LoadProof Video Testimonial – Dickson Furniture LP Testimonial

For our LTLs for our pallet size shipments.

Okay, um, the idea at first was, uh, a lot of at the time, the majority of our warranty orders were coming from our LTL orders somehow getting damaged either during transit or, unfortunately, sometimes it’s damaged here while it was being built. Okay, or also damaged at the delivery of the property.

Okay, and then we didn’t have a way, uh, we didn’t really have a good way to defend ourselves. Yep, um, or to prove that that’s not how the product left our building. Yep, so that was definitely the main reason, uh, Mr. Lindsay had brought on Load Proof.

And then Aaron here has joined our team. I want to say going on almost two and a half months now, okay, maybe almost three months, and he has since taken over our LTL processing and parcel too for UPS or FedEx. Um, so he can probably give you a little more input, but I can tell you at least for the long period of time I was using Load Proof, yeah, I had absolutely no problems with it.

Okay, I never had—it was always some internal issue where our Wi-Fi inside the building wasn’t, you know, yeah, yeah, the best, and I would lose connection, but it was never anything due to Load Proof. Okay, see more on the sense that, you know, how did Load Proof help you guys with, you know, proving that you did your job right, right?

That’s what we want to talk about, you know, um, you know, if you could please introduce yourself and, you know, um, introduce your role and day-to-day responsibilities. I know we can get into what were some of the challenges you had before, and then you guys implemented Load Proof, right? How did you find Load Proof, and then, you know, implemented Load Proof?

Right, maybe we can get started there. Sure, yeah, um, I want to say Bill had a friend or either where the business that he used to work at before here at Dixon was using Load Proof or somebody had recommended it to him. Okay, uh, like it wasn’t like an advertisement or it was like a word-of-mouth recommendation.

Okay, and, and like I said, like I was saying, we at the time were having to deal with, uh, defending ourselves, uh, yeah, trying to prove that that’s not how it left our building. Yeah, we would never ship something out that’s damaged like that or damaged at all.

Yeah, um, he had had just a little quick meeting with me because at the time I was doing the LTLs, and he said, “Hey, I want to try to bring on this company. It’s called Load Proof. Um, basically, we would be able to, uh, not categorize, um, like keep an inventory of all the photos of our loads.”

Yep, at least at the time he wanted to start small with the LTLs, yep, and he says, “I believe this will help us, you know, prove that we don’t ship anything damaged.” Yep, and it’s—definitely the proof is there. Like, we’ve had Load Proof has saved us in so many, I mean, countless incidents.

I want to say like maybe 60 total, okay, where—because we have such a large volume outbound, especially with LTL, so out of the thousands that ship, you know, like 2, 3,000 small orders to ship a year, yeah, to have 60 incidents where something’s claimed to be damaged, yeah, yeah, but Load Proof is there. We’re able to pull up the picture, we’re able to send a copy of the picture to the customer and say, “Hey, look, everything is right, there’s no damage, there’s nothing visible.”

Yeah, definitely not the way it arrived at your property, yep, and at that point we just got to file a claim with whoever carrier the trucking carrier was and let them kind of figure it out between themselves.

Um, but yeah, as far as bringing it on, it was Mr. Lindsay’s idea, okay, and, um, I like I said at first we definitely wanted to start off small.

Yeah, I forgot the gentleman’s name that we—that recommended you guys Load Proof. You know his name? You’re asking me? Well, I don’t know. It was a gentleman that, uh, we had—I want to say we had like three really good meetings with him. He helped us get set up, showed us what—oh, who set you guys up in the system?

Yeah, but I don’t remember his name. He was an awesome guy. Just I know that Bill and I wanted to eventually set up a meeting with him as, uh, to see how we could incorporate LTLs. Oh, we can help you with that.

