“IT’S THE IDEAS, THE NETWORKING, THE EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION WITHIN
THOSE GROUPS THAT IS THE REAL POWER. SO INGAUGE IS WHERE MOST PEOPLE CAN TAKE THE FIRST STEP AND START LEARNING TO WATCH THE NUMBERS AND READ THE DATA. THEN THE SECOND STEP (THE BEST PRACTICES GROUPS), YOU KNOW 15 YEARS AGO, WE KIND OF BUILT THE CADILLAC AND REALIZED WE
NEEDED AN ECONOMIC CAR FOR EVERY DAY. THAT’S WHAT INGAUGE HAS BUILT.” —DEBBIE SPARKS, VP OF THE TRUCKLOAD CARRIERS ASSOCIATION
“We had some guys that just con-
tacted us and said, ‘I’m just curious. Financially, where do I stand against my competitors? And against a flatbed company?’” Sparks said. While the best practices groups
were somewhat exclusive because each group’s member capacity had to be lim- ited for practical reasons. The laws that govern anti-trust are strict and guide how the best practice groups can be cre- ated and what can be discussed. Still companies want to know, how’s the competition? There is a need for a ser- vice or product that does the research and answers the question. “The most important factor for the
inGauge product is that our guys in the best practice groups have never had a tool. They bring back all their financials every month, and after the meetings, they sit down with their department heads and say ‘This is what our com- petitor is doing in this arena. We’ve got to get better.” But they’ve been tracking that information on their own.” Sparks said.
Sparks acknowledges that the
benchmarking programs are really an intense amount of information and work, comparing companies on many different metrics, and then there’s the analysis of that information. There’s a lot of power in knowing where one stands with the competition, but getting into a room with the competition and asking, “How did you do it?” is a differ- ent kind of power. “It’s the ideas, the networking, the exchange of information within
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those groups that is the real power. So inGauge is where most people can take the first step and start learning to watch the numbers and read the data. Then the second step (the best practices groups), you know 15 years ago, we kind of built the Cadillac and realized we needed an economic car for every day. That’s what inGauge has built.”
BENCHMARKING FOR THE MASSES The whole concept of inGauge was
to bring the exercise of benchmarking to the masses, regardless of the size of a company, Henry says. “And then the next step is to expose as many people within each company to benchmark- ing and getting them involved in the process of comparing your results of numerous metrics vs. that of similar companies through North America,” he continued. Ninety percent of the metrics a
company can compare on the inGauge platform are specific to trucking. In addition to the industry-specific
comparables, there are also general business metrics like the accounts receivable metric called ‘days bills out- standing’ to track how quickly a com- pany collects revenue from customers. “What we found was, a lot of
companies weren’t really tracking that figure very accurately. What that forced companies to do every month is to look at how they were doing on that par- ticular metric. An early success story is that every one of the motor carriers that started tracking it has improved at least
15 percent on that particular metric. That translates right into better cash flow. If you can collect it, the more effi- cient your operation is, the more money you’ll have to invest in other things.” Henry explains. Just getting the information in the
hands of the right person can’t solve problems at a company. The point is not to just have the data. The data is meant to be used. Knowledge is power, right? TCA’s Debbie Sparks and inGauge’s Chris Henry both agree that seeing the numbers is where it starts, but reacting to the numbers is what benchmarking is all about. “If you are watching what the
numbers and averages are and where you stand, there’s a tool that will actu- ally help to measure your company against the others. It’s one thing when you see the numbers, and you’re read- ing, applying, and doing changes. But it’s really getting to know what those numbers mean and what you do to cor- rect them.” Sparks explains. External benchmarking allows a
company to learn what to do to beat the competition’s numbers, but companies can also learn how to best their own scores with internal benchmarking. The external benchmarking can
be controlled by setting filters for the types of companies you want to be compared to. Henry says, “You can tailor to the
size and the needs of your company. That’s part of our population filters.
ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2015
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