Koch Logistics Beats Murphy’s Law with GE VeriWise™ Back up Plan

St. Paul, MN (July 15, 2005) — Advanced, dual-satellite-based, 24/7 trailer tracking is what Koch Logistics expected from the VeriWise™ asset intelligence tracking system the company agreed to install on its 600-trailer fleet. And that’s what Koch got, even when the Trailer Fleet Services business of GE, the supplier of VeriWise™, moved offices recently. The GE office move included the migration of the computer servers VeriWise™ customers normally access for online tracking of their trailers.

To ensure uninterrupted VeriWise™ service during the office and server move weekend, Joe Jesson, chief technologist for the GE Equipment Services asset intelligence team and Dan Phelan, GE Trailer Fleet Services asset intelligence engineer, developed a plan for customer access to VeriWise™ data in the event a customer had to manage a weekend lost or stolen trailer event. The plan included an 800 number for customers to call where VeriWise™ Help Desk specialists would track specific customer trailer assets using a manual “workaround” plan that enabled the specialists to report VeriWise™ data back to customers on the telephone.

Murphy’s Law paid a visit to Koch Logistics that same weekend. The company was using one of its trailers to haul and temporarily store shelving, signage and interior décor for a pharmacy being renovated in Bossier City, Louisiana. But that Saturday morning when workers arrived at the work site the Koch Logistics trailer was not in the parking lot. The fleet manager for Koch Logistics, Doug Montgomery, described what happened next.

“Our service manager and I placed a conference call to GE at 10:00 a.m. that Saturday morning,” Montgomery said.  “We knew that normal tracking using VeriWise was not available and we were very concerned about the VeriWise system performance in what was an emergency for us and our customer.”

“The VeriWise system kept working throughout the weekend on the temporary server solution that was part of our contingency plan,” GE’s Jesson recalls. “We simply had to maintain frequent telephone contact with Doug at Koch Logistics to provide him with updates which he in turn passed along to local law enforcement.”

VeriWise™ data generated the coordinates of the missing Koch Logistics trailer which were relayed to the customer and then on to law enforcement. The successful contingency plan enabled the Texas Rangers to discover the stolen trailer abandoned in Van, TX, about 120 miles from the store renovation site.

“We suspect that someone assumed a trailer parked outside a drug store contained drugs, instead of remodeling materials with little or no street value,” Montgomery said.
“We were able to recover the most valuable asset, our trailer, because the VeriWise™ system worked exactly how it was supposed to when we needed it that weekend, even though GE was in the middle of a facilities move themselves,” Montgomery said. “It reflects well on the credibility and professionalism of the VeriWise team at GE.”
More information about VeriWise™ Asset Intelligence can be found at www.trailerservices.com

Koch Logistics is a third party trucking, transportation and distribution services provider, part of Minneapolis-based Koch Companies. The company offers customized and managed programs to customers, blending Koch Companies' own trucking assets for full truckload vans, refrigerated equipment, flatbeds and inter-modal services along with LTL, partial truckload or consolidated services through a national network of partner trucking freight companies.

GE’s Trailer Fleet Services business has 135,000 over-the-road trailer assets, and operates a North American network of 100 branch locations, staffed by a sales & operations team of 900 employees. Its website is www.trailerservices.com. With more than $16 billion of assets, GE Equipment Services helps businesses around the world manage, finance, operate and maintain a wide variety of equipment including vans, trucks, trailers, railcars and modular buildings.  GE (NYSE: GE) is a diversified technology, media and financial services company dedicated to creating products that make life better.