INFORMATION SYSTEMS

The company's Information Systems are designed to offer customers quick response to their capacity needs while simultaneously promoting smooth running and efficient operations.  Empire Express' information systems include:

Innovative (ICC) Application R7V1

The Innovative application running on the company's AS/400 is a specialized trucking application that integrates real-time information from order entry to billing and eliminates the re-keying of information as the transaction unfolds.  Innovative also integrates with third party mileage, fuel, EDI, tax and mobile communication systems.  All information in the system today is mirrored to provide a seamless backup.  The Innovative application includes:

               Order taking, dispatching and check calls

               Billing, payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable and general ledger

               Tracking and reporting customer volume, driver performance and equipment utilization

               Tracking and reporting of equipment maintenance and parts usage

               Tracking and control of driver screening, hiring and qualifications

               Tracking and reporting of accidents, OS&D and workers compensation claims

 Real Vision/IBM Imaging System

Today the company's billing, payroll, logs and accounts payable documents are imaged, indexed and stored for convenient and cost effective use, storage and retrieval.  In the near future all safety and human resource documents and files will also be imaged.

 EDI Capabilities

The following EDI features are available for our customers for convenient load tendering, paperless billing, real time load tracking and improved communications:

               1.            204s Load Tendering

               2.            210s Freight Invoicing

               3.            214s Shipment Status

               4.            990s Service Reporting

 Empire Express Web Page

The company's web page is empireexpress.com.  E-Commerce Solutions by Canucks, Inc. provides the ability for shippers to tender loads, track orders, check on the status of their loads and access billing information via the Internet on Empire's web site.

 ADDON SYSTEMS DM/400

ADDON's Detention Monitoring System provides notification of pending and actual detention time so customer service can intervene with shippers/receivers to speed up trailer loading/unloading to hold down customer shipping cost.  Detention information also enables accurate billing of driver detention and calculation of detention pay.

NETWISE®

The NETWISE® application provides continuous yield-based profitability information in order identify the root causes of unprofitable freight.  The profitability of freight is determined by the relationship between revenue, cost, efficiency and balance.  NETWISE® determines which of these factors are a problem and provides guidance on the action necessary for improvement.  This application allows Empire to manage and improve yields, respond to bids, scoreboard the profitability of lanes, customers and regions, perform "what-if" analysis and optimize the freight mix.

 NETWISE®400

NETWISE®400 is a resident AS/400 system that makes the NETWISE® profitability data available real-time to customer service representatives, planners and operations managers while they are soliciting freight and planning loads in the order entry and dispatch system.

Out of Route / ETA Alert

The OOR/ETA Alert application helps Operations to continually monitor truck progress and then quickly intervene to prevent potential service failures.  OOR/ETA Alert sends out a suggested route solution with the load assignment when the driver is dispatched.  The truck is then displayed in Operations as a colored dot on a road map based on hourly Qualcomm position updates.  The truck's actual progress is compared against the scheduled arrival time and the actual route taken is compared against the route suggested.  On-time and on-route trucks are green dots on the map.  Yellow dots are trucks that are running behind schedule.  Red dots are trucks that are significantly off the suggested route.  This system allows dispatchers and operations managers to better concentrate on the trucks running behind or running way out of route to prevent potential service failures.

 Expert Fuel

Expert Fuel evaluates the suggested route solution at the time of dispatch and sends the driver specific directions where to fuel to get the best price along the suggested route.  Expert Fuel considers the truck's fuel capacity, actual fuel level, the truck's fuel consumption rate (mpg), the route and distance to the destination, and the current pricing with discounts at all truck stops along the suggested route.  Expert Fuel then determines best-cost fuel purchases on route that keep the fuel level from ever going below 30 gallons while ending the trip with at least 50 gallons