Mastering Change Management in the Fast Moving Final Mile: Webinar Recap
AUSTIN, TX, SEP. 3, 2024 – In a recent webinar, Fleet Enable’s C.E.O. and founder Krishna Vattipalli was joined by Buzz Gondran, President of Action Freight Services, for a lively discussion of the vital role technology can play in navigating final mile demands.
In a recent webinar, Fleet Enable’s C.E.O. and founder Krishna Vattipalli was joined by Buzz Gondran, President of Action Freight Services, for a lively discussion of the vital role technology can play in navigating final mile demands. The webinar, entitled “Mastering Change in the Fast Moving Final Mile,” was moderated by Michelle LeBlanc and centered on Action Freight’s collaborative, forward-thinking approach to automating manual processes in its operations with Fleet Enable’s technology to boost both efficiency and profit margins.
Action Freight is a full-service trucking company that was established in 1982 in Austin, Texas. Today, Action Freight specializes in final mile pickup and delivery, servicing Central Texas with offices in both Austin and San Antonio. The company is known for being both fast-moving and forward-thinking. Investing in the right technology has become an important part of that forward-thinking perspective over the company’s 42-year history.
In this webinar, Krishna and Buzz discussed the difficulties inherent in implementing change as a carrier, including new internal processes and technology platforms, and Action Freight’s ongoing collaborative relationship with Fleet Enable.
About Action Freight’s Technology Journey and Beginnings with Fleet Enable
According to Buzz, using technology to modernize Action Freight’s operations, reduce costs, and create efficiencies has been a long-time focus for the company. In 2023, Buzz and other leaders within the company sought an innovative technology partner that could integrate all of the company’s operational technologies together, including API and EDI technology and QuickBooks. Buzz and his team also wanted an integrated technology platform whose implementation wouldn’t be disruptive to existing operations supported by his staff.
“From our research, Fleet Enable seemed to be the only one that could provide most of these at the time we were looking into it and partner with us to create other integrations,” Buzz explained. “That’s what brought us to Fleet Enable. Overall, they’ve been a very good partner to us.”
While most technology vendors tend to build a software first and then bring it to market, Krishna and the Fleet Enable team wanted to build a technology platform from the ground up in collaboration with carriers, including Action Freight.
“We worked with five different carriers initially and Action Freight was one of them,” Krishna added. “We took a different approach in that we wanted to build exactly what people wanted. In 2022 and 2023, we launched a few customers on the dispatching side of our platform. Action Freight was our first customer who went live end to end.”
Action Freight’s Collaboration with Fleet Enable
“On the front end, the initial rollout of the dispatching piece was good because it was more user friendly than what we were used to,” Buzz shared. “That worked really well. What we didn’t foresee were some backend issues with the EDI component. We worked with Fleet Enable to get those things fixed as quickly as possible. Those things are working well now.”
Some of the lessons learned by Fleet Enable in first rolling out the platform with Action Freight included the need to train Buzz’s team on managing exceptions. When onboarding Action Freight’s first few customers, the Fleet Enable team also focused on testing notifications and verifying that integrations with shipping partners were working as they should. Something else that became clear during the onboarding process was the need for a 24/7 U.S.-based support team, which Fleet Enable now has in place.
During this time period, Krishna and the Fleet Enable team saw that attention to testing initial set up and invoice creation as well as the creation of sandbox environments ought to be part of new carrier onboarding going forward. Additionally, the Fleet Enable team learned that having staff members on-site during each carrier’s go-live week would be helpful as part of the onboarding process. The team began using feedback from Action Freight’s staff to enhance the final mile platform with additional automations and features as well.
“We started analyzing our customers’ business in a lot more depth to understand how they operate,” Krishna said. “Even though we are focusing on the white glove, final mile air cargo segment at a high level, each business is different in how it operates. Some have dedicated operations and others have managed operations. We started learning about each carrier and educating our internal team. Today, our team members know each of our customers by name and we’re focusing more on enhancement rather than bug fixes. It went from being a client/vendor relationship to a true partnership. We collaborate, we work together, we understand their pain points, and then we navigate them together.”
Lessons Learned From Action Freight’s Change Process
According to Buzz, one lesson learned from this process is the importance of back end functions. While any backend issues with the platform have since been resolved, greater attention to backend processes pre-rollout might have smoothed implementation. Buzz was pleasantly surprised by one major aspect of the platform’s implementation: his team’s willingness to embrace the new technology.
“I was pleasantly surprised at how our operations team embraced it,” Buzz said. “There’s always one person who’s like, ‘I hate everything new’ but we didn’t really get that when we moved over to the new software so that was pleasant. It gave me more time to deal with other things.”
On the Fleet Enable side, numerous lessons were learned by Krishna and his team, including the need to communicate to Action Freight’s teams how the new system would impact their day-to-day work.
“We learned how important it is to prepare carrier teams for why we’re changing their current system and how it will impact their lives,” Krishna shared. “Team members could say, ‘Oh, I need to learn another system and I don’t want to go through this.’ We had to shift their perspective about implementation, to reframe it as making their processes better rather than just giving them a new software system to learn.”
Other lessons learned from the collaborative process included the need to create rules within the platform to further drive automation and efficiency. Rule-making made invoicing processes more accurate and transparent for Action Freight’s staff. According to Buzz, moving from a server-based software platform to a cloud-based platform was a learning process as well.
“I had some anxiety about moving from a server-based software platform to a cloud-based platform because you can’t touch it, “Buzz said. “But the access and flexibility the cloud based system gives our team has been a pleasant surprise. It allows us to work from home. That’s really been a benefit because we now have a couple of people who work from home and that’s been great.”
To hear more about how Action Freight is “Mastering Changes in the Fast Moving Final Mile” including outcomes on how internal processes have been streamlined with Fleet Enable’s platform, watch the full webinar.
To learn more about Fleet Enable’s final mile management software platform created exclusively for final mile carriers, schedule a free demo, or call us at (216) 293-7917.