Hauler ups senrices througih leasin€

The last thing Pronto Delivery, Courier & Logistics president Gerry Witt and his crew of 200 employee and independent contract drivers want to do is handle the maintenance of its delivery trucks.

"We already have our hands full with the many other daily responsibilities that go with moving large amounts of time-sensitive freight," Witt said.

Every day, the Arlington, Tx.based courier and warehouse services company's trucks make hundreds of deliveries for all types of industries. including home improvement centers, construction firms, and paint and flooring supply stores in and around the Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston areas. Its diverse fleet allows it to deliver all types of materials from an envelope to a tractor-trailer load, which is how Pronto differentiates itself from other delivery companies.

To accomplish those deliveries, the company operates a variety of trailers and about 200 vehicles, including pick-ups, rack trucks, and cargo vans. It rents and leases up to 45 Class 6 Peterbilt Model 330 and Class 7 Peterbilt Model 335 trucks from PaccrR Leasing (Paclease). The trucks are equipped with 250or 260-hp engines and 6-speed automatic or lO-speed manual transmissions. The leased and rented units serve a variety of transportation requests, from daily deliveries on scheduled routes to immediate deliveries on non-stop routes.

"Paclease keeps our regular fleet of trucks running by scheduling regular maintenance during offhours and weekends so that delivery schedules are not intemrpted," said Tiffany McClure, Pronto's manager of marketing and acquired business. "And Paclease provides us rental trucks so that we can respond rapidly by increasing or decreasing the number of units in our fleet according to our customers' hot-shot delivery needs."

Trucks are spec'ed to offer drivers a comfortable work environment, to handle stop-and-go traffic, and to maneuver in tight areas-all critical to driver productivity as well as driver retention.

To maximize flexibility in scheduling, Pronto encourages all of its drivers, both employees and independent contractors, to become Transportation Security Administration-certified. Certification allows them to pick up and deliver packages at all DFW and Houston area airports. The company provides training and picks up the cost of that certification, which drivers retain even if they leave the company.

McClure said, "We want our drivers to be happy and productive with the equipment we provide them because we commit a lot of resources to finding, hiring, training and retaining good drivers."