INNOVATORS Roger Schmidt (left) founded Liquid Trucking. His son, Gabe (middle), is director of operations, and Josh Schmidt (right) is general manager.
FREIGHT ‘LIQUIDITY’ Liquid Trucking rewards reconnaissance BY AARON HUFF
E
very time a trucking company loses a tenured driver, the institutional knowledge the driver gained by working for the company walks out the door. As a tanker and hazardous materials carrier, Liquid Trucking has many safety and customer service procedures to learn to avoid accidents and spills at thousands of locations every year. Getting drivers accurate information in a timely manner – like where to turn at each customer site, what to avoid, who to ask for and what numbers to call – always had been a challenge. After looking at different technology products to address the need, in 2015 the owners and management of Liquid Trucking decided to invest in developing a proprietary mobile application that would allow drivers to share location intelligence and access everything they needed to do their jobs. The DeliveRecon app, released later that year, gives drivers the ability to share their knowledge through editable fields to update addresses, phone numbers and instructions by adding text, photos, videos and audio clips. The uploads are approved by a safety manager and enter DeliveRecon’s database in the cloud. The app also has a two-way integration with TMWSuite, a transportation management system that Liquid Trucking uses from Trimble, to automatically export customer locations to DeliveRecon and update approved edits from drivers to the location fields in TMWSuite. With DeliveRecon, Liquid Trucking is able to capture and redistribute all the information that previously walked out the door. When dispatched on a route, to see location information, drivers simply tap a “Near Me” function to view nearby customers, tank washes and site-specific instructions instantly. “We’re letting the drivers essentially train one another,” said Jason Eisenmann, human resources director for the Plattsmouth, Neb.-based fleet. “Our newer drivers are able to hit the ground running.” DeliveRecon also has workflow tools for drivers to capture and index proof-of-delivery documents and file incident reports.
LIQUID TRUCKING Plattsmouth, Neb. In January 2016, Liquid Trucking spun off a separate company, Epic Ideas, to develop a commercial enterprise version of DeliveRecon by partnering with Volano Solutions, an Omaha, Nebraska-based software development firm. Epic Ideas is offering DeliveRecon to the industry as a mobile platform that combines location-based mobile customer relationship management (CRM), automated workflow and connectivity features to the transportation industry through a Software-as-a-Service. A fluid business model Liquid Trucking was born in 1994 when Roger Schmidt and Mike Beins started a new venture called OFC/Schmidt Liquid Services. Schmidt previously had founded a dry van carrier in 1989 that by 1994 had grown to 10 trucks. A pivotal moment in the business came in the early 2000s during a mad cow disease outbreak in Europe. The disease created a scare in the United States, and shippers required carriers to wash out trailers before loading animal feed. This event caused Schmidt to research trailer wash facilities. He drove to locations nationwide before starting construction on a wash bay south of Omaha near the Missouri River in Plattsmouth. The wash facility has a steam boiler, a high-speed spinner and other tools and equipment. It is Kosher-certified and has washouts for all food-grade and feed-grade commodities, chemicals and
The tank carrier leverages its driver pay structure, rewards program, surveys and mobile app as it adjusts to new market opportunities. commercial carrier journal
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