Compliance Details Can Make or Break Transportation Operations

For Coach Glass, speed and highly individualized customer service are critical. They are the elements that distinguish Coach Glass from competitors and keep sales flowing. Disrupting the company’s ability to accomplish this level of flexibility quickly damages business, CFO Gary Danner says. So when a transportation compliance issue threatened to do just that, Coach Glass turned to its trusted logistics partner, LynnCo, to find a way to fix the problem.

Maintaining control over multiple levels of service

Coach Glass is a leading Oregon-based vehicle glass supplier, specializing in windshields and side glass for RVs; transit, school, and tour buses; and fire apparatus. Coach Glass provides glass to distributors as well as individuals who need replacements quickly.

As Danner explains, the company works closely with LynnCo for much of its nationwide distribution to vehicle manufacturers and other larger-volume customers. To meet the needs of customers that are close to the company’s warehouse, Coach Glass operates an in-house truck fleet.

“We rely on being able to ship directly to customers who are within a few hours of our main warehouses in Oregon, Indiana, Florida, and Arizona.”

Having the control and flexibility to meet customer needs is critical, Danner says. This applies to both large orders and individual orders. He says, “For example, a family might be traveling in their RV and need to have the windshield replaced quickly in order to get back on the road. There’s no predicting that type of order. We offer our service providers a delivery schedule so that they can set customer expectations, and then we must be able to fulfill those deliveries as they come in.”

The company’s ability to warehouse at strategic locations and quickly deliver to customers wherever they are is a major selling point. And the control the company gets from its in-house fleet offers additional benefits, enabling the ability to flexibly meet customer needs, improve product safety, reduce losses that result from damage during shipping, and improve predictability.

Hitting a hurdle — and getting over it

The company recently faced a sticky situation: One of its fleet drivers was stopped at a state-line crossing and was found to be incompliant with the Department of Transportation regulations in one of the states. The driver wasn’t maintaining the required entries in his log book and didn’t have the necessary driver certification paperwork with him.

Both errors were minor, but this situation brought to light the fact that there might be gaps in Coach Glass’s transportation compliance efforts. The main cause of the issue, Ron Kangail, Coach Glass’s Director of Administration, says, is that the regulations covering transportation are complex. He explains that the problem arose not because the company was ignoring the rules, but it was trying to pay attention to too many rules.

Kangail says, “The main challenge is recognizing what rules and regulations we’re subject to. We thought we had a pretty good handle on the DOT requirements. A lot of our fleet consists of small diesel trucks, so common sense would lead you to believe rules designed for bigger transport wouldn’t apply. However, it was clear that we needed to do some work to make sure we were in full compliance.”

Fortunately, Coach Glass found a direct connection to a versatile resource through LynnCo Solutions Strategist David Benítez. Danner says, “He was able to point us to a resource in the state that has extensive experience with the DOT and was able to help us see how to get our operations in full compliance quickly.”

Danner adds, “We turned to LynnCo and David very quickly. They’re the experts. We knew that if they didn’t have the answer, they’d know where to point us so that we could get the answer.”

Bringing clarity and control

“I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience of reading through a book of DOT requirements,” Danner says. “It’s a thick book. We need to account for the different types of trucks in our fleet and also deal with different regulations in every state we serve.”

However challenging transportation compliance might be, the consequences of non-compliance are serious: substantial fines, tickets — and even more serious, delay or cancellation of delivery. Authorities can ground vehicles until compliance requirements are met. These penalties not only have an immediate detrimental impact on customer service and company reputation, but if they’re not addressed, they can result in a company shutdown.

Although their infraction was minor, Coach Glass was shaken. “The issues that we had when we realized we weren’t in full compliance were relatively minor. But you don’t want to wait and find out how far they’re going to take you, so we were very proactive and took care of them immediately,” Danner explains.

Benítez was already closely in tune with Coach Glass logistics, providing LTL shipping solutions as well as managing carrier relationships. He provided a connection to an expert resource for guidance on developing a manageable plan to reach and then maintain full DOT compliance. “It was nice to know that we had a business partner that we could go to and find out very quickly what the next step was,” Kangail says.

Staying on top of all the details

Coach Glass is now very confident not only that they’re in compliance, but also that they can maintain this level of compliance going forward. Through Benítez’s connection, Coach Glass was able to join a trucking organization that keeps them updated on any changes in DOT regulations. They’ve determined that once you know what you’re looking for and how to find it, DOT regulations ARE manageable.

As Danner says, “When you start reading the regulations, your head starts spinning. It’s overwhelming. In reality, once you read through it three or four times, it becomes much more understandable. Then you start delegating tasks and you work with a good consultant, and it becomes very manageable. I’m 100% comfortable that we’re compliant and it will not be difficult to maintain compliance.”

Coach Glass recognizes and appreciates the value of having a good partner and a great relationship with its LynnCo Solutions Strategist. As Kangail says, “We talk all the time. We have a relationship where I can call him up, I can shoot an email to him, and if it’s urgent, he’ll respond quickly.”

Kangail summed up the mutual respect shared by Coach Glass and LynnCo, “That’s the partnership that we have; we can work through any problem that comes up or any question that comes up and find the correct answer so that we can move forward on it and not cripple our company. It’s a good partnership — we have a great relationship.”

[cta]For more information on how to put LynnCo solutions to work for your business, contact your Solutions Strategist, Jeanette Sefers at Jeanette.Sefers@lynnco-scs.com.[/cta]