Information Builders > Case Studies > Maverick Transportation Moves Into the Passing Lane With Real-Time Analytics

Maverick Transportation Moves Into the Passing Lane With Real-Time Analytics

Company Size

1,000+

Region

America

Country

Canada
United States

Product

WebFOCUS Developer Studio
WebFOCUS Mobile
Maintain
DB2/400 adapter
Microsoft SQL Server adapter

Tech Stack

IBM DB2
Microsoft SQL Server
IBM iSeries

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Digital Expertise
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Visualization

Applicable Industries

Transportation

Applicable Functions

Human Resources
Logistics & Transportation
Maintenance

Use Cases

Fleet Management
Personnel Tracking & Monitoring
Predictive Maintenance

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services
System Integration

About The Customer

Maverick Transportation is one of the largest flatbed transportation companies in the U.S. With corporate offices in Little Rock, Arkansas, Maverick operates more than 1,200 vehicles that specialize in hauling steel, glass, machinery, and building materials throughout the U.S and Canada. The privately held company has been in business for 30 years and is always on the move, as evidenced by the recent addition of a temperature-controlled division. With safety and technology leading the way, its new temp-control trailers are equipped with two-way communications, door sensors, fuel sensors, and the capability to load 47,000 pounds. Compliance with government regulations, safety concerns, ongoing fleet maintenance requirements, and a notoriously high driver turnover rate are just a few of the challenges that market leaders in the transportation sector must contend with. In an industry where margins are slim, the ability to carefully scrutinize all aspects of its business is crucial to Maverick’s success.

The Challenge

Maverick Transportation, one of the largest flatbed transportation companies in the U.S., was seeking more efficient ways to distribute current information, reports, and metrics throughout the enterprise. The company faced challenges such as compliance with government regulations, safety concerns, ongoing fleet maintenance requirements, and a notoriously high driver turnover rate. In an industry where margins are slim, the ability to carefully scrutinize all aspects of its business was crucial to Maverick’s success. However, Maverick’s existing reporting tools made it difficult to combine operational and financial data, hindering the company’s ability to closely monitor key activities. The company embarked on an initiative to expand its financial reporting package and evaluated several reporting and business intelligence (BI) vendors.

The Solution

Maverick chose the Information Builders WebFOCUS BI platform. Workers at headquarters and on the road now depend on WebFOCUS scorecards and dashboards to track critical business functions such as safety, accounting, and human resources. With WebFOCUS, Maverick can more precisely measure performance, track progress towards corporate goals, and achieve strict growth and profitability objectives. Maverick’s first big accomplishment with WebFOCUS involved replacing all financials and margin statements with WebFOCUS reports. Brown and his team used WebFOCUS to develop financial dashboards that consolidate data from IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, and other databases into integrated reports. Then they created dashboards that let people visualize and drill down into the data. WebFOCUS runs on an IBM iSeries computer. Some reports are drawn from a data warehouse and others from production DB2 databases associated with particular business applications, all through high-performance WebFOCUS adapters, which make native connections to these databases.

Operational Impact

More than 400 people depend on WebFOCUS reports and dashboards. The information helps company leaders manage costs, improve margins, and maximize profitability.
Fleet managers use a dashboard to supervise about 50 drivers. The dashboard has multiple tabs to help managers monitor a tremendous influx of information, continually transmitted from the drivers and their vehicles – everything from vehicle breakdowns to hardbraking incidents to route and location updates.
In the finance department, WebFOCUS scorecards help managers track profitability and manage costs by presenting a series of important key performance indicators (KPIs). Users can personalize their dashboards by deciding what reports they see and how they see them.
WebFOCUS not only tracks the cost of maintaining all the trucks in the fleet, but also supplies predictive maintenance models that help fleet managers to forecast maintenance costs, manage budgets, and predict upcoming repairs.
WebFOCUS has also improved the way Maverick monitors driver training. In the past, the recruiting and training department passed around spreadsheets to report on new drivers.

Quantitative Benefit