Modern is more than a fancy moniker at Modern Transportation, it’s a motivational mantra embedded in the carrier’s mission to provide superior solutions in the “safest, most professional, and efficient manner” possible.
The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based bulk carrier’s commitment to leading-edge technology adoption and equipment innovation empowers employees to take “extreme ownership” of that lofty goal. Recent examples include deploying artificial intelligence (AI)-powered dashcams and testing novel smart-trailer systems that improve driver safety and comfort—and facilitate long-term customer relationships.
“We’re a very mission-driven company,” said Patrick Cozzens, Modern president. “Our mission means everything to us. And we don’t call it a mission statement. People hang mission statements on walls, where they collect dust, and no one pays attention. We say mission because we live it every day.
“That truly is what differentiates us.”
Now Modern is making another bold move, replacing the legacy transportation management system (TMS) managers rely on daily with BeyondTrucks’ easily configured, cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. The transformational rollout commenced in March, with company-wide implementation expected in May. “This is like a backbone replacement because it does everything for us, from dispatching to payroll and billing, and integrates with almost every program everybody in the company touches,” said Marcus Beadle, Modern information systems implementation manager.
“It’s terrifying in some regards—but exciting at the same time.”
The transition is expected to deliver direct and indirect cost and time savings by reducing complexity, streamlining integrations, and future-proofing system capabilities, helping the carrier deliver on its pledge to continuously evolve the services it provides to chemical, building materials, and packaging manufacturers, and secure its survival as a family-owned firm amid challenging operating conditions.
“We want to be known for implementing cutting-edge supply chain solutions that work successfully in mission-critical production environments,” Cozzens said.
“To achieve this, we need partners who share our commitment, and BeyondTrucks definitely fits that criterion and meets those needs. With this change, Modern Transportation can be one of the most innovative bulk carriers in North America as it helps cement our advantage in efficiency, customer service, and safety.”
Contemporary carrier
Modern has provided contemporary services since 1987, when four partners, including Neil Strosnider, founded the bulk hauler to serve Arrow Materials, a transloading operator that morphed into a sister company the group divested in 2016. Cozzens, who married Strosnider’s daughter Sara, joined the business in 2006 as vice president of business development—and his opening task was to evaluate and deploy Modern’s original TMS. “We didn’t have a dispatch system, so I spent my first year executing RFPs [requests for proposal] and researching the best TMS systems out there,” he recalled.
The company today offers liquid and dry bulk transportation, warehousing and transloading assistance, and brokerage services. It runs a fleet of 250 tractors, 500 tank trailers, and 400 drivers from 22 terminals. Modern’s tractors are 65% Freightliner Cascadias with Detroit Assurance 5.0 and 35% International LT625s, with Bendix Wingman Fusion on newer models. Pneumatic dry bulkers, which account for 80% of Modern’s trailers, are Heils and Macs. Newly acquired liquid tanks include Brenners, Heils, and Tremcars.
“We focus on Fortune 1000 manufacturers—customers for whom lowest price isn’t the No. 1 priority,” Cozzens said. “Their priority is safety, so we share a commitment to safety, service, and innovation. We’re constantly collaborating with our customers to deliver materials to them safely, without contamination, and they compensate us for the value we provide. Our rates may not be the cheapest, but the value we deliver day in and day out, year after year, far exceeds the value of the lowest-cost option.”
Elite customers demand elite services from carriers who deliver on safety, efficiency, and sustainability. Modern hits the mark on all three. It recently secured multiple accolades from Owens Corning, a producer of insulation, roofing, and fiberglass composites, including its 2022 Global Sourcing Supplier award, and 2019 and 2021 Supplier of the Year honors. Safe, dedicated services save lives and money, which boosts efficiency, and forward-thinking management supports sustainability goals.
“As our name implies, we strive to be modern and cutting edge,” said Cozzens, who rose to president in 2010. And his prior experience in the high-tech worlds of fiber-optic communications and AI-assisted military optimization fortified Modern’s devotion to pushing the “bleeding edge” of transportation technology—and its willingness to endure a potentially disruptive “backbone replacement.”
