All shipping companies start out equal. The difference is in how they perform. X-Tra Delivers is a good example of a typical delivery service that skyrocketed to the top of their industry because of the implementation of a much needed technological advancement.

The Company in General

In Arizona and New Mexico, X-Tra Delivers Ltd is now considered to be one of the most prestigious delivery and shipping services. The company was first started in 1967 under the name of Extra Deliveries. It consisted of only eight trucks and specialized in shipping oversized passenger luggage between airports and the delivery of packages for the USPS. They stayed in business for a good while, but companies like UPS who were much larger eventually halted their operations.

What is their Problem?

Demand overrode the small company's ability to keep up. Prior to the arrival of more efficient delivery services, this was not a problem. The problem appeared when the larger fleets showed up and their costs and shipping times were lower and they had more trucks. Extra simply could not compete. While those times did not have the technological advancements that they do today, companies with more trucks were much more efficient in the service that they provide and Extra Deliveries could not keep up.

Extra Deliveries went out of business in 1983 and thus began an era of large fleet delivery services.

Jacob was the son of company founder Thomas Dillon. He decided to once again reopen the business in 1992 under the name of X-Tra Delivers. Starting out he had a fleet of 16 trucks which each ran separate routes. The way he saw it, by doing this, his trucks would keep moving and he could eliminate unnecessary hours and refueling. If he could keep each truck designated to one piece of a highway, the other trucks would not be overlapping them. However, he did not full conceptualize this problem.

Jacob had each of his drivers keeping track of their own time sheets and their own fuel consumption. As time went on, Jacob began to find inaccuracies in the reports that seemed to reoccur. Eventually, these inaccuracies led to some expense. Customer service was lacking and complaints began to come in regarding driver efficiency.

This was definitely not the company that he had intended. It was becoming painfully clear why his father shut the original business down.

Finding a Solution

Six years of barely making a profit, a revolving door of drivers, and steadily increasing fuel prices showed Jacob that X-Tra Delivers was in need of a change. Installing a GPS Vehicle Tracker system in each of their vehicles would allow them to better control some parts of both driver and vehicle performance. They could record and evaluate all of the important data such as idling times, speed traveled, overall fuel consumption, and stops and starts. Productivity would increase as the efficiency of fleet management improved.

The vehicle trackers that Jacob chose for use in X-Tra's trucks were completely hands free for the drivers. Through the use of computer at the office, he could collect real-time information and historical data. He could pinpoint a driver's exact location on a map and then relay the fastest and safest way to the next destination from there. Doing this allowed for an efficiency level that was almost ten times greater than previously, the hours that were logged were finally accurate and error free, and the amount of fuel consumed by the drivers was reduced.

X-Tra Delivers Finds Cost Savings and Many Benefits

Decreased fuel consumption due to better route mapping

Decreased labor costs due to the creation of electronic time sheets.

Decreased time spent in traffic jams or getting lost.

Decreased amount of customer service complaints and better on-time delivery statistics

Decreased security risks due to trouble locating trucks and cargo that were unaccounted for.