Yeah, absolutely we can help you with that now. Uh, you know, so what are some of the—so you know, um, Aaron, you want to add something to what, um, Eric—um, oh, you’re on mute.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I—you want—yeah, like was saying, uh, now I’m taking over the LTL, so we take pictures of the pallet. See, I’m going to mute Eric to prove our point, okay? The pallet didn’t arrive a certain way, and the way the customer is showing that it arrived, it wasn’t the case, and it really helps us out a lot.

Also, I like that we can take the—have the app on our phones and take the pictures from there. It’s very useful to us.

Um, yes, so what are some of the key benefits, right? Can you—can you guys list the key benefits? I mean, I’ll ask—you know, um, I think looks like you both are next to each other, so when, you know, one of you is talking, you know, it’s echoing through the other speakers, so I’m going to—I got to mute one. One person only can talk at a time.

No, I just turned—I have actual speakers on my desk. That’s why. Oh, okay, so if you could please list the key benefits, you know, what are the key benefits, you know, one by one, you know, that you guys definitely—definitely number one is we’re able to, uh, file—we’re basically able to file all of our palletized orders visually, okay?

Because we have the paperwork side of it—we’ve always had the paperwork side of it—we never had a visual, um, what’s the word I’m looking for? Like filing, keeping a record of something.

Okay, we finally have a way to visually keep a record of our LTL orders, whether there is a warranty order put in eventually or a claim rather or not. We can always go back and, and I don’t know if you’re able to see our account, but I imagine by now there’s got to be thousands, yep, of sales orders, and, um, that I would say that’s definitely our number one as far as the point goes.

Uh, other benefits, obviously, like I said, we’re able to prove—we’re able to use it to our defense if needed. Um, I don’t know, Aaron, do you have any other ones? What about—what about right before Load Proof, if there is a claim or anything comes, how much time you guys would spend researching that?

Right, yes, of course. Yes, I’m glad you brought that up. Before, yes, we would have to, uh, pull camera footage or something like that and go through a whole day’s camera footage to see if we can get a good picture of what’s being loaded and all and whatnot. And now it’s just within a few clicks, uh, yeah, we’re able to pull it right up, and we’re able to not save the document and send it directly to the broker or to the carrier.

Yes, definitely, exactly. So, and then what about—I know people, um, you know, did you have any, um, you know, um, people training issues? Right? Obviously, you know, sometimes it’s a revolving door in warehouses, people come and go, so, you know, did Load Proof help you guys, um, you know, train your new people? Hey, this is how you got to pack it. This is if you got to load it. This is if you got to, you know, label it.

This is if you got to, you know, put your air low or anything like that, right? Yeah, I was going to see if Aaron had anything to add, but yes, I was going to mention that.

Uh, and that was actually one of the things that Bill had left on the table for us before he left was we’re able to take, uh, kind of like instructions for, yeah, like you said, new hires or people that have been transferred, uh, to our LTL Department, uh, the ones who actually build the pallets in the bag, and they can see—we can show them like, “Look, if it’s a mirror, this is how we build it.”

And, you know, Aaron’s really good at taking like four pictures of each pallet, whereas I used to only take like two. Uh, but yeah, you’re exactly right. We’re able to show, um, exactly how the product’s supposed to be assembled.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Aaron, do you have anything to add? Any other benefits that you see on a day-to-day basis, uh, you know, for yourself? I mean, see, one thing that we always also hear is that, hey, now before, the customers would write very casually submit claims, and now they’re thinking twice before submitting claims to us because they know that, you know, we’re going to give them photos of the condition of the product, right? Is that something that you guys have seen?

See, I think—I think I got unmute yourself. Yeah, unmute and then maybe mute Eric. Yeah, so like back then, and with how Eric was saying probably didn’t—since we didn’t have Load Proof, uh, people would take advantage of the situation because it would be hard for us to probably pull out camera footage, and that’s like—that’s time-consuming, and you know we got other things we got to do.

