Situation

• Many trucks on Canadian roads travel empty after delivering their shipments
• Despite this, when consumers or businesses need to ship goods, it can be difficult to find an available truck that's going their way
• Canhaul.com was created to solve this problem by allowing truck owners and trucking companies to advertise the location, specifications and destination of their trucks
• The site uses a variety of tools, including Google Maps, to make it easy for consumers to find trucks that meet their needs
• Canhaul.com earns its revenue from trucking companies, many of which are small and relatively unsophisticated one or two-person operations
• Canhaul.com needed to make it as easy as possible for potential customers to reach them in order to list their trucks
• Occupied with getting the business up and running, Canhaul.com's owners were frequently on the road, yet still had to be available at all times
• Canhaul.com needed a call centre solution that would be scalable and would allow them to take and make calls from anywhere

Approach

• The owners of Canhaul.com began researching the market, looking for a portable and efficient call centre solution
• Canhaul.com discovered CallCentreAnywhere from TELUS
• After discussions with TELUS, Canhaul.com decided to start with six CallCentreAnywhere seats, with more available at any time

Business benefits

• Canhaul.com has a leading-edge call centre solution, without any capital expenditure
• They system is managed and monitored by 24x7 by TELUS, freeing Canhaul.com staff to focus on their core business
• Agents need only a telephone and a computer with an Internet connection to use CallCentreAnywhere, so they can operate from anywhere, often at a moment's notice
• The system is fully scalable, with more seats available whenever Canhaul.com needs them
• Drill-down reports provide the information Canhaul.com needs to deliver outstanding customer service, as cost-effectively as possible

Solution

While working for a company that rented rig mats to oil companies in Alberta, Brent Moore had a problem.  He needed to get a shipment of mats to a customer as soon as possible, but could not find a trucking company with vehicles in the area, readily available to meet his needs.  From the customer's premises, he could see trucks speeding by on the highway.  Many of them fit his specifications perfectly - and they were empty.  Thinking that there must be a way to connect with the owners of those trucks, Moore started searching online.  Once again, to his amazement, he discovered that there was no service available.  So he and four colleagues from the industry quit their jobs and set out to create it themselves.

The result is Canhaul.com, a unique online service that allows trucking companies and truck owners to advertise the availability, location and specifications of their vehicles.  Consumers and businesses that need to move shipments simply enter the date, location and trailer type they require and Canhaul.com generates an instant list of any trucks in the area that match those parameters.  Canhaul.com also incorporates Google Maps, which truly brings the search for trucks to life.

The next challenge was to make it as easy as possible for truckers and trucking companies to use the service.  "We realized that a lot of our customers were small one or two-person operations who would want to call us with information about their trucks so that we could post the details on the site," says Russell Love, Communications Director.  "We also knew that at first, they would probably have questions and might need some help.  So we needed a call center solution."

However, Canhaul.com's owners were spending a lot of time on the road, which meant they needed a solution that would allow calls to follow them anywhere.  In researching the options, they discovered that CallCentreAnywhere would allow them to take their calls from anywhere.  "All you need to connect to the system is a computer and a telephone," explains Love.  "So if we're on the road, we can sit in our hotel rooms for a couple of hours with our cell phones and field calls.  We can also call on other agents - sometimes even family members - who could be in Edmonton or fort McMurray."

There were other major advantages that came with choosing CallCentreAnywhere.  It provided Canhaul.com with a leading-edge, multi-media call centre solution without any capital investment.  "It does more than we initially realized and we are extremely pleased with the results," says Love.  "For example, the report drill downs are clearly going to make us cost-efficient, while maintaining a high level of customer service."  In addition, the entire solution is hosted at a TELUS Internet Data Centre, where it's monitored and managed 24x7.  That means Canhaul.com doesn't have to support it.  Their own communications and IT staff can concentrate on the business, without having to worry about technical call centre issues.

Initially, Canhaul.com purchased 6 CallCentreAnywhere seats, knowing that scalability will never be an issue.  If ever they require more seats, it's a simple matter of purchasing them.  "We're setting ourselves up for success from the get-go," says Love.  "And TELUS has been more than accommodating.  They've made us feel like they're doing everything they can to make our business work."