Knight Transportation: A Case Study on Fleet Management and Efficiency

This case study examines Knight Transportation's implementation of the Fleet-View system to address inefficiencies in its trucking operations. Prior to Fleet-View, the company struggled with trailer location, cargo security, and route optimization, leading to increased costs and operational delays. The introduction of GPS tracking and cargo sensors allowed Knight Transportation to monitor trailer locations, cargo status, and driver behavior, resulting in significant improvements in fuel efficiency, reduced trailer-to-truck ratios, and enhanced security. The analysis highlights the positive impact of Fleet-View on the company's profitability and competitive advantage, demonstrating how technology can transform a traditional industry. The company saved at least $1 million in fuel costs, reduced the trailer-to-truck ratio, and increased the productivity of company managers. The case concludes by emphasizing the importance of technology adoption in maintaining a competitive edge within the freight industry and its potential to generate an 11% profit for the company.

Introduction
The freight business is extremely competitive. In recent years, many freight companies have
adopted information technology to boost the performance of seemingly conservative
industries. those that innovate can get rich returns. within the us, trucking remains the most
cost effective and fastest thanks to move goods from one location to a different. 80% of all
goods transported within the country are transported by truck. Knight Transportation
Company Knight Transportation Company was founded in 1990 by four cousins: brothers
Kevin and Keith Knight, Randy and Gary Knight. Based on previous work experience in
Swift Transportation and more than 80 years of comprehensive experience in the trucking
industry, the Knights conceived a better way of trucking. The initial goal was to repay debts
with first-class equipment and the lowest-cost means of transportation, and mainly focused
on safety and customer service. The four cousins started to work.
Due to the small number of trucks in the terminal building in Phoenix, Arizona, and the
desire for growth, the Cavaliers cousin quickly realized his dream and soon discovered that
their company was rated as the fastest growing truck company in the United States. It has
been named one of the "200 Best Small Companies" by Forbes magazine for several
consecutive years. Knight has grown from one terminal to 25 terminals, from three trucks
to more than 4,000 trucks, and from a few drivers to more than 4,000 drivers. Now it has
become growth, profitability and culture. And innovative industry leaders. In 2017, Knight
Transportation Company and Swift Transportation Company conducted an all-stock
transaction, and the combined Knight Swift Transportation Holding Company became the
company's largest vehicle company in North America.
The company transports all kinds of goods: consumer staples, paper products, packaging and
plastic materials, manufactured goods, and import and export goods. Its refrigerated trailer
transports perishable food. Due to the growth of the fleet and the increase in the types of
items handled, the company believes it is necessary to learn more about the location of its
trucks and trailers and the resulting trailer items. These needs are in addition to the old
challenge of locating stolen trucks. From loading the truck to parking overnight, thieves often
follow the truck. In one case, a group of criminals stole $2.2 million worth of items from
several trucks. The ring was arrested near Chicago in 2006 and stole medicines, alcohol,

photocopiers, biscuits and car parts. The communications director of Knight Transportation
estimates that truck cargo theft is more common than bank robbery. Freight is still an
inefficient industry to a large extent, mainly because time is extremely passionate about
customers: sender and receiver.
The company explored ways to use the Global Positioning System (GPS). Many companies
specializing during this field provide systems for locating drivers to confirm that
drivers won't stop excessively or take unnecessary routes. Knight wants more information. In
2001, management decided to appoint Terion in Plano, Texas.
Question 1
Before Fleet-View was installed, Knight’s inefficiency was because the company did not
effectively use its trailers and trucks, for example, the company did not have the exact
location of its empty trucks or trailers, so what would happen when they tend to send empty
Trucks or trailers travel long distances to pick up some goods, and there are trailers or trucks
available nearby, which causes the demand for trailers to exceed actual needs, and leads to
poor communication between the truck drivers and their delivery locations, because the
company usually I don't know which trailers are loaded, which ones are not, let alone the
cargo. The timing is highly dependent on the customer: sender and receiver, so the processing
of perishable food is very fast, but it is different from the processing of other items, because
the truck may have to wait several hours or even days until the store has Enough space or
personnel to unload cargo.
The company also spent at least an hour looking for empty trailers to use, thus wasting time
every day. Other inefficiency issues include their tendency to send trailers to the wrong
location because they have to monitor many trailers. Before installing the fleet landscape,
they lost $2.2 million from several trucks because the goods they were carrying were stolen,
and because their trucks did not have safety devices installed to warn drivers of possible
robberies, thieves often from time to time Follow the truck and it will load until the driver
stops at night.

