360 Global Transportation needed to replace its paper documentation with efficient, streamlined workflows to boost productivity and collaboration.
Leveraging the Google Workspace integration and Automated Workflows, 360 Global Transportation streamlines its business process and centralizes record-keeping.
Driver’s Manifest Form
Bill of Lading
With over two decades of experience, 360 Global Transportation specializes in providing trucking and distribution services. Their specialty lies in crafting logistics solutions customized to the needs of medium to large corporations and government entities.
After working for Fortune 500 companies as a developer dedicated to streamlining processes, Carmen Chestnut, Co-Founder of 360 Global Transportation, embarked on the journey to start her own business to achieve similar efficiencies. "I thought it would be a breeze doing it for my own company, but in reality, it was harder,” Chestnut explained. “I was expected to be in a leadership role, and I can't be in a leadership role and handle development at the same time." Chestnut knew that utilizing technology to replace paper would streamline business processes right from the outset. “Everything used to be done on paper and it’s always been my job to eliminate paper. So when I noticed mounds and mounds of paper everywhere, I decided we're going to get rid of this paper now.”
Before GoFormz, Chestnut tested out Microsoft Access and another development platform. “I was met with the same challenges of going down a rabbit hole and trying to do development again. It simply wasn’t as easy as it seemed,” explained Chestnut. Then, she found GoFormz. “We first created a form for our drivers to document their routes, which is common in logistics. I was able to create it quickly thanks to the rapid development environment within GoFormz.”
Implementing new tools and technologies is rarely a simple task, and Chestnut encountered some initial resistance when introducing her company to GoFormz. “I had to deal with a lot of pushback in the industry because they weren’t used to the technology. But once they got used to it, they realized this process was so much better,” explained Chestnut. To simplify the adoption of GoFormz, every new hire goes through internal training to learn the product. “Now when we hire new staff, I train them on the GoFormz platform to get them up to speed on how things are done here.” This process has resulted in company-wide appreciation for the digital forms tool. “GoFormz is now a verb here at 360 Global Transportation. I hear staff saying, ‘did you GoFormz that?’”
“GoFormz is now a verb here at 360 Global Transportation. I hear staff saying, ‘did you GoFormz that?’”
– Carmen Chestnut, Co-Founder, 360 Global Transportation
The first form 360 Global Transportation digitized was their Driver’s Manifest form, which documents trips made by a driver. “It’s very typical for a driver to have to document their routes. It’s actually the law,” Chestnut explained. “If they were stopped by CHP, they or the company can be fined if they can’t produce documentation for their routes. The CHP officers want to make sure the drivers aren’t logging too many hours or they aren’t driving while tired, things of that nature. It’s very important for road safety.” In addition to this transportation form, 360 Global Transportation also completes various other forms.
360 Global Transportation utilizes various GoFormz features to ensure efficiency across the company. “The fields we use within our digital forms are primarily alphanumeric, however, we also use Image fields,” said Chestnut. “Whenever our staff would arrive at ports they would receive a ticket that needed to be included in their documentation and those tickets would turn into mounds and mounds of paperwork. Now with the Image field, drivers just take photos of their tickets and include them in the digital form.” Utilizing Image fields serves as an effective method to visually demonstrate proof of documentation, and, in this particular scenario, helps minimize the volume of physical paperwork associated with a given trip.
Utilizing the GoFormz and Google Workspace integration, photos are automatically uploaded to a corresponding Google Drive folder. “Even though the photos are superimposed on the forms, we keep an archive of all the photos in high resolution to take a closer look at the photos later, which comes in handy for us,” noted Chestnut. In addition, completed forms are automatically uploaded to designated Google Drive folders.
360 Global Transportation also implemented additional workflows to streamline a variety of business functions. “Once our drivers fill out the transportation forms, those completed forms get sent back to the Cloud and our administrative team takes that data and they do what they need to do with it,” she continued, “These workflows come in handy because it easily just goes into the cloud and then our team can retrieve that data in real-time and do what they have to do.”
“These workflows come in handy because it easily just goes into the cloud and then our team can retrieve that data in real-time and do what they have to do.”
– Carmen Chestnut, Co-Founder, 360 Global Transportation
GoFormz provides extensive user customization features that empower businesses to tailor their experience based on distinct user groups. "We have our dispatch team and our drivers in their own user groups," explained Chestnut. This flexibility allows businesses to organize information efficiently.
The implementation of user group permissions ensures that each team can focus on their specific tasks without unnecessary distractions. "I try my best to construct permissions so that each user group doesn’t have to worry about forms outside their scope. The drivers don't have to concern themselves with other departments, and vice versa." This strategic customization not only enhances operational efficiency but also maintains a specialized and organized workflow within the company. Additionally, it highlights the commitment to secure data handling, ensuring that sensitive information remains restricted to relevant user groups.
Additionally, GoFormz is a secure platform as a whole. “GoFormz is so trustworthy and I feel that our tools are very well protected because of the backend security,” explained Chestnut. “You know with GoFormz you have backups of your data.”
“GoFormz is so trustworthy and I feel that our tools are very well protected because of the backend security”
– Carmen Chestnut, Co-Founder, 360 Global Transportation
Coming from a software development background and possessing a deep understanding of constructing efficient processes from the ground up, Chestnut perceives cost savings in a different way. “As a developer for other companies in the past, I can honestly say the cost savings are significant. It costs money to hire someone to build a user interface, it costs money to hire a programmer to develop the middle part of the application, and it costs money to hire a server administrator,” Chestnut continued, “All of these things GoFormz provides within their subscription.”
She went on to elaborate on her prior role as a developer, describing the necessity of closely monitoring software updates and the intensive task of maintaining those updates. “I don't have to worry about any of that because all I do is develop the process and you guys take care of the hard part – which is where the cost savings come into place.”
As 360 Global Transportation looks to expand their use case, the next step of their digital transformation journey includes leveraging the enhanced barcode scanning feature. “I’ve decided to dive in all the way with GoFormz because of the support of the professional services team.”