1. BY LARRY HURRLE, EDITOR
Automation
SensationHowautomationhelpedabrokerage
thriveinthemidstofarecession
In the mid-2000s, life looked good in the United States. Housing
markets were strong, interest rates were down and the economy was
booming. Then, in 2007, a marked decline in the global economy began.
The housing bubble burst and caused values of securities tied to the U.S.
real estate pricing to plummet and damaged the financial institution
globally. A sharp downward turn in September 2008 plunged the world
into the Great Recession.
It was a difficult time that saw many businesses fail. It was not a time
to think about growing a business.
For Louis and Cheryl Biron, though, the difficult economic times forced
them to innovate. Economically, what became a nail in the coffin for many
businesses, became the cloud with a silver lining for the Birons.
20 IT MAGAZINE July/August 2013

2. In 2005, the Birons purchased the assets of a trucking
company and began to reinvent the business. A
month after purchasing the business, they began
creating a brokerage company. In the two years
following, the couple worked on changing
from a trucking company, One Horn
Trucking, to the brokerage, One Horn
Transportation, and with the
slowing of the economy, they
began look at how they could
save money.
“Technology-wise, it was
a great angle the way
we ran the company
during that point in
time,” One Horn
Transportation
CEO Cheryl Biron
says. “Louis
automated
every process
and we never
had to hire
new people.
In the ‘07
to 2010
timeframe,
we didn’t
hire
anybody
and we
refined our
processes.”
In order to
do that, the
Birons set a
plan in motion
to become
completely
automated.
“We had carriers
who were calling us
within days of sending
their invoices to check
payments status and
which was eating up our
time,” Cheryl Biron says. “It
was a complete waste of our time,
because we always pay our invoices
on time. You do not want to spend
money to do something that is a waste of
time. You want to automate it.”
A software package written by Louis Biron,
One Horn Transportation’s chief operating officer
and Cheryl Biron’s husband/
business partner, allowed the
company to take normally long,
arduous processes and shorten
them by going to a paperless
system.
“So now with a click of a
button, when we receive carrier
invoices,” Cheryl Biron says,
“A fax goes to the carrier and
tells them how much they are
getting paid and when they are
getting paid. It cuts down on
calls. It’s all automated, click,
click, click.”
“We used to receive faxes
from customers,” Louis Biron
says. “Our first function was
an image viewer to bring the
image to the screen. That saved
a couple hours a day. Now we’re
working on making our billing
totally efficient. Internally,
we’re totally paperless.”
Louis Biron says they set
goals. “If we used to get 10
things done in a day, we would
automate so we could get 20
things done in a day. Then 30
things. We keep automating
ahead of the need.”
Automation was important
for One Horn Transportation
because its headquarters,
located in Wayne, N.J.,
consisted of just three
employees: Cheryl Biron, Louis
Biron and another employee.
Being able to accomplish more
in less time was key to the
operation.
“We have a saying that before
you give a task away, you
automate the heck out of it,”
Louis Biron said. “Once you
give that task to someone, it
becomes their livelihood.”
And through their automation,
One Horn Transportation found
its niche. Doing more, in less
time, allowed the company
to begin taking on agents
and become an agent-based
brokerage.
“Originally, we didn’t want to
do the agent-based model,”
Cheryl Biron says. “Because
agents could come with a book
of business and leave with a
book of business. “In a moment
of epiphany we had — our
tipping point — we said we
have to make it so attractive to
be with One Horn that people
will not want to leave.
“Now we love the agent-
based model. As an agent-
based company vs. a trucking
company, we have an
advantage. If a truck falls off
a load, we can get another one
right away. It’s kind of like a
virtual trucking company: We
don’t own any trucks, but we’re
doing a trucking business. We
don’t need sales territories
anymore. Just because we live
in New Jersey doesn’t mean
we can’t have customers in
California.”
Cheryl Biron says One Horn has
a data base of 30,000 to 40,000
trucks, and though they don’t
use them all (some they use
regularly and others depending
on customer needs) having all
of the trucks allows them to
make sure loads get where they
need to go.
“We get goods where we need
to get them,” Cheryl Biron says.
“That’s what we’re all about.”
One Horn is now nearing
25 agents that work for the
company across the nation.
Many of those agents, too, have
sub agents. One Horn boasts
agents in Wisconsin, Florida,
Colorado, Kansas, Tennessee,
Texas, Alabama, Georgia,
Oklahoma, Missouri and Ohio.
“Our agents spontaneously
refer to our company as the
One Horn family,” Cheryl
Biron says. “We wanted to
create a company where
people were happy to come
to work, not the cutthroat
July/August 2013 TRUCKSTOP.COM 21

3. corporate environments we
experienced prior to becoming
entrepreneurs. People matter
to us and we give them a lot of
attention. We like to take care of
our agents.”
Both Cheryl and Louis Biron
hold a Master of Business
Administration degree and
both have been involved in the
corporate world. Because of
that background, the Birons
wanted to approach more
corporate customers when it
came to their business.
“We talk the language and
know what they want,” Cheryl
Biron said. “We were very
demanding when we were
customers. We used to be
the client. We know things go
wrong. We want to be proactive
and completely transparent in
that sense.”
That is what sets One Horn
Transportation apart from other
brokers, Cheryl Biron says.
“We treat people like we want
to be treated,” she says. “We
tell the truth and cater to what
they need.”
Being up front, she says, is
the key to making the company
successful. For instance, Cheryl
Biron says, if a truck is going to
be late, they call the customer
and tell them.
“We view our personal role
as serving the agents and the
agents serve the customer,”
Cheryl Biron says. “We’ve
changed our mindset to what
can we do to make the agents’
lives better and easier with One
Horn. We give them as many
resources as possible.”
The same holds true for the
carriers, Cheryl Biron says.
“We have great respect for the
industry. We offer quick pay and
cater to the carriers as well.
They are an important part (of
One Horn) too.”
Caring for the customer,
the agents and the carriers
is what has made One Horn
Transportation popular.
“People are happy to be
associated with us and we
continue to grow,” Cheryl Biron
says.
And the growth shows. One
Horn Transportation was
recently listed among the top
50 fastest-growing women-
owned or led companies in
North America by The Women
Presidents’ Organization. It
is the second time One Horn
Transportation has been on the
list, this year coming in at No.
49.
“We’re very excited about it,”
Cheryl Biron says. “It’s good for
us because we are recruiting
agents. Our major plan is to
enact an accelerator program
and hire high potential,
entrepreneurial agents who are
good at sales. They don’t have
to worry about the back office
side because we have taken
care of that.”
Louis Biron’s STRATEBO
(Strategic Back Office Systems)
program allows agents to work
through One Horn’s main office
with seamless effort. That
became evident in October of
2012, when Hurricane Sandy
struck the East Coast.
“Our phone system is in
the Cloud and our fax is in
the Cloud,” Louis Biron says.
“When we had Hurricane
Sandy, we never did anything
to the business, even though
we were out of power.
Everything was in the Cloud.
We ran the personal computers
with a generator and the
internet through the phone.”
Technology proved to be a
pivotal point for One Horn
Transportation in the face of
natural disaster.
“Years ago, all our servers
were in the office,” Louis Biron
says. “It would have been a
nightmare. Now, even though
we were not working, the
agents saw no difference. It
was a nuisance that we didn’t
have power, but that was it.”
Cheryl Biron, CEO, and Louis
Biron, COO, of One Horn
Transportation
Technology
provedtobea
pivotalpoint
forOneHorn
Transportation
intheface
ofnatural
disaster.
22 IT MAGAZINE July/August 2013