Smoothing the bumps in the road with Coolfire
Denver-based logistics provider goes full speed with collaboration technology
Coolfire’s collaboration solution for communicating with carriers on the road is making everybody’s lives easier. For the first time we have full, real-time visibility and updates from all our carriers on the move.
In this Story
When it comes to managing the supply chain, Acme Distribution operates under the philosophy of providing exemplary service and value to customers. With several hundred employees and an executive team possessing over 100+ years of combined knowledge in logistics and supply chain, customers have come to expect a reliable and quality-driven service.
With the incredible strides having been made with apps and Software as a Service (SaaS) technology platforms, they wanted to find an appropriate end-to-end solution to completely smooth over some pain points or bumps in the road they had been experiencing. These included:
Lack of functionality to get live, real-time updates from third-party carriers anywhere on the road in the United States
Inability to provide real-time updates to customers on every aspect of delivery
Absence of notifications for potential late delivery of loads
Delayed or inaccessible uploads and viewability of critical transportation documents such as bill of lading and proof of delivery (POD)
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Acme Distribution, a Denver-based leader in providing logistics and dynamic supply management for nearly 75 years, offers diverse and well-tailored services for customers in need of transportation, warehousing, and fulfillment solutions. They provide full logistics support to over 400 clients in 18 different industry verticals.
In a letter to the organization, Jeff Goldfogel, President and CEO of Acme Distribution, summed up the company’s commitment to its customers and community:
Since 1947, Acme has been recognized as not only a prominent innovator in the world of logistics, but also as a highly respected business and community leader in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West. Our proud history and strong values have served our company, our associates, and our customers very well.
For national freight and transportation jobs, Acme Distribution acts as a third-party logistics (3PL) freight broker for the entire continental United States. They also have their own fleet of approximately 30 trucks dedicated for local use in the Denver Metro area market.
As a company striving to improve its services and technology when it comes to delivering best-in-class and A+ quality logistics support, Acme Distribution frequently takes inventory of workstream challenges impacting execution.
Coolfire bringing visibility to update third-party carrier drivers in real-time.
Acme Distribution did some research on potential communication and collaboration platforms for a logistics provider of its size. Ultimately, they reached out and decided to engage Coolfire. Coolfire’s Core platform enables distributed and fast-moving teams a way to organize workflow and communications in real-time.
After an initial discovery conversation, the Coolfire platform was configured to address Acme’s main pain points. By centralizing Acme’s multi-carrier operations into a single dashboard, the Coolfire tool gave the team real-time visibility to all the loads of its outside carriers.
Additionally, with this visibility into third-party carriers coming from one central platform, Acme Distribution could effectively track every aspect of delivery operations. Coolfire’s streamlined approach saved an estimated 10 minutes on each carrier inquiry across hundreds of loads each year.
Along with the deployment of the Coolfire software, Acme Distribution was able to get more timely updates from third-party carriers about any potential late loads. This information could then be easily communicated down the line to customers waiting for updates on delivery status.
Moreover, the Coolfire platform made it easy to upload critical shipping documents such as the bill of lading and final proof of delivery (POD). Organizing these docs in a shared digital space simplified access to those who needed it when they needed it.
Erica Martinez, the Assistant Transportation Office Manager at Acme Distribution, said “The entire deployment from engagement to pilot took approximately three months. We chose to do a beta test with four of our largest accounts and carriers. It was so rewarding to see all of this come together successfully in the pilot. She further added, “We are now planning to expand into some of our other industry verticals because it was so easy to onboard new customers—it takes less than a minute.”
Enabling collaborative operations for 3PLs
Centralizing multi-carrier operations into a single view helps Acme Distribution keep its fast-moving operations organized, communicate in real-time, and make decisions based on the delivery context.
Acme Distribution now runs its entire operation in a centralized view. Ops managers see the location, status, and ETA for delivery–allowing the team to communicate and coordinate their actions.
Mobile views allow a manager to see the entire operation or individual contributors to see only the jobs assigned to them.
Looking Towards the Future
The road ahead for Acme Distribution has several important milestones in the works with Coolfire. There are plans to expand the platform to cover other verticals and get its internal fleet of trucks on the platform.
Another critical milestone is integrating the Coolfire platform with another legacy business system used regularly by Acme Distribution—A1 Tracker Logistics. This system is predominately used for tracking orders, freight, and associated costs.
Lastly, Acme Distribution is evaluating the Coolfire platform to help manage other aspects of their business, including warehousing and fulfillment.