Josh Grellner of Penley Transportation in Oklahoma City shares a unique perspective. The family-run crude oil and OTR hauler tried to find a cheaper software alternative during a downturn. They ultimately returned because Axon proved “so much better.” Find out how Axon helped them double their fleet with zero increase in admin staff.
Q&A
Tell us about yourself and the company.
My name is Josh Grellner. I’m with Penley Transportation Company based in Oklahoma City. We’re a small family trucking business and we’ve been around since 2013.
My duties with the company are kind of a catch-all – I wear many hats. Data entry, payables, receivables, settlements, payroll. I handle most of the paperwork.
Tell us about how you got into the trucking business.
Back in 2013, my dad and another gentleman got together. The other gentleman brought trucks over and said, “I want to run a trucking company.” My dad already had Penley Oil here, which is our fuel business.
They created Penley Transportation and started hauling crude oil back in 2013. That’s kind of how we got in and just figured it out ever since.
Tell us about your experience with Axon.
We started using Axon for the second time around in 2018. We were using it before that, and we stopped for a year or so in between. Our business slowed down, we lost a lot of business, and we were trying to save on some costs.
We tried cheaper software that wasn’t working out. We ended up coming back because Axon is so much better than anything else we found out there.
Our experience with Axon has been great. I don’t have any complaints whatsoever. It’s very easy to use. I say it’s simple, in a good way, as far as the ease of use. Very minimal employees are needed to operate from behind the scenes here.
I feel like they customized what we needed for certain areas of the business. Everything else we were able to sync into what Axon already had to offer.
Support is great. Anytime we have an issue, they are always there. Click on that help button up in the top corner and send off a ticket, and somebody’s always calling within the next hour. They call, they log on remotely if we have any issues, and usually have the problem solved within a few hours at the most.
How did you find the training with Axon?
The training with Axon was good. It’s been so long. I’m trying to remember. I picked it up really quickly.
When you started with Axon the second time, how many trucks did you operate?
We’ve always been smaller. We probably had 10 trucks when we started it the second time, and we’re up to 20 now. No extra employees on the back-office side. The only new additions were those trucks and those drivers. Axon has definitely allowed us to do that.
You were able to double your fleet with the same staff?
Easily, yeah. And I feel like we could do that again if we needed to.
If you kept using that other program, how many more employees would you need?
I don’t know how many more employees we would have needed if we continued with that other software, but it was just a pain.
I can’t even remember what the software was, but there was so much more data entry. I couldn’t import the stuff.
As I said earlier, we have our crude oil ticketing software. We’re able to export an Excel file and import it directly into Axon. It uploads everything we need for billing, payroll, and settlements. That alone has probably saved us quite a bit of manpower.
How does dispatch work at Penley?
We do things a little bit differently. All my dispatching for crude oil tickets is handled by a gentleman who is actually a driver himself.
I’ve got 10 crude oil trucks and 10 over-the-road trucks who are owner operators, and they all dispatch themselves. We don’t need a true dispatcher. They’ve all got a little bit of skin in the game. They work when they want, and if they don’t work, they don’t get paid. It works for us and has helped us grow because we don’t need that extra dispatcher.
Once they find their loads, they’ll send us the rate confirmation. After they complete the load, they’ll send in the Bill of Lading (BOL). From there, we’re entering that data into Axon, sending it off, and invoicing it out.
Do drivers like their settlement statements?
Oh yeah. I’ve never had any issues with the settlements. I know when we switched over to that other software, drivers were getting hit with double charges on fuel because it wasn’t reconciling it out properly.
But since coming back to Axon, I love it because you can’t double invoice anything. You’re not going to duplicate anything with the same invoice number. It’s going to catch all that for you. It’s going to throw up an error message saying, “Hey, we already have this invoice in here,” which has been great.
The settlements are straightforward and easy to read.
What's your process for invoicing?
For invoicing our crude oil tickets, we bill those out once a month. We import it twice a month because we run our settlements and our payroll twice a month. Then at the end of the month I’ll run an invoice, double-check my work to make sure everything’s correct, and send off that invoice to our crude oil customer.
For all of our OTR trucks, we invoice as soon as the load is complete, and we get all the required paperwork back. I get a copy in my email and a copy uploaded into Axon.
From the perspective of ROI, has Axon paid for itself?
Yeah. Oh, for sure. The return on investment … I don’t know how many more employees we would need if we didn’t have Axon. I couldn’t tell because I never used much of another software besides that one year where it was just kind of a test. But yeah, the return on investment was an easy decision.
If somebody in the industry asked about your experience with Axon, what would you say?
I would recommend it. I don’t really have anything bad to say about it. My experience has been great.
The support is there. If you’re in the trucking business, most likely they can customize anything to work for your business.
How quickly can you get back to customers who have questions or concerns?
When our customers call and need something, it’s usually a matter of moments. I’ll pull up their invoice and have that answer for them on the phone when they call. It’s pretty quick.
We get no complaints. If something is blurry or they ask, “Hey, can we get a new picture or a new copy of that?” you just upload it and send it right back to them within a matter of moments. They definitely like that.
