Huffman Trucking Bsa 310

Huffman Trucking

BSA/310

Huffman Trucking

Huffman Trucking Company was founded in the mid 1930's. During the early 1940's, it experienced a surge in growth as the U.S. Government's demand for the transportation of goods from the interior of the country to ports on the East Coast. Today, the company owns 800 tractors, over 2600 trailers, and employs 1,350 people as drivers or mechanics. In order to manage business processes and maintain organizational structure, a transaction processing system is should be utilized. A transaction processing system is used to collect, store, retrieve, and modify all data within the company. It also is used to support all data operations which help to reduce the potential for errors. Because of the competitive nature of their industry, a quality assurance initiative was undertaken by management with a focus on improvements in the shipping process. Huffman provides services to a broad range of customers including the U.S. Government, the automotive industry, electronics manufacturers, and other industries. To keep Huffman customers loyal and to attract new customers, Huffman needs to deliver consistent quality service balanced by diverse offerings of value-added services. As a means of show its commitment to its customers and the improvement of its services, Huffman could work towards ISO-9001 certifications, offer expedited pickup on shipping requests, establish a 24 hour call centers for scheduling pickups and other services, and provide custom shipping options for customers as needed. Huffman must remain committed to their customers and continue to provide services meeting and exceeding the expectations of its customers. To meet this goal, the addition of a transaction processing system in the form of a transportation logistics system is an investment in the continued growth of the company.

With the growing widespread use of computer systems, businesses are looking at technology as a means to increase revenues, streamline operations, and expand. For Huffman Trucking, an updated system that is able to track driver routes, time, shipment information, and even vehicle maintenance schedules would be a significant asset. With six locations and over 3,000 pieces of equipment to keep track of, a computerized tracking and processing system would help to streamline operations and provide the tools necessary to meet their goals as well as meet the expectations of their customers.

By utilizing a transportation logistics software package, managers, schedulers, and dispatchers can more effectively increase operational control and efficiency while at the same time enhance their responsiveness to customers. With a transportation logistics package, the company could save an estimated 10-20 percent on transportation costs and likely see a return on the software investment in as little as three to five months (Prophesy Logistics Software, 2010).

In addition to the software systems, there are a number of hardware systems that must also be procured. At the heart of the system will be the application and database servers. The application server would host the transportation logistics software and the database server would host the operational and archive databases for the transportation logistics software as well as the data mining and reporting tools utilized by management. Other hardware that would be required would be user workstations, network hardware, including leased lines between facilities, and readers such as bar code or RFID for tracking the movement of freight. The movement of trucks and trailers would be monitored via cellular 3G connections and position determined location information provided by a GPS receiver.

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