Learn how Flex Logistics brought greater visibility to job scheduling, saved a bucket load of time and improved cashflow with the help of MyTrucking.
Carting wine grapes from vineyards to wineries, primarily in the South Australian wine region of McLaren Vale, is core business for Flex Logistics.
Business owner and general manager, Sami Gilligan, explains the business is quite unique in that it’s seasonal, with trucks operating for three months of the year and then parked up for the remainder.
“The analogy I use is it’s no different to a grape or grain harvester. With my trucks and trailers, and the capital investment, they’re there to serve a purpose.”
Flex Logistics was originally a partnership between two couples, Sami and Robyn Gilligan, and Scott and Hannah Stone. The business ran seven of their own trucks and sub-contracted a further seven trucks. At the end of vintage 2021, Scott and Hannah decided to concentrate on their other businesses and Sami and Robyn decided to keep Flex going, downsizing to operating a fleet of three and sub-contracting three to four others during vintage.
Flex Logistics joined MyTrucking in 2018.
The biggest issue Sami wanted to overcome was getting instructions out to drivers and being able to schedule loads in a visual, and timely, way.
“We were operating seven of our own prime movers and seven sub-contractors. We could be doing 50 loads a day and I was the only one co-ordinating it. I had all this stuff in my head and, on top of that, I was giving written instructions to all my drivers the day prior.
“My day started at 6am and I’d still be in the office at 10-12pm every night. We had to find a better way because it was killing us.”
Sami used the good old Excel spreadsheet and a diary. “Now I look back and go, how did we get by? MyTrucking was a massive game changer for us, once we got used to it.”
Added to that, Flex Logistics had drivers and sub-contractors that sometimes didn’t come back to base for weeks on end, so getting paperwork back and billing out for jobs was a protracted process.
“We did it, and it was fine, but the time and headaches it (MyTrucking) has saved us is a game changer. I can’t even comprehend running a business without it now.”
Practicability is what stood out and drew Flex Logistics to MyTrucking initially, and continues to impress Sami.
“We looked at other systems and trialled one, but what stood out about MyTrucking really early on was the fact it’s so practical. It’s designed by people who do what we do.”
Sami says, while there were some teething issues, the software is user friendly, not just from an admin point of view, but for the drivers too. “Once we downloaded the app, it’s so intuitive the drivers were able to just work it out.”
Sami also found that with his business being slightly different in terms of its seasonal nature and the number of loads per day, the MyTrucking team were extremely accommodating and willing to work with them to find a solution.
“That willingness to accommodate our needs and take on suggestions, I feel valued as a client of MyTrucking. I feel I’m not just a number on their books, even though I’m not a big number.”
“On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being easy, I’d say an 8 or 9 in the grand scheme of things.”
“Organisation. It’s just helped us be a much more organised and efficient transport business. It gives the opportunity to organise everything in a timely fashion, and it’s saved us a bucket load of time.”
MyTrucking is designed to assist transport operators with job management workflow.
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