Courier company reduces response time and staffing costs with Zello

Since it was founded in 2002, Crossroads Courier has completed over 13 million deliveries, with 3.3 million of them being time-critical medical specimens. Instant, quality communication is key for the company to ensure seamless, efficient operations for their customers and the drivers that are at the heart of their time-sensitive service.

Vice President, Elizabeth Klein, discovered Zello when Crossroads Courier acquired another courier company that used it. Klein was immediately impressed with the service when she saw how quicker response times from dispatchers helped her better retain drivers. Additionally, she saved on staffing costs because of better workload distribution and streamlining through Zello.

During the pandemic, there was extra pressure on Crossroads Courier drivers due to increased customer expectations. Klein explains, “Finding contract drivers after COVID has been insane. The best way to find and retain drivers is to service them: make them money, make them feel good, make them feel they are doing a good job, and take care of them.”

Zello quickly became an important tool for connecting dispatchers and drivers over private and dispatch channels so they could make deliveries faster with timely, accurate information. In Dispatch Hub, dispatchers now queue up 10-12 messages, prioritize them quickly, and toggle between those conversations, rather than putting drivers on hold or juggling multiple devices as they would with phone calls.

“Zello has improved how we are able to service our drivers and clients and take care of our staff,” says Klein. “Without Zello we would need twice as many driver support personnel.”

Oftentimes in medical deliveries, the location of a patient will change as an urgent, time-sensitive situation unfolds. Zello has proven to be a critical tool in helping Crossroads drivers quickly adapt to new and shifting dropoff information. “If we have medical deliveries, blood or organs, or if there is a change in hospital destination…it’s a life-threatening problem. We have to be accurate. Zello helps us achieve that,” reports Lead Dispatcher, Sam Nelson.

Crossroads Courier attributes their use of Zello to better time allocation for drivers, which allows the drivers to make more money. And by reducing dispatchers needed, Crossroads Courier saves money too. “I think the ease of communication is the best part. This is so much easier than making a phone call,” says Crossroads driver, Daron Komo.

Klein asserts: “If every courier out there isn’t using you, I’m surprised. It’s really affordable. Zello is the push-to-talk application that we use to communicate with all our drivers. If you have to communicate with a field team, you need to use this app. There is nothing better!”

Crossroads Courier is a regional delivery and logistics company that focuses on partnership, responsiveness and efficiency in all aspects of its business. The company relies on advanced technology to deliver a high level of service, but knows that no technical innovation can be a substitute for personal relationships.

crossroadscourier.com