Innovation ingrained
Modern turned to Netradyne’s smart dashcams two years ago to promote driver safety, and it’s now testing Engineered Transportation International’s TANK Ai trailer system, which is powered by Drōv Technologies’ AirBoxOne, on new Heil dry bulk units. “The demonstrations we’ve seen, and conversations we’ve had with fleets using it, are very promising,” said Dan Benacquista, VP of strategic operations and planning.
The carrier also works with manufacturers to develop more efficient equipment, like dry bulk trailers drivers can load and unload faster, and power units that run on the “latest and greatest” fuel technology. Modern recently tested Cummins’ ISX12N engine, which runs on compressed (CNG) and renewable (RNG) natural gas, Benacquista said. “It performed similarly to our diesel-powered units, so it’s a potential option,” he said. “But we’ll also evaluate the X15N engine when possible.
“I see that as more likely to be added to the fleet long-term.”
Benacquista says CNG is a “reemerging option” that seems “greatly improved” since the last time Modern ran natural gas-powered tractors. He also views renewable diesel as a sensible transition fuel. “We’re starting to see it become available outside of that West Coast/California market, so it’s a nice option for customers who are looking to reduce emissions and minimize their carbon footprint,” he said.
Modern’s leaders even are open to battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) in short-haul and yard operations, and autonomous trucks on repetitive lanes. “But again, safety always is our primary focus, so we’re not going to adopt something until we’re confident it can be applied in the real world safely,” he said.
Machine learning, real-time telematics, 21st-century equipment—it’s all on the table. Yet when it came to the TMS, arguably the most important system in Modern’s entire operation, employees still depended on an antiquated platform developed decades ago, and barely one step removed from pen and paper.
“We wanted to move forward, and our system was at the end of its line,” Beadle said.
TMS distress
That outdated, “one-size-fits-all” system was Modern’s best available option in 2010. But technology progresses rapidly, and the TMS struggled to keep up, forcing managers to contrive inconvenient hacks, like using Excel spreadsheets and Google Docs to organize poorly presented information, explained Alex Forrest, VP of operations. “A lot of these legacy systems have built in distorted or perverse processes, with a lot of workarounds that become very cumbersome,” BeyondTrucks CEO Hans Galland agreed.
Years of adaptations and customizations also create mind-numbing complexity, Beadle maintained. “You almost need an engineering degree to use the system,” he lamented. Building loads is tedious, he continued, and if the operator makes a mistake, like inputting load data out of sequence, it’s a “huge” fiasco. “If you don’t have all your ducks in a row, and you’re not spot-on perfect, it ruins that load and the next driver’s load, if you didn’t correct the first one—and it snowballs,” he said.
The platform also needs “mediators” for integrations, leading to “loss between systems,” Benacquista said. “Even then, there are drawbacks,” he added. “Everything doesn’t flow as you would expect, and two-way communications are more difficult because of that third party in the middle.” And one legacy provider quotes six months to integrate with Samsara’s electronic logging device (ELD), Galland shared.
Adding insult to inefficiency, legacy TMS systems are costly to maintain and host in on-premises servers and private clouds. “It’s expensive, and users aren’t getting the value out of that, in terms of streamlining and fitting their businesses, especially when it comes to automating workflows,” Galland elaborated.
And all the pain combined to turn a complicated consideration into a “no-brainer,” Cozzens confided.
Beyond relief
BeyondTrucks’ multi-tenant SaaS solution combines integrations, proprietary modules, and adaptable configurations that allow fleets to unify data and workflows for automated, optimized operations that are pain-free. Founded in 2019 in San Mateo, California, by Galland and COO Paul Xie, the startup today boasts 30 clients, primarily in tank, but also van and refrigerated transportation—and Modern is its biggest in bulk so far. “We’ve been very diligent in building a premium product for a complex segment of the trucking industry,” Galland said. He connected with Cozzens and Benacquista at National Tank Truck Carriers’ 2023 Annual Conference last May in Boston. After initial discussions, competitor comparisons, and consulting patrons, like Dave Uncapher, director of logistics at Kalmbach Feeds—a one-time Modern customer—they selected BeyondTrucks in September.
