We’ve interviewed dozens of clients over the years for these newsletters. Some who have been with us 10, 20, even 30+ years. This time, we tried something different and interviewed a company that started using Axon about 7 months prior. We spoke with Patty of Keller Trucking about their fresh experience in starting with Axon and hitting the ground running.
Q&A
Tell us about yourself and the company.
I’m Patty Avery and I am the Finance Manager for Keller Trucking. We’re located in Fredericksburg, Texas. I’ve been with the company since April of this year.
The Allen Keller Company has been around for about 75 years in this area. They do a lot of construction, road construction, site work, and things like that. They’ve had a hauling division for about 12 years, and recently they decided to branch it off and create a new company called Keller Trucking.
At Keller Trucking we haul aggregates mainly: sand, gravel, asphalt, granite, and things like that. We have many customers who are local residents. We haul for a lot of big businesses in the area. We also haul heavy equipment. A lot of the time we’ll haul for Allen Keller because they have different jobs going on and need equipment moved. We do a lot of hauling for their customers as well.
Tell us about your experience in getting started with Axon Software.
The billing is easy. They said from the beginning that billing would be very streamlined from the dispatching of tickets.
Billing is done by the following week. We do billing maybe one or two days a week and we’ve got it very streamlined. I’m very happy with it.
The training was great. It started off a little slow because I have been using an accounting software program called QuickBooks for over 20 years, and this is the first time I’ve had to learn something new. The more I use it, logging in every day, I’m just learning more and more.
Axon is very quick to respond when I have a question. They have that great Contact Axon button that I click, and within a few minutes I get a phone call.
Can you compare the Axon billing process to what you did with QuickBooks?
There’s no comparison whatsoever. The billing in QuickBooks can be complicated if you don’t set it up correctly. You’ve got different types of billing depending on what type of business you’re in. It could be construction. It could be the solar industry. It could be an autobody shop. QuickBooks has to be tailored to the client. In Axon, you’re already tailored to trucking.
The billing in Axon is so easy, because I’m only billing one or two types of things: aggregates or equipment hauling. Everything is already there in the dispatched tickets. All I have to do is complete it, add the tax, and I’m done. It’s so quick.
Before Axon, Keller had their own billing department, but I know that it took me a couple of days just to sort through all the paper that came from the truck drivers every week. Then I would hand it off to Allen Keller’s billing department and I think it took them another day just to get it all together. With Axon, it’s so much quicker. I can’t even really explain.
Do drivers like using the Axon Link app as a communication tool?
They like it, yeah. Some of them weren’t very computer literate, but they learned really fast and took to it very well. They like it. From what I can see, the drivers have really acclimated well to it.
In productivity terms, has Axon helped streamline the office?
It’s very streamlined and helpful. Axon has helped us a lot with the camaraderie. Everyone seems to be helping everybody. We’re happy to have it on board. Like I said, it’s saving us time. It’s saving dispatch a lot of time and they’re very happy with it.
Are you able to make sure every ticket is accounted for with nothing missing?
Yes. We’re getting images of all the tickets from the drivers, and they’re uploaded. It’s an easy process for them, and I get to see everything that they’re doing.
When customers ask for ticket copies, it’s very easy to go into that individual ticket and email it to the customer. It’s really fast. I haven’t had a lot of requests because when I email out their invoices all the tickets are attached. It’s so easy.
There’s no more photocopying or mailing. Everything goes through email. We have one or two customers that do want it in the mail, and that’s okay. It’s easy enough to print out a ticket if they want a copy.
Can you compare Axon Support to support that you've gotten from other providers?
Yeah. I can’t say anything good about QuickBooks support. Axon Support is superb. I always get a phone call within a few minutes of me hitting that Contact Axon button. I get an email right away that says, “We’ve got your request. Someone will reach out to you momentarily.” And I get a call.
If the person on the other end can’t help with my question, they’ll call right back or somebody else calls me right back to help out with my issue. Since we’re still new with Axon, I hit that button quite often.
The training for dispatchers was an easy process according to our hauling coordinator, Hector. He did all the training with them. I sat in on that training and it was very easy.
My training was a little slow, because I wasn’t happy with the finance end of Axon at first. It was all new and it wasn’t making sense, but now it’s all making sense. I had to sit down and start using it. When I’m on the phone with Support, I might ask them three or four different things that I didn’t call on initially because I remembered it. So that’s still more training as I’m going through it.
We are already looking into purchasing more equipment. The guys in the background, bigwigs I call them, are thinking 18 months to 2 years down the road, always. I love that about this company. They’re already expecting to purchase more equipment and hire more people.
If somebody in the industry asked about your experience with Axon, what would you say?
I would tell them that they seriously need to look into using Axon for their company. It’s a timesaver and it’s easy to use, especially for drivers. They’re the important ones in the company I think, because they’re out there making money.
I visited a company in Georgia that uses Axon back in May, and they almost doubled their fleet. They didn’t hire any more staff. Jackie B. Lovett Trucking Company. They are fabulous. They were so welcoming for me. Hector went down there initially and sat with their dispatchers, and he really fell in love with Axon at that point. He said, “Wow, this is going to be so easy.”
I was hired in April and in May they sent me down to Jackie B. Lovett. The girls in the accounting office were fabulous. They did a lot of work in a short period of time. They increased their fleet and I thought that was fabulous.
