CarterEnergy Speeds Up Carrier Billing

OMAHA, Neb. -- CarterEnergy selected DTN, a business-to-business provider of real-time market, news and weather information services, as its premier source for electronic bills of lading (BOLs).

Embarking on a new initiative to improve efficiencies and customer experience, CarterEnergy serves as a leader in the marketing and distribution of transportation fuels, distributing 141 different energy products within the Midwest and Gulf regions.

The company set out to eliminate billing errors, bill their own loads faster and speed up billing on common carrier orders. Previously, CarterEnergy’s billing group relied on hand-keying critical information from faxed, blurry copies of BOLs and staff often had to guess at the supplier, gallons, date and time.

By using a custom-built software module, along with a feed of electronic BOLs from DTN, all goals are being met and the process is streamlined for the majority of orders, which are being closed 45 seconds faster than before, the company reported.

Rebills that result from human error can cost CarterEnergy anywhere from $57 to $137 per order depending on the number of hands that have to touch the process, and the amount of manual reconciliation. Since implementation, CarterEnergy said its rebills have been decreased by 60 percent and overtime has been drastically reduced.

"Our focus is on the success of our customers, so we are aggressively working to eliminate inefficiencies throughout our organization," stated CarterEnergy President and CEO Bryan Beaver. "When we improve our processes, staff is freed up to provide customized fueling programs and value-added customer service via programs like our online Fuel Expert Center. Leveraging electronic BOL information from DTN has helped us meet our strategic goals."

CarterEnergy is generating more than 60 percent of its customer invoices using electronic data versus zero percent at the end of 2008. The team is working with DTN to close the remaining gap by the end of the year, the company reported.
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