But also, how Eric was saying it has helped us out a lot with having a, um, having it on record on the computer versus having to go through all our paperwork and looking for a specific one. So there’s a lot of pros with this—so much time is time conservative. So now, you know, we just go in, get it done, and go on with our day. So it’s really been a lot helpful.

Great, great. So what other benefits you guys can think of? Are you also using Load Proof to digitize any of your paperwork? You know, this is one thing that comes up, you know, sometimes people have their, you know, load verification sheet and even safety form, right? Things like that, right?

They have—and yeah, so when we actually build the pallets, I have the guys make a few copies of the paperwork, yep, and one of the things is they tape or staple a copy of the paperwork onto the pallet.

And, uh, I don’t know how—I don’t know if Aaron’s still doing it because I was, but the last picture that I would take per pallet would be of just the actual paper, the paperwork, okay? So that when we’re seeing—when I’m going through Load Proof and I’m seeing the pictures, yep, I’m able to go to the last picture and see exactly what’s, uh, what’s on the pallet, what the document, right?

Either it could be a packing slip or it could be a bill of lading. If it’s a packing slip, it’s going to show all the—correct, yeah—all the products that were shipped on that load, right? Correct? Okay, okay, okay, that’s good.

That’s good. So, so, uh, you know, any other benefits that you guys can think of? Do you do you also use it for any other areas like inbound receipts from vendors? You know, at that time, there could be damages.

Yeah, well, our department is split now, okay? We used to do shipping and receiving, okay? Now we’re purely focused on the shipping aspect. Okay, we have an entire receiving department, and I’m glad you brought that up because I almost forgot.

Uh, we have an entire receiving department, and yes, we’ve incorporated Load Proof on their end, okay? And, and also now get to another way we use it too, uh, but as far as the receiving aspect, they can record anything that comes in already damaged because that was a big one we couldn’t prove that.

Again, going through all the camera footage, we prove that it arrived here damaged, yep, uh, whether it’s like metal frames or something from Mexico. Yep, uh, actually Aaron could tell you too. He actually came from receiving over to our department, but he can tell you a little bit more.

You can, yeah, you got—you got to unmute, Aaron. Yeah, you got to unmute, and then we’ll have to mute Eric.

There will be some things that will be returned to us and like Eric was saying we couldn’t prove that was actually damaged. Okay, and now since Lowu has been introduced to us, well, to the receiving department, they now take pictures and videos while inside the trailer or as soon as they unload off the truck. Yep, and submit that information to our purchasing department so that they could take a good look that this actually arrived this way in order for them to be able to claim that it arrived damaged and probably get a replacement.

So, did you guys share that feedback with the vendor or manufacturing plant? Where is the manufacturing plant? In Mexico, that’s where they’re manufacturing and these boards are coming to your facility in Houston? Yes. So, did you guys take those photos and share them with the manufacturing plant in Mexico saying, “Hey, look at this, guys, this is how we got the product, so it’s not our fault?” I cannot much with it. Okay, that has also helped us in getting either the item replaced or getting some sort of credit for their next purchase.

And what about returns? Customer returns, do you guys track customer returns also in Load Proof? Do you get any type of returns from the customer for whatever reason? Yeah, the returns. Yeah, because sometimes, let’s say we overship or for whatever reason, but like we said, the majority of the times, the ones that are returned for excessive amounts will be in good condition, but like we mentioned, there will be some that did come in damaged.

Okay, good, good. And do you guys also use it for quality audits? Outbound quality audits in your site because you’re a manufacturing plant, right? That was the other way that we use it. We actually have a quality control department, and one individual is in charge of it all. Yep, and yes, he documents well if it’s an RA or a returned order. He goes to inspect it, he can take pictures of it and compare it to the pictures that if it was an LTL. Yeah, he can see how it left, he can do the same thing we do.

