Quebec and Ontario’s delivery service revolution
In Assocation With
Quebec and Ontario’s
DELIVERY SERVICE REVOLUTION
With over 100 locations across Canada and the U.S., Dicom Transportation Group has the largest and fastest private shipping network in North America. Currently celebrating its golden anniversary, the company is turning to technology to boost efficiency and drive productivity
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ounded in 1968 after Canada Post went on strike, Dicom took advantage of this situation to establish itself as a leading player in the parcel delivery sector. The business then expanded into less than truckload (LTL) services, but what has been key to the company’s ongoing success and longevity? “We have a great group of people working at Dicom. I think the other big thing is our customised solutions,” observes Kirk Serjeantson, CIO. “We really go out of our way to give the customer something different than what the bigger organisations or some of our competitors would give, just because they’re not as flexible in how they approach business. The other is the proud Canadian reputation that we’ve built over the last 50 years.” Exponential expansion One of the majors that has contributed to Dicom’s success is the combination of services that the company offers to its clients. “Typically, what other companies do is they have a strong parcel background like we did, and then they go to less than truckload, they open up separate facilities with
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separate technology,” Serjeantson states. “They almost create a separate company. Instead, what we did was we made sure that our technology and our real estate were all one, so that all the parcel and LTL product is in the same building, managed by the same team, and then it’s managed by the same technology as well.” From there, Dicom expanded into
logistics, servicing large international companies to help deliver their freight across Canada. “That grew fairly exponentially, just on the quality of service and the innovation we were providing. Then we got into truckload, and ultimately in 2014 we were purchased by Wind Point Partners, where we expanded into the US to take that model that was successful
in Canada. Our service expanded more doing final mile deliveries as well as other logistical and truckload services,� explains Serjeantson. A smart platform With a combined area of nearly 20mn sq km, Canada and the US is a formidable service area for any business. “Technology plays a big role,
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Kirk Serjeantson CIO
Kirk Serjeantson joined Dicom as Chief Information Officer in September 2014 after spending the majority of his career in the transportation IT field. Prior to Dicom, he held several CIO and IT leadership positions including Director of Technology Development at Purolator. Prior to Purolator, Serjeantson was the National Operations Systems Manager at Loomis Courier Service. as visibility on parcels and making sure we know where everything is at the right time is crucial. Partner integration is also big, because obviously you can’t cover every point in Canada all the time, or the US, so we make sure that if we partner with someone, our systems are communicating with each other very succinctly and
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effectively,” advises Serjeantson. “We have what we call our smart4 platform. This has been the focus of our technology for the last couple of years. It’s broken into four components – a new shipping system, which is smart4 shipping, a new tracking system known as smart4 tracking, smart4 mobility
“THE QUOTE THAT I TELL EVERYONE IS THAT THE BATTLE FOR TRANSPORTATION WOULD BE LOST AND WON ON THE FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY. I JUST THINK IT’S GOING TO BE, IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW CHEAP YOU ARE” – Kirk Serjeantson, CIO
is a new mobile program, and smart4 integration is our integration platform that connects everything together, including our customers.” Operating efficiently Technology is revolutionising industries across the globe and transportation is no different. “The quote that I tell everyone is that the battle for transportation would be lost and won on the field of technology. I just think it’s going to be, it doesn’t matter how cheap you are. People are going to want a certain level of service, and technology might drive some cost savings that can be
passed back to the customer. I think it’ll be that sort of loop of ‘here’s the value I’m giving you, oh, and I can work on my cost better because I’m more efficient’,” Serjeantson states. “We’re using internet of things and gamification which are working together. We’ve got telematics in our trucks, which connect into our backend. We’ve got information from our backend connecting to that, and we’ve got driver inputs coming from mobile devices. All this is working together to make our operations more efficient, as well as to inspire the drivers to work a little harder through incentive programmes.”
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Higher productivity doing,” comments Serjeantson. As a holder of four patents, technology “If you sign an account with a and innovation are clearly company, and it is three floors at the core of Dicom’s up and you’ve got to wait operations. “We’re for an elevator, why getting into wearables should that costing now, and we model be the same released our first as someone where was founded in smartwatch for you go and drop a both the driver and package off on the for our customers first floor very quickly? this year, as well as It helps us gauge the some pretty innovative drivers, and it helps the customer apps to help them drivers, too. They know how manage their data a bit better. The quickly they’re moving. They’re ownerwearable tech is one of our patents. operators, so they want to get in and Giving the driver a watch, we can get out. Now we can track better how cover the steps, we can understand they are facilitating their deliveries what type of deliveries they are so that it’s profitable for them.”
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WITH MORE THAN 105 LOCATIONS, DICOM TRANSPORTATION GROUP HAS THE LARGEST AND FASTEST PRIVATE SHIPPING NETWORK IN QUEBEC AND ONTARIO
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Watch utilisation also makes the operation more efficient for clients. “They can store their signature on that watch so when the driver comes in, it connects to the driver’s phone, it says the driver’s here, he’s got five packages. Instead of walking across the room, I can look over to the driver that I’ve been working with for years and go, ‘yep, there’s five packages.’”
Serjeantson explains. “They can just tap their watch, it’ll send their signature to the driver and the driver can leave. Both the customer and driver’s productivity are much higher.” Later this year, Dicom will also release a smartphone app where clients can store a signature and tap to send to the driver when their delivery arrives.
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“WE’RE NOT SO BIG THAT IT’S HARD TO TURN THE SHIP, BUT WE’RE NOT SO SMALL THAT WE CAN’T INVEST IN COOL TECHNOLOGY, WE’RE IN THAT SWEET SPOT” – Kirk Serjeantson, CIO
Driving excitement Having been in business for half a century, Dicom certainly shows no signs of slowing down. “We’re going to expand our footprint in the US and Canada – keep growing and taking those services and putting them in more places,” Serjeantson states. “I think also tighter integration with some of our partners to ensure that even if we don’t have a Dicom truck, per se, in
an area, we’re partnered with someone who can get that freight there with the same level of quality that we do. “We’re going to continue to innovate. We’re not so big that it’s hard to turn the ship, but we’re not so small that we can’t invest in cool technology. We’re in that sweet spot. We’re going to continue to create new and exciting solutions with the hope that we can drive excitement in the industry.”
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10500 Ave Ryan Dorval, Quebec Tel. 1-888-463-4266 www.dicom.com