Cavalier Transportation Services Inc.

Cavalier Transportation Services Inc. corporate headquarters are located in Bolton, Ontario Canada with terminals in Syracuse and Rochester New York as well as Chicago Illinois. The Cavalier group currently operates over 85 trucks supported by 200 trailers made up of dry van, flatdeck and open top equipment. A family-run business that was founded in 1979, Cavalier Transportation has just recently celebrated 25 years in business. Operating from the logistics centre in Bolton, Ontario, Cavalier specializes in LTL cross border shipments. The company currently has 170 employees working to process, organize, ship and track over 500 freight bills per day. Cavalier also has the capacity to handle other transportation services including load consolidation, distribution services, and truckload shipments. The company also offers extensive warehousing facilities in Bolton and Syracuse.

Successfully Introducing New Technology to a Manual Operation
In 1998, Cavalier Transportation Services Inc. had been successfully servicing clients for over 20 years but had not yet invested a great deal of resources in transportation technology. At this time Cavalier had a total of five computers throughout the entire company and technology had not yet impacted operations.

In this non-automated environment, incoming orders were processed using manually written cards that were placed on a physical dispatching board, assigned resources and organized into separate trips. For accounting software, Cavalier was using a stand-alone accounting package that did not have the capability of generating meaningful management reports.

In 1999, the first step towards automating the Cavalier operation was accomplished with the installation of the TruckMate™ Enterprise Transportation System.

“We originally selected TruckMate because we found it to be the best available fit for our primary LTL business that makes up 90% of our operation,” said Vicki Stafford Vice President of Resource Development for Cavalier Transportation Services Inc. “Another decision factor was the desire to have a completely integrated accounting package which is a standard feature in the TruckMate software.”

Integrating Transportation Technology Solutions with TruckMate
During the last 25 years, Cavalier has always been a company focused on providing clients a high level of customer service. This tradition was a driving force behind the company’s investment in new technology. Cavalier wanted to expand the volume of freight they could manage without sacrificing the reputation they had built as a leading LTL service provider. The answer to this dilemma was integrating several different solutions to the TruckMate software now in place.

For mobile communication, Cavalier utilizes the Shaw Tracking OmniTRACS solution which delivers status updates directly to the TruckMate dispatching screen. The pickup and delivery division of Cavalier utilizes Shaw Tracking to receive delivery updates and shipment delivery details.

Cavalier has also moved a long way from the manual dispatch board and is making the jump to a paperless dispatch environment. Using the Microdea Document Imaging solution, Cavalier has the ability to easily manage internal documents and have the correct document at the finger tips of every customer service representative.

The web has also become a component of the service package Cavalier provides customers. Using TruckMate's TM4Web application, Cavalier now offers clients the ability to ‘track & trace’ shipments, request pick-ups and receive current rates.

Increased Freight Volume, Better Profit Margins and Rapid Expansion
The successful integration of cutting-edge technology has enabled Cavalier to capture and manage the information needed to make important business decisions in real-time. Cavalier has successfully leveraged this investment to attain a 24% increase in revenues since the introduction of TruckMate software.

“Investing in TruckMate has allowed us to manage growth more efficiently by taking on more freight volume without adding additional people,” explained Stafford. “Technology has helped us become better managers which has directly impacted our profit margins.”

Cavalier has also experienced an increase in sales through the ease of providing detailed shipment information to clients. Employees that were previously apprehensive about technology have embraced the new process and have recognized the new efficiencies.

“We have been able to empower employees with easy access to information that makes their jobs easier and helps with the flow of information throughout our entire company,” commented Stafford. “From a management perspective the reporting in TruckMate is awesome, we are now able to easily gather and analyze data in a way that was just not possible before.”