We stopped in for an interview with Francine, the office manager at Double M Trucking in Illinois. We wanted to hear about her experience with the popular trucking management software systems Double M has tried and to compare them to Axon’s fully integrated system after making the switch three years prior.
Q&A
Tell us about yourself and the company.
My name is Francine Maseda, the office manager with Double M Trucking in Lansing, Illinois. We move oversized, overweight parts, beams, and other construction pieces.
We started using Axon June 1, 2020, in the middle of the year, moving from QuickBooks to Axon. I have used QuickBooks, TMW, and Axon. I absolutely love Axon. It’s so easy.
Can you compare Axon Support with other software providers you've used?
They have a great support staff. When you call in there and ask for support, if they don’t have the answer, they’ll call you right back.
QuickBooks doesn’t have support. You just Google and hope for the best.
When you call TMW, you get put on hold for hours sometimes. You have to go through the automated process: push 1; if you’re on this support system, push 2. You finally get to a person who says, “What’s your issue? I’ll take your message, and someone will get back to you.” You email and they don’t respond back.
Axon doesn’t do that. With Axon, I can ask for someone, and if they’re not there, they can get me somebody else. You get help immediately.
Axon has a support system built inside of it also, which is really great. It has all kinds of information and links that send you where you need to go. If you can’t get it through there and you call support, they’ll link to your computer and see exactly what you see.
You’re not trying to say, “Well, up in the right-hand corner…” and nobody knows what you’re talking about. They know.
Has Axon changed the way you do business here?
Payroll and invoicing used to take forever. With Axon, you are able to start from the load, move into it, do the driver’s pay, and then invoice. I can batch up my invoicing and payroll in about 45 minutes. That’s it. Instead of taking two days for me to go through everything.
Because we are oversized and overweight, we have to account for permits and everything. That takes longer, because getting it back from the state takes longer. Then Axon makes it go whoosh and right out the door.
With QuickBooks, it takes forever. QuickBooks does not integrate into the trucking system. You have to wait for the driver to get back. You have to wait for the dispatcher to give you everything. It takes forever.
With TMW, it has to be put into there and wait for it all to be processed and cleared. They have a whole system of actualization and all this other hoohaw that you have to do. Then, once you’re done there, you have to invoice through their payroll and integrate it into Microsoft Great Plains. It takes a lot longer to do. It used to take us six days to get it all together. It took forever.
With Axon, all our drivers upload to the app, and it goes. It’s literally day and night.
Do drivers like their statements?
Yes, they really like them. Our drivers get a percentage of the load amount and we pay them an overnight per diem every time they stay out. They get everything broken down. They can track each load. They can track their overnights and reimbursements each way.
I’ve used TMW, and it doesn’t do it that way. It just lumps it in. QuickBooks lumps it in. This is all broken out. My drivers know. And they will let me know if I’ve missed an overnight because they’re able to see. I can go right back in, put it in, and it falls right onto the next week, showing which load it’s tied to.
Do you use the system's revenue and equipment reports?
The revenue reports are fabulous. We use them every week. I close out the books and I print them out. We see how much each truck is costing us. We know when we’re spending a lot of money on equipment for repairs. “Maybe it’s time to sell this truck?” Because of Axon, we knew that a truck needed to go. It was costing us way too much money.
We’re running kind of an experiment. We have a new truck versus some older ones that have been rebuilt. We are tracking how much repairs cost on the new ones and the old ones, which one is making or costing us money. Because of Axon’s reports, I’m able to pull the two trucks that I’m looking at instantly. I can give them right over to our GM. We’re going to buy two new trucks because of these reports.
If you started adding more trucks, would you need more staff?
I actually don’t think I’d need more office staff to do invoicing or billing. Dispatching might need more because they’re going to be crazier. But Axon makes it so easy to dispatch. You just build the load and it goes right to their Truck Link app. Then we print out paperwork and let them get their permits. The admin staff would definitely not increase.
The invoicing, the billing, the payroll, it’s all tied together. It goes so fast. Once I’m given the paperwork that says it’s good to invoice out, I do my payroll at the same time. So it’s done.
How does the Axon Truck Link App work for you?
It’s pretty great. We have some older drivers – two of our drivers have been driving for over 30 years. Getting a guy like that to use an app and take pictures and upload them is a feat. But they do it.
And it’s easy. And I don’t care if there’s a thumb or whatever in the picture, we can crop them out when I get them back.
They like that their dispatch comes on their phone, and they can see it. They know, “Okay here it all is. I go to here, here, here.” And off they go. That’s what they like about it. When we are moving these big beams, our drivers take videos, upload, and send them back. “The beam looks good. No scratches, no dents. I’m on my way.”
Drivers are able to upload pictures of the BOLs with the app and then we are able to get our invoices out. I don’t want to wait 10 days to get an invoice out because that means I’m getting paid slower.
With this app, because they upload everything, I’m getting paid faster.
Do you find the software easy to use?
It’s really easy. For me, it makes sense. Everything flows and makes sense. It goes where it needs to go.
When people in the industry ask about your experience with Axon, what do you say?
Working with Axon is really nice. It makes it simple and easy. Everything flows smoothly – if that makes sense. I have a great time with it actually.
You know what’s funny? We had a guy that we were doing a load for, and he was looking for a new system. He liked the way our invoices came over to him. He said, “Who are you using?” and I said, “I’m using Axon.” I think I sold him on going to Axon because he liked the way it looked.
For me, it’s smooth billing. It’s nice. That’s what I was telling him. I said, “You can cut down on your admin staff.” He’s got four girls in the office and he’s paying an arm and a leg for them. I said, “You’d need one person.”
