Company Says Web Service Could Reduce Long Waits for
Truckers at Warehouses
DockMaster to allow scheduling of load deliveries
and pickups over the Internet
ATLANTA, GA, January 27, 2001 /Atlanta-Journal Constitution/
Russell Grantham - Staff
What if you arrived at a warehouse to deliver 40,000
pounds of frozen chicken and the warehouse manager told
you to cool your heels for several hours?
Truck drivers face such scenes daily at thousands of
warehouses as trucking and distribution companies struggle
to track and handle the nation's shipments with faxes
and phone calls.
But a young Atlanta technology firm is rolling out
an Internet service it hopes will sweep away shippers'
and truckers' frustrations with the click of a mouse.
CarrierPoint said its DockMaster program, expected
to be rolled out this spring, will boost truckers' efficiency
by allowing warehouse managers and truckers to schedule
load deliveries and pick-ups over the Internet.
"It takes a lot of the labor out of scheduling. One
person can do what nine do now," said CarrierPoint Chairman
Brian Kinsey.
"Right now," he said, such scheduling is "generally
on somebody's legal pad."
With such a system, he added, it doesn't take too many
dominoes falling out of place to cause dozens of grumbling
truck drivers to begin lining up at a warehouse.
The Truckload Carriers Association says wasted time
waiting to drop off or pick up loads now ranks as the
top reason for job turnover, which exceeds 100 percent
a year at many trucking companies. Eliminating idle
time would save the industry about $1.6 billion a year.
DockMaster will be available either as a licensed software
package or as a rented application available over the
Internet on CarrierPoint's server, he said.
It is the third product the 60-employee company has
developed since it was launched almost 18 months ago
with the backing of United Parcel Service.
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