With hundreds of owner-operators and four separate entities doing business under the umbrella of Medallion Transport Holdings, the company needed a digital solution to tie everything together. The Tipton, Indiana-based trucking company turned to Tenstreet to unify its driver onboarding, monitoring, and engagement processes — while also boosting efficiency and bolstering the company’s safety recordkeeping.
“Tenstreet has enabled us to centralize our monitoring, which in turn allows us to be more efficient,” says Danielle Szerlik, Vice President of Operations for Medallion Transport Holdings Inc. Szerlik describes Medallion as “a unique type of business” that encompasses four different brands, each with its own specialties as well as its own operating authority from the U.S. Department of Transportation:
- Medallion Transport Logistics runs mostly dry vans hauling general freight.
- NHH Services hauls heavy loads on multi-axle removable gooseneck trailers.
- Ace Heavy Haul transports super loads, such as massive equipment for the oil industry.
- Medallion International focuses on power-only service, in which its tractor operators pick up and transport customers’ trailers.
Altogether, the four business entities’ owner-operators run about 400 trucks. With so many moving parts, Tenstreet has helped the company save time by eliminating paper files while making it easier to access driver safety records across the four brands. “When you’re dealing with a piece of paper on a desk, you have to scan and upload it,” Szerlik says. “With Tenstreet, everything is located on one platform and it’s all electronic, reducing the risk of human error.”
A COMPREHENSIVE, CONNECTED SOLUTION FOR COMPLIANCE
Medallion Transport Holdings recently adopted Tenstreet’s Safety Management platform, which Szerlik says has made Tenstreet a “start to finish” solution for onboarding and monitoring drivers.
After a new truck driver applies to one of the company’s business entities by way of a Tenstreet application, a “shell” is created for that driver in the program, giving the company a centralized location to store and access the driver’s records.
“We’re able to continue using the shell of that driver file from a compliance and safety perspective,” Szerlik says.
For example, Tenstreet integrates Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) data, pulling drivers’ personal Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) scores into the Tenstreet dashboard on a daily basis.
When a driver undergoes an FMCSA roadside inspection, Tenstreet automatically imports the results into the driver’s file and sends managers a notification by email, which has streamlined the recordkeeping process for Medallion.
“Before, you would have to go to the FMCSA portal, pull up the driver’s roadside (inspection), download it, and then upload it to the driver’s file,” Szerlik says. “Now Tenstreet automatically downloads it and attaches it to that driver, and we can add any notes and document corrective action.”
Also within the Safety Management platform, Tenstreet’s Enhanced DQF (driver qualification file) helps carriers stay compliant with an array of features, including:
• Going paperless with digital driver files
• Tracking missing and expired documents
• Sending digital certification of violations (COVs) to drivers
• Ordering motor vehicle records (MVRs) in bulk
• Capturing required commercial driver licenses (CDLs)
• Creating custom alerts for drivers and safety managers
Medallion also uses the Safety Management platform to track drivers’ incidents, accidents, and violations, for which the company can assign points. Those are shown in the Safety Summary section and pulled into the Driver Points tab.
“You can pull up a driver at any moment and go to his safety management file, and then you can see everything in a row and click in to see the full details,” Szerlik says.
While keeping tabs on negative events is important, Szerlik says that the company wanted to also track positive efforts in Tenstreet. To that end, Tenstreet is working with Medallion to add a positive points feature. That will tie in with the company’s existing safety Rewards program, in which drivers can earn points for efforts that are “geared toward being a safe driver out there,” Szerlik says, such as participating in voluntary safety meetings.
TARGETING SPECIFIC AREAS FOR SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS
Embracing Tenstreet has given Medallion better insight into its drivers’ safety performance, which in turn has helped target specific areas to improve.
This effort ties in with CSA data, which covers a range of criteria, such as unsafe driving, hours-of-service (HOS) compliance, vehicle maintenance, and driver fitness. CSA scores operate on a scale from zero to 100, with higher scores corresponding to weaker performance records.
For Medallion, Tenstreet has helped shed light on hotspots such as most frequent violations and top offenders.
“We can see all that in a quick snapshot,” Szerlik says. “Then we can be more proactive and focus on the specific areas where we can improve operationally and reduce violations.”
Another Tenstreet feature has helped drive those improvements. Medallion’s safety team sends drivers safety videos through Tenstreet for refreshers or corrective training on specific topics — tight turns, for example. That training is then documented in the driver’s file in Tenstreet.
“We can see that the team sent the driver that video and that he watched it,” Szerlik says. “That’s super helpful for auditing purposes — everything’s together.”
With the data-driven insights that Tenstreet provides, along with the efforts of “our awesome safety team,” Szerlik notes, Medallion’s CSA scores have improved.
“Tenstreet has allowed us to address the specific areas we needed to, such as HOS, and our numbers have come down,” Szerlik says.
TIMELY INSIGHTS INTO DRIVER SATISFACTION
Along with monitoring drivers’ performance, Tenstreet has helped Medallion stay attuned to its drivers’ needs and job satisfaction.
Tenstreet’s Insights tool sends drivers surveys based on market research to provide a clear look at their experience and to reach any at-risk drivers. Carriers can have the surveys pushed out to their drivers through the Pulse app or by email. Surveys can be scheduled to go to new drivers at frequent intervals, and to all drivers quarterly.
If a driver’s survey results fall below a predetermined threshold, Tenstreet sends managers an alert. For Medallion, the surveys are an effective and timely way to find out how their drivers are doing — and to quickly identify and address any concerns.
“Without the tool of a survey, you never know what issues the drivers may be bottling up out there,” Szerlik says. “Having this quick survey that they can do right from their phones assists us with our response times to the needs of our drivers.”
Szerlik adds that because the surveys come from Tenstreet, the drivers answer the questions more candidly than they would if the surveys came directly from Medallion.
“The fact that it comes from a third party, even though we see the results, makes the drivers more inclined to respond truthfully,” Szerlik says.
The overall impact of the Insights surveys has been better engagement with Medallion’s hundreds of drivers, and Szerlik says they appreciate the effort. “It shows them that they’re not just a number to us,” she says.
For companies that are looking to build a comprehensive driver-centric safety, onboarding, and retention solution, Szerlik recommends Tenstreet.
ABOUT MEDALLION
Medallion Transport & Logistics, LLC was formed in January of 2009 by founder and CEO Gary Weilheimer, who, along with the executive management team, have 60 years of combined experience in the freight agency/owner operator business.
Medallion is an agency/owner operator-based company with offices throughout the 48 contiguous states, offering truckload services, freight brokerage, LTL shipping, specialized over-dimensional, logistics project management, expedited service, and a full array of logistics management services.
