How Stevens Trucking Transformed Operations with Decision Automation

Spot freight procurement doesn’t have to be an exercise in constant reaction — chasing leads, managing multiple load boards, and scrambling to secure last-minute opportunities. There’s a smarter, more efficient way to approach it.

In a recent webinar, Cole Stevens, Chief Strategy Officer at Stevens Trucking, shared how his company transitioned from reactive spot freight planning to a proactive, data-driven strategy using Optimal Dynamics.

If you’re looking to elevate your own spot freight processes, keep reading for key takeaways from this webinar on using decision automation to make smarter, faster decisions.

Understanding the Challenges of Legacy Systems

For enterprise trucking companies, legacy systems can be a significant roadblock to efficiency. At Stevens Trucking, Cole Stevens and his team faced challenges like:

• Underutilized assets
• Unpredictable hours of service
• Pressure to maximize revenue from every fleet resource

These issues had a direct impact on the bottom line. As Cole put it, “A few percent here and there can be six figures a month to the bottom line for a fleet of our size.” 

Legacy systems lacked the real-time insights Stevens Trucking needed to make efficient decisions. Relying on intuition and past experience led to inefficiencies, as Cole explained, “When you’ve got that many dispatchers running nationwide freight … you’ve got to be able to react in real-time.” Without the right tools, the team often made decisions based on intuition rather than data. This fragmented approach made it difficult to optimize resources and meet customer expectations, highlighting the need for a shift to decision automation.

The Power of Centralized Dispatch

Stevens Trucking faced another challenge that many growing carriers experience: siloed decision-making. With separate teams managing different regions and areas of the fleet, inefficiencies crept in. Dispatchers were essentially working in isolation, each focused solely on their specific geographic area, leading to a lack of coordination and missed opportunities for optimization.

To tackle this, Stevens Trucking embraced a centralized dispatch methodology powered by Optimal Dynamics. By breaking down the barriers between teams, they unified their approach to decision-making and streamlined operations across the entire network.

“We’ve really leaned into that centralized dispatch methodology that Optimal Dynamics brings,” Cole said. By centralizing dispatch, Stevens Trucking was able to shift toward a more holistic view of operations, allowing the team to make better decisions across the entire network, rather than just within isolated areas.

The Role of Spot Freight in a Modern Network

For Stevens Trucking, spot freight has always played a key role in filling gaps and optimizing its network. That said, traditional methods of sourcing spot freight (like sending out truck lists and email blasts) were prone to errors and missed opportunities. These outdated processes were also time-consuming and fragmented, making it difficult to respond quickly to the ever-changing demands of the market.

That all changed when Stevens Trucking adopted Source by Optimal Dynamics. This powerful tool has transformed their approach to spot freight procurement by allowing the team to aggregate multiple sources, streamline communication, and take action with unprecedented speed and accuracy.

The ability to respond quickly to market opportunities has given Stevens Trucking a significant competitive edge, allowing it to capture more freight and improve profitability. By eliminating manual processes and providing a more centralized, streamlined approach to spot freight, they’ve positioned themselves to better serve customers and respond to the dynamic needs of the trucking industry.

Improving Efficiency and Driving Revenue

One of the most impressive outcomes of adopting Optimal Dynamics’ Decision Automation Platform at Stevens Trucking has been the measurable impact on performance. Despite the challenges presented by a fluctuating market and a smaller driver force, the company achieved a remarkable 7% increase in billable miles year-over-year.

Cole shared, “In July, we’re about 7% of billable miles ahead of where we were last July. 7% is pretty incredible for us.” This growth was driven by a combination of more efficient resource allocation, faster decision-making, and a data-driven approach to fleet management. By using real-time data to optimize routes, allocate assets, and forecast demand, Stevens Trucking was able to push its fleet harder without compromising service levels or operational efficiency.

The Cultural Shift: Embracing Data and Automation

The success Stevens Trucking has enjoyed with Optimal Dynamics is due in large part to a cultural shift toward embracing automation and data-driven decision-making. What started as a tool to improve operational efficiency has evolved into a mindset change across the entire organization.

“What’s exciting to me is that our people now are so bought into the different technologies,” Cole said. “They’re bringing me opportunities and asking me, ‘Hey, are we looking into this?’”

The impact of this cultural shift has been felt across multiple facets of the business, especially in driver retention and operational efficiency. By focusing on optimizing routes and aligning schedules with drivers’ needs, Stevens Trucking has seen a direct improvement in driver satisfaction, leading to lower turnover rates. In a competitive industry where driver retention is a constant challenge, the ability to cater to drivers’ needs while optimizing fleet performance has made a significant difference.

Advice for Other Carriers Considering Automation

For carriers considering a shift to more advanced planning and automation tools, Cole Stevens offered advice drawn from his own experience. He emphasized the importance of looking beyond the immediate challenges and focusing on the long-term benefits of automation.

As Cole put it, “It’s like holding a shovel in your hand and deciding: Are you just going to trench it by hand, or do you need to stop and help build out a trencher? It’s going to be a lot of work upfront, but in the long run, you’re going to outpace everything.”

Cole encourages other carriers to view automation as an opportunity to build a stronger, more efficient operation rather than a challenge to overcome. The value of data, combined with the right automation tools, allows companies to move beyond traditional methods and make smarter, faster decisions. By automating processes like spot freight procurement and dispatching, carriers can unlock efficiencies that weren’t possible before.

The Future of Trucking Is Data-Driven

The shift to smarter, data-driven decision-making has had a transformative impact on Stevens Trucking’s operations. By embracing decision automation, the company has seen significant improvements in procurement, asset utilization, and collaboration across teams. Centralized dispatch, faster spot freight procurement, and a focus on data quality have streamlined operations and enhanced performance across the board.

‍Watch the full webinar replay to learn more about how Stevens Trucking is using decision automation in its operations.

‍Schedule a demo to discover what decision automation can do for your business.