• Wilcox & Flegel

    “Ron gave us that added expertise we were lacking and was a true partner in helping us achieve success. He quickly grasped the issues and addressed those issues, maintaining accountability, focus, and keeping us on track.”

    Matt Chauncey
    Director, Transportation
    Wilcox & Flegel

    Wilcox & Flegel (W&F) has distributed fuel and lubricants since the 1930’s to over 4500 customers in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. W&F are leaders in their industry with over $500M annual revenue, over 100 trucks, 450 employees, and over 20 sites. To this day, W&F remains a family run business with headquarters in Longview WA.

    Situation

    W&F purchased a Transportation Management System (TMS) in 2016 from a global vendor for its three trucking lines of business. In 2019, 3 years later, the TMS was still not successfully deployed to the first LOB. TMS vendor relations were poor. W&F needed the TMS to effectively manage its trucks, drivers, dispatch, and maintenance transport operations.

    Critical Issues

    Wilcox and Flegel:

    • Had spent over $1M in software licenses and maintenance on a system it was not using
    • Had lost faith in the vendor
    • Depended on an inhouse developed dispatching tool
    • Lacked in house ability to manage this project

    Solution

    Ron worked with W&F and the vendor to do a post-mortem on the failed project and retrained the vendor on how to treat the client. Ron evaluated the vendor and the TMS, confirming that W&F did have the right vendor, by facilitating meetings with the vendor’s senior management, sales, sales engineering, project managers, and solution experts. Ron successfully managed a project rescue redeploying the vendor solution.

    Results

    The TMS product was successfully deployed to the first truck LOB in a six month project. W&F and the vendor have become strong partners. The inhouse dispatch tool was sunset. The TMS was key to managing costs during the Covid-19 crisis.