Trucking Company Drives Business Efficiency with Document Capture Automation

Since its start in 1986, V&S Midwest Carriers Corp. has held a never-ending commitment to exceeding customer satisfaction by providing quality truckload carrier services throughout the 48 contiguous United States. Headquartered in Kaukauna, WI, V&S Midwest Carriers has grown from a one truck operation to over 150 running vehicles, delivering freight nationwide in the most professional and time-efficient manner.

V&S Midwest Carriers is known for a high-level of stability and service. However, the award-winning company’s booming success led to a growing document inventory, which was interfering with employee productivity and organization. From delivery receipts to billing paperwork, managing the influx of documents was nothing short of tedious.

Each driver would return with a signed Bill of Lading (BOL), with data which had to be manually filed by administrative staff. When it came time to bill the customer for services provided, the BOL would have to be located, as staff sifting through paperwork, matched messy handwriting with bill numbers and manually captured the data, again. Committed to technology and the constant improvement of operations, V&S Midwest Carriers knew that to solve the paperwork pile up, they’d have to implement an innovative solution for document automation.

V&S Midwest Carriers was seeking the ability to automate document capture with a solution that automatically archived each document by file type. They were also in need of a single storage platform that would greatly simplify document retrieval, streamline the collection of delivery paperwork and improve workflow and overall productivity.

To solve business needs, V&S Midwest Carriers implemented GlobalCapture® from Square 9 Softworks. A next-generation capture solution, GlobalCapture immediately took over 60% of the trucking company’s administrative workload through the creation of automated process workflows, which stored documents into Square 9’s award-winning GlobalSearch® content management solution.

From simple archiving workflows –indexing files by name – to complicated multi-step processes, GlobalCapture also enabled V&S Midwest Carriers to capture documents directly from their in house Mobile Driver App and release them to GlobalSearch. By integrating Square 9’s solutions with their Mobile Driver App, drivers can now scan BOLs the moment they’re signed, directly through their mobile device. GlobalSearch immediately recognizes the document type and data, allowing V&S Midwest Carriers to bill that customer within a matter of minutes.

GlobalSearch has greatly reduced the amount of manual paperwork processing, enabling V&S Midwest Carriers to eliminate nearly $35,000 in labor costs each year. Now, the capture automation process begins as soon as a delivery or pickup request is initiated, with all associated documentation – emails, receipts, invoices, BOLs, image files, etc. – efficiently indexed within one seamless, digital platform for immediate retrieval at a moment’s notice.

With a document capture automation solution, V&S Midwest Carriers has improved the management of paperwork, freeing up employee time to become more productive. Not only have office processes improved but drivers no longer drop off paperwork at the end of each day, giving V&S Midwest Carriers an additional $100,000 saved in truck expenses. Pleased with the results, V&S Midwest Carriers is certain that their investment in Square 9’s software solutions will continue to pay off, year after year.

Learn more about V&S Midwest Carriers Corp. at http://vsmidwest.com/.

Interview: Don Dains, VP of Technology and Operations, V&S Midwest Carriers Corp.

Q. What business challenges led you to Square 9’s software solutions?

Don Dains: Our biggest challenge was the amount of paperwork we deal with daily. We needed to be able to get to a document quickly and find what we were looking for in a short period. From the BOLs, to a lot of different documents including truck and trailer purchases, permits, and the documentation for each driver that comes to work for us; it’s a document heavy business and we want to be able to manage them efficiently.

Q. How have daily processes changed since implementing GlobalSearch?

Dains: Our main goal was to have the ability to make more Archives on the fly. The system that we had before was unable to do that and GlobalSearch can handle this without a problem. Now that we have GlobalSearch we can create a Driver Archive for our Safety Department so they can start scanning anything about the drivers into a folder. Medical cards, vacation request forms, anything that has to do with the drivers can be stored in the Archive. We can then scan in pictures as well, so if there were ever an accident, pictures could be stored and easily accessed later on. We can also create a Power Unit Archive to show permits, original bill of sale, and all the documentation that comes from buying, selling and everything in between. So, if I need that information, I’ll be able to get to it without a problem.

Driver payroll and billing have also changed drastically. Before when we had paperwork, a driver would turn it in, sort it out, send it to the right department and then have to scan and index it away. With GlobalSearch and our Mobile Driver App a huge chunk of work is now gone. We can now scan it in, search for the driver and timeframe, and the trip sheet and documentation is right there.

Q. In what ways has Square 9’s product suite improved business performance?

Dains: We have 150 trucks that deliver two and half loads per week. Each load usually creates at least five documents, which ends up being 2,000 documents per week. Thanks to GlobalSearch these are no longer manually indexed. This is a huge relief inside the office. As for our truck drivers, they no longer have to go those ten extra miles out of route to deliver their paperwork on time, saving us an additional $2,000 a week.

Q. Do you plan to expand your use of GlobalSearch?

Dains: Yes, we do! We attended the Square 9 Encompass Conference where we learned about a lot of useful resources that we can implement in other departments here at V&S. First would be our Accounting department for payroll and paystubs and from there we will expand to others where we can execute the basic capabilities of the document filing system. In our Accounts Payable department, we are currently scanning in the bills we get and entering them into the system. But ideally, we would like to use GlobalCapture to capture those documents into our system and enter the line item data without as much human intervention.

Success Story: V&S Midwest Carriers