Fleet Procurement levels the playing field for Christenson Transportation

The Business

Christenson Transportation is a mid-sized transportation provider specializing in the hauling of high-value, high-risk and time sensitive freight, including tires, pet food, paper, electronic and other general commodities. With over 25 years in the trucking industry and a commitment to working with quality drivers to provide value and safety to customers, the company has won the Truckload Carriers Association Safety Award three times and is the recipient of the Platinum Fleet Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Highway Traffic Safety”.

Back in 2009, a sales representative with Corcentric stopped by one of Christenson’s offices to tell them about purchasing options for national accounts on tires and parts. At the time, Christenson only had one national tire account and was in no way on the same level of major corporations in terms of buying power. That all changed when Christenson decided to utilize Corcentric’s Fleet Procurement solution.

The Experience

As a mid-sized carrier, the biggest benefit Christenson sees is the national buying power they get from Corcentric, the vast majority being with tires and maintenance.

“What we realized after going with Corcentric is we were able to add nearly all major tire brands as a national account partner, all of the OEMs,” says Don Christenson, President of Christenson Transportation.

When it comes to maintenance, Christenson is alerted when it’s time to schedule preventative repairs, and with Corcentric’s nationwide service capabilities, they know that if one of their trucks needs work, regardless of where it is, there will be a service center to handle any issues.

There’s also consistent, pre-negotiated nation-wide pricing, which makes a big difference in how the transportation provider purchases equipment.

“It leveled the playing field,” says Barry McGowen, Director of Safety and Maintenance for Christenson Transportation. “On the freight side, pricing is pricing, which has given us the purchasing power of the big carriers. That’s something we’ve never had before and allows us to compete and offer things of value to our drivers that normally we couldn’t offer.”

Barry estimates that because of Corcentric’s Fleet Procurement solution, Christenson Transportation has realized savings of at least 50 percent on tires alone.

Christenson Transportation has also seen major benefits from the use of Corcentric’s electronic billing system. Employees now go to one place to manage purchases, decreasing the time they spend looking for those items. Also, being able to rely on Corcentric as the single point of contact for invoice dispute resolution allows for a more efficient AP process.

“Corcentric handles and consolidates billing and dispute management across all of our supplier purchases which enables a more seamless resolution process,” says McGowen.

The Future

When Christenson signed on with Corcentric, its fleet was around 100 trucks. The company started this year at 205 trucks and will end the year at a little over 300 trucks. Christenson says that with the help of Corcentric’s expertise, they plan to grow to around 400 trucks.

“They’re going to keep an eye out on our maintenance costs and they’re going to continue to look for best-in-class vendors for when we’re out on the road and they’ll help keep those vendors honest on their pricing,” says Christenson.

For Christenson, getting to where they need to go means allowing Corcentric to do what it does best, which in turn allows Christenson to focus on the heart of their business. That’s why, in addition to Corcentric continuing to handle 100 percent of its bill auditing, Christenson is looking at implementing Corcentric’s Accounts Payable offerings, which could further reduce the friction of doing business.

“We see the value in that,” says Christenson. “It allows us to focus on the core parts of our business which is moving our customers’ freight and making our owner operators profitable.