General Trucking, Inc. of Warren, Michigan, was founded in November 2006 by two friends and relatives raised within the transportation industry. Both sons of veteran owner/operators, Irman and Emil used their trucking experience to form a new company with only a single truck and the ambition to achieve something great. The partners have since transformed the company into a full-fledged carrier and broker serving the entire US, predominantly the Midwest, South, and East Coast. The company primarily hauls automotive parts, with additional business in general commodities, bulk materials, and produce.

Since its founding, General Trucking employed a homegrown solution of spreadsheets, databases, online documents, and paper to handle its dispatching and other operational needs. As the company steadily grew, there came a point where these methods were insufficient to handle the increasing business. With their fleet having grown to 30 trucks and a busy office bustling with several administrative staff, it became critical to simplify and consolidate. “It started to get chaotic because none of our recordkeeping methods tied together in any way,” said co-owner Emil. “Once your company gets to a certain size, it just becomes impossible to track everything yourself. The system starts holding you back instead of letting you grow. We really needed to simplify things if we were going to take on more business and achieve any real growth.”

Irman and Emil searched for a new solution to integrate the pieces of their trucking and brokerage operation. They looked at several popular software packages but were put off by the overwhelming costs common to enterprise-level solutions. Many would require an initial fee, a monthly fee, and even per-load fees, which would prove too costly for the growing company’s tight budget. Finally, they found the Prophesy DispatchSeries trucking software suite and saw a promising solution that would meet their every need, at a set cost that was far less than comparable systems.

The partners viewed a live demonstration of the software with Prophesy National Sales Manager Kevin Pasternack. In addition to being comparatively inexpensive, the software was modular, allowing them to purchase only the pieces they required to meet specific needs. They found it was also scalable and would therefore grow as the company grew, allowing them to expand at their own pace.

“I love the modular approach that Prophesy takes with its software,” said Emil. “When we first purchased the software we were interested in the fuel card import option but just didn’t have the need or budget for it at the time. But a few months later when we were able, it was very easy to add it into our system and start using it. And even now, we see other Prophesy options that will definitely come in handy in the future when we’re ready to use them.”

For their company’s dispatching and accounting, Irman and Emil initially invested in Prophesy Dispatch with QuickBooks^® Interface including the SQL upgrade for speed, as well as the multi-company and brokerage add-ons to handle their brokerage operation. They also purchased modules for fuel tax reporting, commercial mileage and routing, driver log auditing, driver management, and online load posting. A six-user license allowed them to fully equip each of their office staff with the tools they needed to stay on top of the daily operations of the business.

Irman and Emil received and implemented the software with no outside assistance from technical consultants. Company staff then enrolled in phone- and internet-based training with expert Prophesy software instructor Steve Knauber. “It was very helpful to sit with an instructor and see the software in action,” said Emil. “We were able to ask as many questions as we needed, and we even used our own data so we could see how everything would work once we went live.”

With the Prophesy solutions implemented, General Trucking has overcome all of its past restrictions. Its fleet of 30 vehicles is no longer a burden to handle, but a smoothly running means to deliver services to customers and bring in steady revenue. The fleet can now be scaled up indefinitely without running into bottlenecks in the software. The office staff is also enjoying improved productivity and communication due to the seamless integration of the Prophesy modules, which minimizes data entry and ensures that any needed data is always at everyone’s fingertips. The company is now taking on more customers as well as additional business from existing customers. For the future, General Trucking is currently reviewing Prophesy modules to handle fleet maintenance, mobile communications, and document imaging for their company.

“Another thing that appeals to us with Prophesy is the human factor,” said Emil. “Everyone we’ve dealt with is very personable and eager to help, and I think this goes a long way, even beyond the functionality of the software. When you have software loaded with impressive features that no one wants to help you with, the software becomes useless. After purchasing Prophesy, I didn’t feel thrown away. Everyone is willing to go out of their way to help. For example, our software instructor Steve offered to reorganize his personal schedule just to make one of our sessions. I’ve also made several suggestions for software enhancements, and already some of them have been incorporated. This makes the software more powerful and relevant to our way of doing business, and it makes us feel like we are literally part of the software.”

Irman concluded, “We want to grow our company, but we’re taking care to do that slowly and steadily, and Prophesy is really helping us do it with success. The software allows us to take on new opportunities as they open, at our own pace and on our own terms.”

For more information on Prophesy's Total Solution for Trucking, email moreinfo@mile.com or call 800-776-6706.