But yes, they do use it for quality control. They’re still trying to figure out a way to use it a little more efficiently in our groups and our actual production side. Okay, we can help you with that. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. It definitely calls for at least one to two different future meetings. One definitely, we need to find a way to efficiently use Load Proof for FTLs, for full truck loads. Okay, it works perfect for LTLs, and we’re trying to just get something just as good of a process.

But yes, for quality control and for RAs for inspections, we have, like right now, is our student housing season and we’ve been having to ship like showroom orders. Yeah, really small orders that they set up a showroom, and if the customers like it enough, they place a larger order with those. Yeah, so we will take a picture of all the products that need to go in that truck and make sure we keep everything on record.

Okay, so it looks like you guys use it for both outbound quality as well as inbound quality, right? Outbound quality is when you’re shipping your, you know, right when it comes out of the manufacturing plant. You are taking photos; that’s more from an outbound perspective. And then even when you receive it or if it’s returns, you know, you have an inbound quality audit process as well, right?

Okay, great. So, how was the experience in terms of turning on Load Proof? There are two aspects to it whenever you turn on a system like this. The first is the technical aspect, right? Getting it technically right, getting it technically working, you know, connecting it to the Wi-Fi and things like that. Making sure you guys are able to log on to the browser portal, right? All that, and then from a human perspective, right? I mean, we are humans; we don’t want change quickly, right? We are used to our routines, and we are used to the way that we live our lives, and something new comes, we are like, “Oh, we hesitant.”

Right? We are like, “Oh, you know, why do I have to do this?” So it takes some time for people to realize that, “Hey, this is going to help me and I need to have this,” and stuff like that. Right? So how was—if you could talk about the technical aspect of the rollout implementation, and then you can talk about the people aspect? You know, that’ll be great.

As far as the technical, like I’ll show you. I mean, I know Aaron’s converted to using it on his cell phone. Yeah, but before we would just use our own iPads. Yep, and then we would walk back there, but as far as the process, it’s simple. I don’t know how it could be any simpler. I mean, it’s pretty straightforward, and the fact that we’re allowed to have categories allows us to separate as a department: quality control, RAs, inbound, outbound. Yep, and we have categories set up like that all under our one account, I believe.

Exactly, yeah. It couldn’t get any simpler, I think. I think I’d mentioned it before. The only thing is maybe we’d be able to enable flash if we take a picture, but I’ve never tried using it off a cell phone, so maybe that’s the case. But I have zero complaints about the technical side, and neither with the human side. It’s a very natural, very linear process. It’s very easy to use; there’s no difficulty at all. It’s very self-explanatory too. Yeah, it’s nothing where you’re like, “You know, what does this mean? What happens if I click this button?” Yeah, everything there is very simple to use, correct.

So would you recommend Load Proof to someone else that is in a similar role like yourself? Absolutely, great. And do you want anything else in Load Proof? I know FTL, you know, will connect you with the product support team. Those guys will help you, you know, set it up—set up FTL. That’s not a big deal; that’s easy, and we’ll help you with that. Apart from that, do you want any other improvements or any other enhancements to Load Proof? Randy, can you think of anything? It’s a pretty solid product; I can’t really think of anything.

I don’t know, Aaron, is there anything you’ve run into? As far as I’ve been using it, like you mentioned, it’s pretty straightforward. Okay, and how are you guys doing your safety audits, you know, safety forms, inspection forms, and things like that? Today we have a safety personnel here; she takes care of all of it, and I think she’s more old school. I know Bill had actually mentioned using Load Proof to store paperwork, digital copies of all the paperwork and stuff, but she’s just on the old school side and would prefer to keep a physical, like a big file cabinet. Yeah, and that works for her.

Document-wise, we really don’t; most of our documents are digitalized just from our printers. Okay, if we scan it. So the only thing is for the longest we were trying to go a little bit more paperless. Yeah, exactly, and that is what everybody is doing because what happens is, right, if you have paper, you know, obviously after some time the print, you know, disappears, it fades, and then you’ve got to maintain those paperwork in some kind of—you know, we’ve got to find a place to store all that.

