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Canhaul.com
Online Service Finds Empty Trucks for Shippers
A Company Built on Innovation Creates a New Technology Mix
Challenge
Trucks frequently return to home base empty after making their deliveries. This is a drain on the truck owner's revenue and a needless waste of fuel. It can also be frustrating for shippers who may be looking for a truck going in a particular direction and be unable to find one, even though there are empty trucks on the road.
In Edmonton, a group of five entrepreneurs formed a company called Canhaul.com in 2006, offering a service to enable truckers to advertise the location and availability of their trucks in a way that makes it easy for shippers to find a match.
Canhaul wanted to provide the utmost in service from the beginning. It needed a way to take calls from shippers and trucking companies interested in using the service, without the callers encountering busy signals or waiting for messages to be returned.
Solution
Canhaul developed a way to combine global-positioning and call-centre technology into a system for sales management and order processing, as part of an innovative service to improve efficiency in the trucking industry.
Canhaul.com enables trucking companies, truck owners, shippers and freight brokers to advertise the availability, location, specifications and destinations of their vehicles and shipped goods. Consumers and businesses needing to move shipments simply enter the date, location, and trailer type they require and Canhaul.com generates an instant list of any trucks in the area that match.
It also plots those loads on a Google map, complete with pictures of the loads themselves. Every truck and load on the system appears as markers on a Google map that can be viewed by clicking the markers. Customers can see exactly where a potential match is for their truck or shipment.
In starting up the business, Canhaul's principals could have provided a central phone number and made use of voice mail when they were unavailable to take calls. But they found a better solution by applying the CallCentreAnywhere service from TELUS.
CallCentreAnywhere provided Canhaul.com with a multimedia call centre solution without any capital investment. The solution is hosted at a TELUS Internet data centre, where it's monitored and managed at all times.
The call centre feeds data into the Canhaul system based on customers' calls. When a trucker calls, for example, and gives the location of his empty flatbed, the call taker records the information on a computer screen and it enters into the Canhaul sales-force management application. The application matches that truck availability with any request on the system from a shipper in the area requiring truck transportation. A Google map then directs the trucker to the site.
Results
Canhaul.com saves money for both truckers and shippers, creates new revenue opportunities for truckers and cuts down on the amount of fuel wasted. User listings reached 300 only four months after its launch.
The outsourced call-centre solution makes it easy for all the stakeholders to contact Canhaul and make use of its service. Canhaul's own communications and IT staff can concentrate on the business, without having to worry about technical call-centre issues.
Innovative Use of Technology
Canhaul is innovative in its use of Google maps, enabling customers to get a bird's-eye view of every load and truck on the system. By plotting GPS co-ordinates of every city, town and village in North America, Canhaul lets users know exactly where every opportunity lies right to its exact GPS location.
Since the time of its CIPA entry, Canhaul has incorporated into its Web site a GPS technology called Stealth Trak from TransMobile Corp. to offer a "Mobile Match" service. This means customers can enter their existing GPS co-ordinates into the freight matching system. Truckers no longer have to post their vehicles. All they need to do is drive down the highway and they are automatically matched with potential hauling oportunities within a pre-set perimeter around their current position.
Because Canhaul is the only freight-matching company using GPS co-ordinates or maps, it stands to become a standard to be copied in the entire industry.
A 2007 CIPA Winner!
For its exceptional application of information technology to transform processes and bring benefits to its stakeholders, Canhaul.com has been awarded a 2007 CIPA Gold Award of Excellence in the Innovation, For Profit category.
Technology Partners
Salesforce.com
TELUS Communications Inc.
TransMobile Corp.
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