“WE STARTED WITH 10-15 TRUCKS AND WENT TO 90 WITHIN A YEAR AND A HALF…WITH THE SAME STAFF! WITHOUT AXON, WE WOULD HAVE NEEDED AT LEAST FIVE MORE STAFF!””
M Company Transport of San Antonio, TX, has recently gone through a period of incredible growth. We stopped in for an interview with Erica to get the scoop on the secrets to their success … and how much the switch to Axon Software had to do with it.
My name is Erica Torres Martinez and I am the billing person for M Company Transport. We have been in business for about five years now. We are located in south Texas, in San Antonio, and we haul frac sand all over the state. We have a merger with RGB starting this year, and we’re looking forward to making that transition and growing the company.
I helped my husband build the company. He has been in the trucking industry for about 12 years, starting as an owner operator. We just wanted to start something fresh and grow. We knew we could do it. We have contracts with oil fields, so it worked out.
It was a headache in the beginning. We had a lot of Excel spreadsheets, a lot of paperwork, and nothing was electronic. Everything was by text message or email. Then we got ITS Dispatch and it worked for a little while, but it was still a mess. Nothing was ever submitted in there accurately, and that’s when I started doing my research to find the best software for trucking and found Axon.
Tell us about your experience with Axon.
Axon has been a great experience. We started with 10-15 trucks and went to 90 within a year and a half of being with Axon. We kept the same staff of internal employees. Which was great.
If we didn’t have Axon, we would have needed at least five more employees in the office to help with invoicing and dispatching.
I was able to break away and let the departments run themselves. The experience with Axon has been really, really great. We’ve only grown.
How did you find the support and training?
Any questions we have are never an issue. We call Axon and they’re able to help right away, or they look into a solution and give us a call right back. The experience has been great.
The training was awesome. They start you off with the basics. Obviously, you’re not going to have many questions until you run into issues. When you run into an issue, you give them a call and they explain everything to you and help you out.
With your phenomenal growth, how many staff members would you have needed without Axon?
If we were not using Axon, I believe we would have probably had to add another three billing people. Dispatch would have grown by probably two dispatchers. So that’s five or six people added to the employees that we have now. Which would have cost us probably $200,000 per year.
Has Axon streamlined your invoicing?
Using Axon has been more efficient than any of the other programs we’ve used. Prior to using Axon, we weren’t able to invoice daily or submit large invoices. It would take us two or three days to invoice 100 loads. Plus dealing with paperwork.
With Axon, by 7 am we’re ready to invoice and ready to submit by 11 am. If we had stuck to Excel or ITS, that would have taken us two days or so, compared to Axon.
Are the drivers happy with their pay statements?
When the driver gets his settlement, it has been pretty easy. They’re able to understand all the breakdowns, with all the loads that they’ve received. Deductions and everything are listed on the sheet itself.
When we used to use Excel spreadsheets, everything was manual and errors happened. With Axon, everything is previously checked, both prior to invoicing and when you are invoicing. On Excel, you’re going to enter that number one time and you’re not going to go back and check. It’s going to be paid out. So we’ve definitely saved money because we have had errors in the past working with an Excel spreadsheet.
Has Axon helped with your work environment and staff morale?
It has helped tremendously. In the beginning of this company, there was a lot of anxiety. I felt everything was all over the place, using different spreadsheets for dispatch, using ITS for invoicing, and using text messages for drivers. Having to go into different screens and software created a lot of headaches for everyone.
Having one place to go for safety, for dispatch, for invoicing has helped everyone. Everybody knows the same system. It has been an easy transition and very helpful.
How quickly do you think Axon paid for itself?
I believe it paid for itself within 6-8 months. As soon as we got Axon, we started getting more owner operators and our contracts were just growing. It all fell into place and we were able to pay it off within the year.
Has Axon helped your relationships with customers?
Axon helps us maintain our relationships with the customers. Whenever they need any kind of report, we are able to get it to them the same day with no issues. We are able to send it to them immediately. That’s really nice. The customers see that and appreciate it.
Has Axon helped you free up more time?
It’s better now that we don’t have spreadsheets and all the different software and we only use Axon. Everyone on our team trained in Axon, and now I am able to work on other aspects of the company.
We also have a construction company that we run, so I was able to move there with no issues. No concerns. I know that my team can run the show without me having to be here every single day working strictly on this one company. I have more time and I am able to grow other areas.
Are you making use of the Axon Link App?
The Link App is amazing. If drivers are inputting all their information and their documents are being submitted, it is a lifesaver. Our dispatch team can just go in there and audit the information to make sure it’s correct and matches the documents. They are able to submit it to invoicing right after the driver ends their trip.
It saves so much time, rather than the driver submitting stuff through text message or email and the dispatcher having to enter all that information. The app has been awesome. If we didn’t have it, we would definitely be behind on invoicing.
Back when we first started, we were either putting it into a spreadsheet or ITS. There was no data entry from the driver right into the software. The dispatcher would have to do that, and then finally it would get to us. When the driver does it live on the spot instead of three days later, we can invoice almost immediately.
What would you tell somebody in your industry about your Axon experience?
The experience with Axon has been great. Like I said, we haven’t had any issues and we’ve only grown with Axon. People that come in here ask us what we use, how we invoice so fast, and how we get through our day-to-day. Axon is by far the reason that we’ve come this far.
Customers are aware of it. They like the way our invoice templates look. Everything that we submit to them is clean. There are hardly any errors. There is hardly any resubmitting. That has always been a plus on our end. We are able to pay everyone pretty easy. Direct deposit has been great. In general, everything in regard to Axon has been pretty neat.
SAVE TIME AND ELIMINATE ERRORS
Axon’s real-time accounting software is specifically designed to meet the needs of the trucking industry. By integrating your trucking and accounting operations, Axon Software helps to reduce errors and speeds up your billing and payment process. You enter information once and it immediately updates every area of your transportation management software.
• Entering orders and tickets automatically updates your pending accounts receivables, preventing lost or unbilled orders.
• Driver pay is recorded automatically when you enter your trucking transactions, cutting payroll time in half.
• Automated entries matching fuel and other expenses with equipment, owner operators, and carriers increases your efficiency.
• Inventory and accounts payable are updated as soon as you record your purchases in the purchase orders application.
• A fully integrated work order application improves equipment maintenance and service billing while ensuring the inventory is up to date and parts are on hand when needed.
