. "The TMW Customer Steering Committee is a great thing," Mike continued. "We join other users with similar businesses and work together to decide which issues are most important."

TMWSuite uses MS SQL databases with open architecture, which allows Bison's IS staff to work with familiar industry standard tools and get results that coordinate with what TMW and other vendors do. "We've done a lot with the data from TMWSuite by using stored procedures that are right in the database instead of buried in the source code," said Mike. They really like having the ability to influence the quality of their application.

With on-time and intact performance being top priority, Bison consistently exceeds expectations from even their biggest customer. They attribute their success in part to the high morale and eagerness employees show about doing their jobs. Drivers appreciate the fact that they drive all new Kenworth and Volvo trucks (none more than two years old). "Our company drivers look good on the road," Mike says. "Right down to the chrome wheels, our trucks are top-of-the-line, owner/operator quality.”

But their technology keeps them on top, and Mike is happy to note, "We have earned a good reputation, which translates into people wanting to work at Bison."