PrePass
It’s often been said, people don’t often appreciate what they have until it’s gone, including in business.
For instance, you may have paid for a service in which you determined really wasn’t helping you out like you had hoped. For instance, a more expensive data plan for your cell phone. But, one day you determined you wanted to cut back and instead rely more of free wi-fi hotspots. However, like many of us have found, free wi-fi often can have terrible service compared to a cell phone company’s data plan. Then suddenly it hits you — you really miss the data plan you had.
Such an analogy can be applied to one trucking company. Kentucky-based Phoenix Transportation has been a PrePass customer since 1998. However, a few years ago they dropped both its PrePass weigh station bypass and toll payment service. The reason? The company wanted to improve its safety scores. And that meant one thing — getting their trucks to go through weigh stations more often where they felt they would get good inspection reports.
However, such a decision came with a price, according to Mark Barnes, the company’s vice-president of safety and recruiting. While Phoenix’s safety scores did improve, there were also negative effects. One, PrePass was a favorite among drivers. Two, Phoenix was forced to deal with complex issues such as incorrect charges and toll disputes from multiple toll agencies. After a short time, Barnes reversed his decision and went back to PrePass, freeing him and his staff up, and saving them time and money.
