Flexibility for his drivers to take responsibility for their own jobs using the MyTrucking mobile app means Chris Dellavedova, of Dellavedova Fertilisers, has freed up the time to drive a truck himself, as well as run their family business, alongside his brother Jeremy and father Shane.
“Everyone knows what they are doing and it’s up to the drivers to make it happen. It allows me to drive a truck and do the admin job too. For an owner-operator, from that point of view, it’s a bit of a no-brainer,” he explains.
Chris is the third generation of family owned and operated business, Dellavedova Fertilisers, based in Maryborough, Central Victoria.
Core business is fertiliser sales, with two depots, one in Ballarat and the other in Maryborough, where the main office is. “We have a fert dispatching arm, spreading trucks and recently put a B-Double on the road, freighting our own fert, lime and gypsum primarily.”
The majority of the fertiliser is sold direct to the farmer, but the business also spreads a small amount of the product it sells, with large amounts of lime and gypsum spread in the summer months.
Chris discovered MyTrucking after seeing it in operation in another trucking business, who he works closely with, and thought it could suit their operation too.
Previously, they ran a paper-based system, with all scheduling done on whiteboards – a time consuming process.
He says it was “ridiculously easy” to set MyTrucking up, and the company was willing to take on board any suggestions he made to tailor the software to suit his business. He also liked that they were able to input their own data and customer information while using the demo.
“The drivers use the app, it’s brilliant. We used to have drivers come into the office at 7.30am every morning and wait to find out what they were doing for the day. Each driver had wasted half an hour before they even got started. Our drivers now know what they are doing the night before, making them more efficient from the get go in the morning, that time saving alone is huge.”
“I’m in a truck myself, so I don’t have time to sit around telling the drivers what to do, and they don’t like that either. I like that you have the ability to tailor it to the driver’s needs and requirements. You can control the level of responsibility they have, if you wanted to. We are fortunate to have very loyal and great staff.”
Overall, he says MyTrucking has aided the business to become more streamlined and efficient. It also speeds up the invoicing process, which is critical in his industry.
This article appeared in Owner Driver magazine[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]