Also tracking the entire trailer is also a problem, because they do not have the exact location
of the truck and the exact location of the truck's contents. This also resulted in excessive fuel
consumption due to unnecessary routes for trucks. In the past, the rider’s trailer ratio per
truck was maintained at more than four, and these costs could be saved through accurate and
timely information.
Question 2
After installing the Fleet-View information system, managers now only need to click a button
to accurately understand their trailer location and cargo information. Managers can now
easily determine which trailer is empty and which is not. Managers can now determine to use
GPRS to locate or monitor drivers to ensure that they do not park too many vehicles or take
too many routes. Before implementing the Terion device, the driver can tow the trailer to a
retailer such as Wal-Mart and leave it idle. Now, managers can visit the company's website,
display the current record of each trailer, and immediately view the location and movement
of the trailer.
Since Fleet View also uses an auxiliary product called "cargo sensor" to send current
performance to the trailer, which is installed inside the trailer, they can also detect the
presence of cargo and determine whether the cargo or trailer is empty based on their report.
They can also know other information, such as fuel level and air pressure, so they can notify
the driver to make necessary stops to take care of the truck and notify the trailer location. In
addition, if the trailer door is opened or not, the system will send a message to warn the driver
of a possible robbery, and now managers can dispatch the truck with a more efficient route.
Moreover, managers will know if their drivers have any extracurricular activities and are not
doing well, and their drivers will receive calls to take care of the truck or take them to the
truck for routine maintenance when appropriate. Since truck transportation and travel
expenses can be maintained in a timely manner, costs can be reduced because sensors will be
able to relay information about fuel quantity and tire pressure.
In addition, the information sent from the road also provided them with information about the
trailer content, location and time. This technology allows managers to easily manage cargo
and ensure smooth business operations.

Managers can now obtain the current record of each trailer by accessing the information on
the company's website. And instantly see where the trailers are and where they are moving.
Question 3
Installing Terion's Fleet View tracking device for Knight greatly improved the company's
performance. There are undeniable indicators which will improve efficiency. Since the
corporate isn't afraid to succeed in a replacement level of development in its business, due to
that the company saved a minimum of $1 million in fuel costs. This implies that the use of
GPS navigators to work out the placement of the truck with additional information such as
the location of empty trucks, its fuels and tire pressure helped them save a great amount of
fuel.
Furthermore, the requirement to refuel such numerous trucks isn't an enormous cost in itself.
It will be said that these savings have had a great impact on the company's
efficiency. additionally, the functionality of Fleet View equipment isn't limited to cargo
location as well as the ability to accurately determine the load of the trailer sauses a pretty
good impact on the company's efficiency. Now they can easily transport an empty truck
to the closest job site, unlike before when they'd send a truck without having the knowledge
of more suitable truck nearby the location.
For the same reason, they managed to reduce the ratio of trailers to trucks. The company is
trying to reduce the trailer-to-truck ratio from 3 to 1. For many years, the tracking industry
has been unable to reduce the trailer-to-truck ratio from 3 to 1. It was installed in 2002. From
Fleet-View, the current trailer-to-truck ratio is 2.3:1, compared to 4.4:1 in 2002. In this
industry, this is an important indicator of efficiency, and the company now has a profit of
11%. In addition, the company has also saved at least $1 million in fuel due to effective
routes in the freight process.
In addition, the efficiency of equipment installation has also increased the productivity of
company managers. The company’s fleet operators reduce the time it takes to find trailers by
one hour each day. Saving an entire hour is vital to the company's profitability.

