On the Road

Like labor and capital investments, fuel costs are a part of doing business that even the cleverest of entrepreneurs can’t escape. Secure shredders, particularly mobile companies that do the largest percentage of their business on the road, are feeling the pinch of today’s high diesel and gasoline prices chipping away at their margins. While mobile shredders might claim to be the hardest hit, their plant-oriented and records storage colleagues are certainly not immune.

While the price of fuel may not be dropping any time soon, owners of secure shredding companies do not have to simply resign themselves to ever-escalating costs. The industry employs a number of tricks, but limiting idling and keeping to posted speed limits can only get a person so far. Operators looking for a more sophisticated solution to trimming fuel costs are turning to more high-tech tools like routing software and global positioning systems.

Putting routing software to use is one avenue shredders can follow to keep their fuel costs in check. These systems essentially plan a shredder’s route to make it the most efficient possible, taking into account a number of variables.

The idea behind this kind of technical tool is to allow secure shredders to do more with the resources they already have, according to Michael Boehringer, president of EZshred of Twinsburg, Ohio. "In other words, make more money with less headaches," he says.

Optimizing a given route consists of two factors, according to Rob Kirchner, account executive for Logistic Solutions Group (LSG) of Reston, Va., which has partnered with Andrews Software Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio, on the development of a routing software package called RoutePerfect. "When you’re talking about route optimization, you’re talking about two things," Kirchner says. These factors are the re-sequencing of stops on a route and finding the optimal directions to get the driver to these destinations.

Routing software can determine the most efficient sequence of stops, which saves on fuel by making sure drivers aren’t putting in more miles than they have to. When it comes to directions, software can workout the best route for speed and fuel efficiency, for instance, by finding a route with more highway driving, according to Kirchner.

Boehringer says EZshred software offers a "before and after" comparison—estimating the drive time and mileage before and after the route has been optimized. "Typically these differences are more dramatic than you would expect," he says. Such comparisons can be useful when convincing route managers of the software’s benefits.

The savings add up quickly, says Scott Bidwell, vice president of sales and marketing for Andrews Software. "If you can cut 20 miles a day off a truck, after five days you’re at 100 miles. The numbers add up pretty quick," he says.

This can come as a surprise to drivers. "People are surprised," adds Kirchner. "Most people think they know their area well, but the reality is with 10 or 20 stops, it’s almost impossible to do it by hand," he says.

When Brad Collings of Secure Document Alliance, Salt Lake City, first implemented EZshred’s program, route optimization wasn’t even his top priority. He says he was more concerned with generating reports for his customers and was pleasantly surprised when using the route optimization component of the software brought about a 20 percent reduction in fuel costs. "The software really allowed us to be able to see where we were overlapping ourselves and where we could do a better job," he says.

In addition to route management software, secure shredding company operators can also use technology to manage their fleets once the route has been established.

Fleet management software is installed in the vehicles themselves and uses global positioning systems (GPS) to make sure routes are being executed efficiently, says Daniel E. Lee, vice president of sales for Fleetboss, Fern Park, Fla. Fleetboss provides fleet management software to a number of industries, including the secure information destruction industry.

These GPS-based routing solutions provide information on where drivers are and which drivers are closest to particular customers. They can even tap into vehicles’ onboard computers to manage maintenance.

"You cannot improve what you cannot measure," says Lee, adding that such programs are designed to collect and present raw data that managers can examine to see where they are spending their money and where they can save.

Fleet management programs can also help shredders cut fuel costs by monitoring miles per gallon and making sure the vehicle is burning its fuel efficiency and within emissions standards. "If a company can drop one mile per gallon per vehicle, at 100 miles per day, at a cost of $2 or so per mile, your difference is huge and adds up quickly," Lee says.

Whatever option a secure shredding company chooses to manage its routes, solid training and support are essential for getting the most out of such software programs.

"Support is probably the most important thing when buying software," says Bidwell. "You can have the best tools in the world, but if you don’t have the company behind them to support the customer, you’re kind of throwing your money away."

"Support is absolutely critical," agrees Boehringer, who adds that shredding companies in particular need to look for providers who are committed to serving their specific industry and creating a product that deals with its unique needs.

Basic training on how to use a given software program is important, but Lee also emphasizes that shredders should look for providers who are willing to help them learn how to interpret the data the system generates and "how to get the most out of their system."

Kirchner agrees that a deeper level of commitment is a good factor to consider when choosing between software providers. "Don’t just get the software and start using it right away," he says. "Pick a company’s brain—see what kind of suggestions they have as far as making your fleet more productive."

In addition to researching a provider’s customer support, Boehringer advises secure shredders to ask themselves three questions when considering routing software: "Will it save me money and pay for itself? Will it save me time? Will it help me retain customers?"

Kirchner also says that small-to-mid-sized companies shouldn’t operate under the impression that their companies are too small to benefit from using routing software. "Whether you’re running one truck or 75 to 100 trucks, if you think about it, if each truck is making 10 to 15 stops a day, it doesn’t matter how many trucks you’re running. Stops and frequency are what matters," he says.

Even companies with a single truck can benefit, Bidwell says. "There are examples where we can make that one truck more efficient, which has prolonged the need to purchase a second truck," he says. "Anyone who has a truck can benefit." n