Introduction: AI Express
Ikjot “Jot” Bath, CEO of AI Express, spent his entire childhood around trucks. His father, Sarvdeep Singh Bath, was an owner-operator and Jot would grow up spending time on the road with him, being more and more exposed to the transportation industry. Fast-forward to today, at 26-years old, Jot has grown into being the CEO of the company his dad started.
AI Express is an asset-based transportation company with locations in both Toronto, Ontario & Montreal, Quebec. Started in 2008 with just Sarvdeep and one truck, he decided to grow the business and eventually partnered with one of his long-term industry friend’s based in Toronto, ON. The company grew to having 10 trucks in 2017, at which point Jot saw an opportunity to come on board to help his dad elevate the business. Jot speaks 3 languages and has a strong background in front end business – sales, marketing, hiring. Most importantly, he had an eye for technology and what tools AI Express could use in order to elevate their business.
Today, AI Express specializes in service routes across Canada & the US (with Alaska being a highlight of one of the company’s trips) including truckload service, logistics and occasionally warehousing. If going from 10 to 100 trucks within 5 years doesn’t speak to their rapid business growth, it’s important to note that they were also named in the Globe and Mail’s 2022 Report on Business as one of Canada’s Top Growing Companies.
The search for a TMS
AI Express began their hunt for a TMS when their existing software wasn’t quite doing the trick. Jot compares it to an equivalent of an excel sheet – you could input order information, PO’s and dates. Where he felt it lacking was the inability to access tracking information. AI Express was comfortable with the software, but like many companies, knew that scaling and growing their business wouldn’t be possible with the existing software. What Jot didn’t realize, is that he would accidentally stumble across the solution he was looking for.
Jot was at work one day when he received a load confirmation that caught his eye – it wasn’t just any load confirmation. He described it as looking incredibly clean, not cluttered, and elevated from your basic load confirmation. His curiosity led him to ask the customer what system they were using. Their response? Rose Rocket.
Jot went to his Director of Logistics, Nicholas Duncan, to propose the idea and the journey with Rose Rocket began.
Onboarding with Rose Rocket
In the beginning stages of working with Rose Rocket, Nicholas and AI Express wanted to be challenged on their existing logistics process. The company had been stuck in their old ways of doing things and Nicholas knew if they wanted to see change, they would need to effectively maximize the tools within Rose Rocket. AI Express found the learning curve very approachable and the customer support from Rose Rocket was there to support them every step of the way.
”As we've added people to our team, it's very easy to get them up to speed in operating effectively and efficiently within Rose Rocket. It's straightforward with great prompts along the way to make sure that as an order is created, you don't miss out key information in its creation.”Both Nicholas and Jot found Rose Rocket incredibly user friendly. “The logic in Rose Rocket just makes sense” says Jot.
Training their team became less of a headache and more of an exciting learning opportunity for the team. From automated filters, to an intuitive order creation process, all the way to invoicing and getting e-signatures within minutes – the usefulness of each feature within Rose Rocket combined with the ease of use allowed for a high success rate with onboarding. The transition process for their employees became simple, and left them with a more optimized, improved execution for their day-to-day operations.
The magic touch of a cloud-based system
Previously, AI Express was on a server based platform, which left them feeling stagnant and limited to only working in one location. Rose Rocket’s cloud-based system was able to revolutionize the way that AI Express employees would work. Their team was able to access the software from the comfort of their own home, allowing the company to embrace flexibility with their employees working location.
Jot and his team were also looking for a TMS that could grow with AI Express through their growth, without the limitations of needing a bigger server space. Rose Rocket’s scalability allowed AI Express to feel confident about their expansion being supported. Eventually, the team made the decision to bring both their asset and logistics division onto Rose Rocket’s platform.
Taking their Rose Rocket TMS from logistics to assets
AI Express started their logistics side of the business first on Rose Rocket in order to get a feel for whether it would be a good fit. Within a matter of weeks, AI Express made the decision to also migrate the asset division of the company onto Rose Rocket.
Initially, Jot and his team were wondering if they would need two separate portals of the software to manage both the asset and logistics side of the business. This worry was quickly solved by Rose Rocket’s ability to internally combine both partnerships of the business, which ultimately allowed AI Express to have their work flow through the same portal. So if AI Express’ logistics side wanted to give their own carrier team a load, or share orders together, they were able to do so. And because the system directly transmits that information, it allowed for big savings of both time and tons of paperwork. As a result, AI Express now has the ease of knowing both the company’s divisions could successful co-exist and partner on the same system. Not to mention, the ability to have a software that could scale with them as their company continued it’s upwards trajectory of growth.
Reducing call volumes by 40%
Automated notifications in Rose Rocket helped AI Express drastically reduce their call volumes – from pick-ups to deliveries, driver time-in and order completions – Rose Rocket’s system helped the company limit the amount of unnecessary phone calls and communications that could be easily replaced with a status update notification.
"Calls definitely got reduced by, at least 40% based on our business model because we're able to just notify through the (Rose Rocket) system." said Jot.
The company also saw a drop in the hours of manpower being used to re-create recurring orders and order entry as a whole. Jot noted that inputting the details of one order isn’t overly time consuming, but when you multiply that by hundreds, the hours spent start to add up. Rose Rocket’s duplication feature revolutionized the order entry process for AI Express to go from minutes into seconds. It also allowed for them to save existing customers, repeat lanes and recurring orders with regular customers.
"Creating an easy environment for our team to work with and not a frustrating one is a very big internal combustion to the whole engine of what the company is" - Jot Bath
Improving the baseline for service
Beyond the initial onboarding, the AI Express team felt supported every step of the way from the Rose Rocket team. From regular check-ins, to providing feedback and suggestions on new helpful features, Jot and his team felt the openness and accommodating experience from Rose Rocket to make sure their company maintained their reach for excellence.
"One of the key points of confidence I come back to at Rose Rocket is truly just feeling heard, feeling supported."
The relationship between business and customer evolved into a partnership, with both teams feeling like they could help one another grow. AI Express feels confidence in scaling their team, while being able to develop business tactics through Rose Rocket, ultimately saving them hours of work.
AI Express foreshadows exponential growth for their next few years and feels positive that partners like Rose Rocket, are there to support them every step of the way.
"10 years ago, if you were trying to track a truck of an evening, you had to hope you had the dispatcher's phone number and they would take up the call today. Once we get live tracking logged into an order through Rose Rocket, we can track that truck any time of day."
