How did Smith Transport become so diverse?
Barry Smith, president: “I became an owner-operator at the age of 16, and it didn’t take me long to learn that the way to win is by providing people with solutions. “So, right from the beginning, we’ve been providing total solutions, including logistics services. We have over 2 million square feet of warehouse space, much of it used by our customers in the paper business, and we’ve built special equipment to haul giant rolls of paper as well.
“We try never to say ‘no’ to our customers.”

Is it difficult to be so diverse, yet remain profitable?
“In this business, the key to success is maximizing equipment utilization. You have to be hauling payloads at all times. “That means you have to keep your equipment in top condition at all times. We rely on people like Lynn Manges and Jeff Musselman for that. “You also have to have – and keep – good drivers. We do that by building trucks to suit the drivers, treating them like members of the family, and giving them the amenities they want.”

What kinds of things do you provide?
“On the road, we use the latest in communications technology to stay in touch with our drivers – and to help them stay in touch with their families.
“Unlike many fleets that hand off drivers from one dispatcher to another, based on geographical location, we have ‘driver managers’ who work with the same group of drivers all the time, regardless of where they go. Drivers know they have a single contact and an advocate at the home office.”

How do you maximize utilization of your equipment and people resources?
“We’re employing some real technological innovations in our operations center, which Mike Donovan can show you.”

How do you maximize utilization of your equipment and people resources?
“We’re employing some real technological innovations in our operations center, which Mike Donovan can show you.”

Mike, how does the operations center work?
Mike Donovan, executive director of customer service: “Our job is to maximize utilization of equipment – and service to our customers. To do that, we’re using global positioning systems to track the location of every truck in our system.“We know exactly where every truck is at all times. From that, we can create what we call a ‘Rolling Estimated Time of Arrival.’ “That helps us make sure we provide on-time

service, and it also helps us schedule the next load for each truck.”  “That helps us make sure we provide on-time service, and it also helps us schedule the next load for each truck.”

What about unanticipated delays?
“Every truck has satellite service, so we can contact drivers, and they can contact us. Our on-board systems also allow them to notify us immediately if they have any kind of delay or breakdown.”

How do you get that information?
“It shows up on the operations center screens. They’re large, so everyone in the room can see them. And we have separate screens for weather and road conditions, vehicle locations, breakdown status and load planning.
“Having everything on big screens allows everyone, at a glance, to see how we’re doing. For every truck, we have a projected time when it will next be available, and our objective, throughout the day, is to keep those trucks hauling payloads.”

How many trucks are you managing?
“We have over 530 of our own, plus about 70 contract drivers. We also have systems for outsourcing overflow business to other carriers. To maintain our reputation, we have to make sure they’re staying on schedule too.”

What do people in the operations center do?
“Customer service is divided into geographical teams, consisting of a load planner, a customer service repre-sentative and order entry clerk.
“We have separate groups for our overflow business and our temperature control division, which operates 90 reefers. Then, there are the driver managers, each working with about 40 or 50 drivers.
“Everybody has terminals capable of displaying all the screens. The big screens on the walls make it easy to check something quickly without having to switch displays on the terminals.”

You have a very diverse equipment mix. How do you keep it all running?
Lynn Manges, assistant maintenance manager: “We’re actually very self-sufficient. We even operate our own body shop, including a paint booth, and have three tow trucks we can dispatch to service vehicles on the road.”

Do you have that much towing and body work?
“With over 500 trucks, we get quite a bit. And, we increase utilization by doing work for other fleets. About 40 percent of our towing work and roughly 20 percent of our body work is done for others.”

Who handles tires?
“We do everything – except repairs.”

Why not repairs?
“It’s because retreading is so important to us. We try to get at least two retreads out of every casing. But our tire guys don’t see enough repairs to become experts at doing them.
“Because a botched repair can result in a lost casing, we don’t want to take the risk, so we send all repairs to our dealer.”

But you do the rest of the work yourself?
“Pretty much. Our dealer supplies us with new tires and retreads, and we handle mounting, balancing and installation. “Improving our tire maintenance has helped us extend our tire life – a lot. And now, especially with fuel prices so high, we’re doing things to cut fuel costs too.
“We have a tanker we use to haul our own diesel, and we’ve been trying that new Bridgestone M720 fuel-efficient drive tire. It’s done very well for us.
“We also provide driver bonuses for improving fuel economy and reducing idle time. Every little bit helps.”

What other kinds of maintenance do you do?
Jeff Musselman, maintenance supervisor: “We’re doing as much as we can. Right now, with the used truck market so glutted, we find it’s better for us to keep our trucks and rebuild them as necessary. “As a tractor ages, we may move it progressively out of long haul service, to East Coast service, to short hauls, to local hauling, and finally, to yard jockey work. That way, as the unit gets older, it’s in less and less critical jobs.”

Do you see that changing?
Barry Smith: “We do. The warranties on today’s trucks keep getting better and better, and longer and longer. Maintenance intervals have extended to where even the oil in a transmission is becoming a capital expense. We seem to be moving toward throwaway trucks.”

Will that change the way you do business?
“It might change the way we deal with equipment, but not the way we deal with customers. Providing customers with solutions is what took us from 5 trucks when we started to over 500 today. We have no intention of changing that.”