As national safety director for Western Concrete Pumping, Greg Key has a lot on his hands. Responsible for the overall safety and health of the company, Key leads a team of safety professionals across twelve locations in seven different states.
Despite the sprawling company, Key loves the culture. “We’re just under 300 employees, so we’re still like family. The leadership truly are leaders. We really are a safety-first company.” He also likes the attitude of Western’s drivers. “We’re a niche industry, so if you ask our drivers if they’re a concrete pump operator or a driver, they’re going to say they’re a concrete pump operator.”
Since Key visits each location to ensure onboarding and compliance are up to snuff, he’s always been the first to identify how Western could be doing better.
The Challenge
When Key first joined Western in 2018, the carrier was still using paper for driver applications. The process was a slog for both applicants and the Western team. As Key puts it: “The applications were a mile long. The process was long, cumbersome, and tedious.” After hearing about TruckRight, Key introduced it to the Western leadership team. Soon after, Western realized how valuable TruckRight really could be.
“What happened was my boss, our VP, happened to be in Arizona at the time. There were three new hires to process, and he called me and said ‘Is this really the way we’re processing new hires? Weren’t you talking about a software that could do this?’”
“So I told him ‘Yeah, TruckRight.’ He said ‘I don’t care what it costs, do it.’”
The Solution
From the moment Western began implementing the TruckRight software, they realized things were about to become a lot more efficient. A good part of that was thanks to the skilled customer service from the TruckRight team. “Getting TruckRight up and running was pretty simple,” Key says. “They gave us plenty of training, and the staff were very helpful.” He added that the Western team likes that TruckRight support can be contacted by email. With TruckRight installed, Western soon began to improve its recruitment speed.
Results:
If anyone on Western Concrete team had any remaining doubts about TruckRight, they were soon washed away. As an example, Key says their California office manager was among those who was initially wary of adding software. Now, she’s begged Western to never give it up. “She can navigate it easily, she’s seen the customer support we get, she sees how quickly requests get turned around. The whole team loves it.”
Key has no intention of switching, either. He’s looked into other software, and found that the options come up short. “They’re way more complicated, less intuitive, and there would be a lot more hands-on things to do.
“I like how you can set up the pipeline to be nearly self-automated, instead of having to do it manually,” Key says. “That was one of the big differences I saw.” He also has high praise for the notifications of expiry, and how they allow drivers to easily track which certifications they need to renew. Today, all departments at Western Concrete use TruckRight, taking advantage of its ability to run training and house certifications for mechanics and maintenance teams, too.
Few people at Western use TruckRight more than Key, however. “I keep TR open all day on my screen. It’s in the background at all times, because I always have to access something, all that information is right there in TR for me.” Most of all, he praises the customer service support from TruckRight. “If I have an update to a company policy, I can use TruckRight to send a doc to the support team, and within an hour they get back to me, and with 2-3 hours it’s done.”
Key’s advice to any fleet considering TruckRight? “Dive in, heads first, no questions asked. It can feel overwhelming at first to learn a new platform, but once you learn it, you’re golden. It’s literally like going to your filing cabinet in your own office.”