“It just made sense on every level,” Cozzens said.
See also: J.P. Noonan tabs BeyondTrucks to optimize operations
BeyondTrucks’ advanced capabilities include automated order intake; smart load planning; simplified dispatch communications; user-defined driver workflows; and flexible invoicing and payroll execution Cozzens says will save managers 4-5 hours a week. “That frees them up to focus on what matters, which is making front-line decisions that impact safety, efficiency, and profitability,” Beadle said.
Powerful application programming interfaces (APIs) and electronic data interchanges (EDIs) eliminate third-party integrators, and disruptive integration timelines. “With us, the user can do it themselves in seconds, for free,” Galland said. “So there are real, direct cost savings in moving to a modern platform that’s thoughtfully architected.” Cancelling service subscriptions—which Modern did in January—decommissioning servers, and migrating to multi-tenant clouds like Amazon Web Services, preserves money, as do free software updates delivered frequently through faster development cycles.
And only BeyondTrucks is SOC 2-certified by the American Institute of CPAs for cybersecurity.
“We don’t yet have a firm dollars-and-cents grasp on the final ROI,” Benacquista said. “But we know there will be many ‘soft’ benefits, and the user experience certainly will improve, which makes it easier to sell to today’s workforce.” Additionally, BeyondTrucks deletes capital expenditures, and the associated depreciation, reduces costly errors, and accelerates cash collection. “Essentially, we justify our fees by generating at least once, if not multiple times, the savings in operating expenses every year,” Galland said.
Intelligent implementation
Natasha Martinez, BeyondTrucks head of carrier success—and the former VP of operations at United Natural Foods (UNFI)—and a team of engineers immersed themselves in Modern’s operations after it signed on in September, endeavoring to understand the carrier’s inefficiencies in a process that often is cathartic, too. “We recognize it’s a big decision to move away from a transportation management system, especially the ones that have been considered industry standards for decades,” Galland said “So we take great pride in working with our clients to understand their operations.”
The six-month project entailed visits to multiple terminals, rounds of testing, and a “sandbox” environment in which to practice. Beadle used it to send a load in seconds. “After I dispatched it, the web browser hadn’t even refreshed yet, and I already had it on my phone,” he said. “Everything is so fast. It’s cool.” BeyondTrucks also went to work on essential integrations, including Microsoft’s Great Plains (accounting) and Power BI (data reporting), TMT (fleet maintenance), UKG (payroll), EFS (fuel management), Samsara (ELDs), and several EDI connections to key customers, like Procter & Gamble.
The rollout started in mid-March with “parallel” deployment at select terminals to validate BeyondTrucks functionality while continuing to bill customers and pay drivers in the old system. “The nice part is the BeyondTrucks team was on board with that,” Benacquista said. “They were as anxious as us to work out the kinks, and we’re excited to get in on the ground floor with a budding TMS provider and have the opportunity to influence how challenges are addressed in the bulk segment.”
Post “go-live” support incorporates customer success management and endless software iterations. Modern’s leaders hope to soon add new features, like product/equipment compatibility notifications and automated scheduling, while confidently utilizing a system that is “architecturally ready” to embrace emerging technologies. “Having something that’s going to be able to work hand-in-hand, and directly integrate with, new options as they come to market, is important to us,” Benacquista said.
Future-focused operations
Selecting a TMS that can grow with Modern in the years to come was equally important because Cozzens plans to keep the business in the family. “We operate profitably, so a number of companies have tried to buy us over the years, and we consistently say no,” he reiterated. “I love what I do, and I intend to keep doing it.
“My kids could get involved one day, too, and while that’s not certain, I know I want to be here, growing this company for the next 20-25 years.”
The carrier already weathered recent market changes, like the decline in oil and gas fracking activities, pandemic-induced inflation, and soaring equipment costs. But challenges remain, not the least of which is finding and retaining qualified drivers, who are essential to Modern’s plan to organically expand dry bulk and transloading services, while winning new business in liquid chemicals.
All with BeyondTrucks as the operation’s bionic new TMS backbone.
“When you operate safely and efficiently, and control your costs, you can do really well in this business,” Cozzens concluded.