Correct, exactly. And you’ve got to, you know, imagine how difficult it is to go on, you know, finding back—finding it back, right? That’s why putting it digitally, you can just search it within a few seconds; you can find the exact document, right? Something. Yeah, I think just here in our department we go through paperwork at such a high volume so quick that putting it through the printer and scanning directly, I’m like 20 pieces of paper at a time. Yeah, it works more efficiently for us than, you know, taking a picture and using it in Load Proof.

Fair enough, fair enough, that’s fine. That’s fine. I mean, if something is, you know, working, but that’s only because we’re at that high volume of paperwork coming through here, whether it’s the paperwork that needs to go to the driver or paperwork for our loaders. Yeah, what about deliveries? I mean, do you guys take photos at the time of deliveries also? Well, that would be our receiving department, and I don’t know; Aaron could confirm, but to my understanding, they do. When they drop it off, they take a picture of it or Load Proof it, just in case, you know, whoever the box is for says, “Hey, proof of delivery.” Right? Proof of delivery, and sometimes shortages, concealed shortages might be there.

So for all that, is that your own fleet or you guys always give it to an external carrier? Wait, I’m sorry, do you know when you make deliveries? Correct? When you make deliveries, is this always—I know LTL is, you know, an external carrier, right? Even FTL is also an external carrier. So apart from that, do you guys have your own fleet with which you deliver customer orders to customer locations or anything like that? No, a long time ago when we were a smaller company, we had our own like two drivers and maybe dealt directly with the carriers, but they’ve gone so big that we have to go through brokers.

Okay, and we don’t really have anything else hands-on like that anymore. Got it, got it, got it, got it. Okay, I mean that’s all I have. I just, you know, wanted to get your feedback in terms of, you know, how Load Proof is working out, and then I’ll connect you guys to my—to our product support team. You know, I’ll respond to that email and say, “Hey, this is the contact for the product support team,” and, you know, they’ll reach out to you, and you can set up a meeting with them and a Zoom call with them, and they’ll help you with everything. They can set you up with FTL, you know, anything else that you guys need, right? Perfect.

Yeah, definitely, 10 out of 10 product; that was great. Nice, nice, nice. You know, Aaron, do you want to add anything to what Eric said? Do you know? I want to ask the same question to you as well. You know, would you like any improvement or any enhancement that would make your life better, easier? I know what are your thoughts? Like you mentioned, everything’s pretty straightforward; it’s easy to use. Okay, I mean, I don’t make it get any better than the way it is already.

Okay, like mentioned, it helped us out in a couple of tough situations that we were actually proving our point in the case. Okay, and you know, we just hold—maybe, you know, we could just keep using it and implying it, you know, just keep it going. All right, perfect, man. Great, fantastic. Yeah, thank you very much for the feedback. I will, you know, respond to your email, you know, with the product team’s product support team’s email address, and you guys can talk to them, and they’ll set you up with FTL and anything else that you need.

Okay, please? Yes? Okay, thank you. Yeah, see, there is just one more thing. You know, we’ve got another app called Load Proof Viewer. So see, today you have to go to your laptop, right? You have to go to your computer and log in through the browser to find photos. You know, with this app, you can find the photos from your mobile device itself. So you can install that app in your—what mobile phone you guys have—or in the tablet also, right? In the tablet also, you can install it. It’s called Load Proof Viewer, and it’s available for free for you guys. It’s called Load Proof Viewer. I’ll put it on—yeah, I’ll put it on this.

Yeah, I can do that. Yeah, you can put that, and then, you know, you can access photos from there itself. Yeah. Perfect, perfect. Thank you very much for your time, gentlemen. You know, if you guys need anything else, you know, you can reach out to me or the product support, and we’ll be happy to help you. I really appreciate it, Puga. Thank you. Thank you for your time, and thank you for your product; it’s great. Thank you.