Imperial Express
Forward Thinking Customer Success Story
"My personal goal, and our mission as a company, is to offer best-in-class customer service and experience in our industry. We only create partnerships with other best-in-class service providers that share our philosophy. This is the primary reason we chose Forward Thinking."
Imperial Express
Imperial Express is a full-truckload carrier, mostly dedicated to local manufacturing firms in Ohio. They operate about 50 units in over 30 states and have been enjoying rapid growth.
The Challenge
With a rapidly growing fleet, and the ELD mandate fast approaching, Dale Briggs, Partner at Imperial Express, set out to find a better fleet tracking solution.
The solution would need to let him monitor every aspect of his fleet’s performance. This kind of moment-to-moment insight would help manage route efficiency and answer customer service questions more quickly. The solution would also need to help him keep an eye on driver behavior / green driving, and make sure that drivers are always ready for a roadside HOS (Hours of Service) inspection.
These needs are not unique to Imperial Express. As competition and regulation become harsher, more and more fleet owners are looking to strengthen their control over tracking, compliance, safety, and efficiency.
The Solution
Dale compared our products with those of the competition and felt that Forward Thinking best addressed his concerns. He mentioned the following as some of the benefits of switching to Forward Thinking.
- “Best web-based, back-office system in the market.”
- “Best reports.”
- “Ease of use portal.”
- “Most flexible driver device interface options.”
- “Email and text alerts.”
According to Dale, Imperial Express takes advantage of many Forward Thinking features on a daily basis. For example, “Dispatch constantly monitors driver status, location, HOS (Hours of Service), ETAs, delivery and pick-up locations. Driver speeding behavior and improved driver scheduling is another huge improvement.”
He also appreciates the subtle things, like using unique colors for trucks to make them easy to follow on the screen, and noticing the plume of smoke icon that indicates when a truck is running. “We actually use the entire web portal — the reports, the alerts, the options and parameters. We rely on most everything.”
"I strongly believe that Forward Thinking has the best system on the market."
The Results
Increased Efficiency
Dale talked about the fear that earnings would suffer when ELDs were introduced. This hasn’t happened. “The system helped us identify better options for scheduling drivers to make their loads more efficient, and maintain compliance with HOS. Without an ELD system, we were lacking critical operational information.”
Simple Implementation and Quick Training
If one word could describe the experience of switching, he said it would be “EASY. The install was simple and straightforward, and the instructions were clear for operating the in-cab device. Training drivers was easy as can be as well.”
Top Rate Service
He made it clear that customer service was a big priority “My personal goal, and our mission as a company, is to offer best-in-class customer service and experience in our industry. We only create partnerships with other best-in-class service providers that share our philosophy. This is the primary reason we chose FTS.”
Long Term Positive Impact
Dale concluded by saying “I strongly believe that FTS has the best system in the market, which, as a user, makes us the best and most advanced carrier in the market. You continue to prove that we made the right decision.”