Question 4
Competitive advantage refers to the advantage obtained by lowering prices or providing more
value to customers by offering great advantages and services. So the answer is yes the
company can keep an advantage over competitors, because from now on, the company can
dispatch their trailers and trucks more efficiently, so they can save fuel and money and make
better use of them, such as investing in or upgrading services. Considering the equipment and
software used by Knight, it maintains an advantage among competitors because the
equipment and software they use will help them increase profits and work efficiency. It can
also help them to do business effortlessly, thereby saving them more time and speeding up
their business transactions without too much effort. The equipment and software used by the
company requires a little bit of habit, but once it becomes the norm, everything will run more
smoothly and efficiently. If competitors have mastered such equipment and software, Knight
will still be one step ahead, because research and keeping up with the pace of market
development will not quickly enable them to find other ways to improve and maintain
business operations. With the continuous development of technology and smooth.
Conclusion
All in all, this case involves Knight Transportation (Inc) trying to resolve the inefficiency of
its fleet by using new technologies like GPS and new equipment. this variation won't only
help Knight obtain more information about its fleet, it'll also save the corporate a minimum
of $1 million in fuel. This allowed the Cavaliers to get an 11% profit. Before the Cavaliers
used "Fleet Landscape", the fleet was inefficient. Theft threatens the freight company. They
always follow the route of the truck and steal goods in the dark after operator leaves.
It may be a large loss for the corporate. For the truck industry, time is that the most difficult
factor they control. When truck drivers deliver goods to the shop, they have to attend for the
shop until the shop has space to unload the products. Therefore, time is usually wasted.
Another problem is that the poor communication between the driver and therefore
the delivery location. the corporate doesn't know the placement of the trailer, or
whether it's full or empty. Therefore, resource mismatches may occur and costs will increase.

Since using the Global Positioning System (GPS), Knight has more information than before.
First, the corporate can use Terion's Fleet View product to locate trucks via GPS. Secondly,
after adding the auxiliary product "cargo sensor", the corporate can detect
whether there's cargo within the trailer. After the products are empty, you'll be able to report
back to the corporate immediately. additionally, sensors can detect the reserve and tire
pressure of the truck in order that the driving force can notice the truck and so maintain it
at the acceptable time.
Finally, the staff at the headquarters can receive all the data about the truck, such as the
placement of the truck, the location of the truck, and the condition of the cargo. Therefore,
the staff can detect when the theft has stolen the product. Knight's more practical indicator is
the ratio of trailers to trucks. In the past, the industry was unable to reduce the ratio from 3 to
1. In 2002, the ratio of Knight was 4.4:1. But now the ratio is only 2.3:1. This may explain
why Knight’s ratio is 11. Percentage of profit.
There are eight ways to gain a competitive advantage. Among the eight methods, cost
reduction is applicable to Knight. The benefit of reducing costs is that if an organization can
sell more products at a cheaper price, while still providing quality and maintaining or
increasing its profit margins, then it can reap dividends. With the rise of Knight in the
American freight industry, it should follow global trends and use technology to improve its
business performance. Likewise, Knight found his fleet was inefficient.
Therefore, it implements new equipment like GPS and cargo sensors to extend efficiency.
This new technology provides Knight with multiple benefits of more information about
trucks and fleets. After Knight used these new technologies, it saved a minimum of $1
million in fuel. Therefore, we will see that by reducing costs, the Cavaliers can gain a
competitive advantage during this industry. As we all know, technology is usually changing
rapidly.
Although the new equipment and software employed by Knight can give the corporate a
competitive advantage, other competitors can even use the identical technology and follow
what Knight does. Therefore, if the corporate doesn't use the newest technology to
boost business performance, its competitive advantage won't last long. So, if Knight wants to
keep up its advantages during this industry, it should search for new opportunities and

continuously improve its services. additionally, it must develop new features to stay the
system ahead while considering cost.

Appendix
Marking Criteria

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