Online Extra!!!
Farris Trucking rolls with DiRECWAY high-speed Internet service
While their drivers travel the highways, Farris Trucking navigates the "information superhighway" with DiRECWAY high-speed Internet service from West Florida Electric Cooperative. This family-owned company located near Campbellton uses DiRECWAY’s satellite technology to maximize the efficiency of the day-to-day "home base"operations involved in transporting goods across the United States.
The company previously relied on dial-up Internet service, but needed greater bandwidth and multi-user capability. Maintaining numerous dial-up accounts would be costly, and DSL and cable Internet service aren’t available where Farris Trucking is located. But DiRECWAY provided the answer. "It’s by far the cheapest solution for a small office, especially this far out of town," said Operations Manager Jody Farris. "The Internet is a great tool for information when you can get it this fast and several people can use it at once."
Farris Trucking’s personnel utilize DiRECWAY’s "always on" connection for dispatching and freight-matching functions and accessing Web sites to download inventory and fuel invoices – without the waiting, disconnects or busy signals that can occur with dial-up Internet access. The company’s frequent use of e-mail saves time and effort by reducing the number of phone calls and faxes and providing documentation of contacts. All incoming and outgoing information is protected from unauthorized access by DiRECWAY’s triple encryption technology.
In the future, Farris hopes to purchase software or subscribe to an online service that will allow the company to check prospective drivers’ motor vehicle registrations via DiRECWAY. Other plans include a Web site through which Farris Trucking can interact with customers by posting information about available equipment and receiving information about loads to be transported. Farris would like for the Web site to feature an interactive online employment application, individual lease operators’ settlement information, requiring a user name and password, and a page where drivers could post comments and pictures.
"We hope to be using the Internet more and more," he said. "That’s the way everything’s headed these days. You’ve got to get in the boat or get left on the shore."
Farris Trucking specializes in the temperature-controlled transportation of institutional foodservice products, primarily from Florida to the Midwest and West Coast. Operators’ schedules are geared toward family, with round trips typically taking four to five weekdays, allowing one to three days at home on weekends.
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