Moving The Needle

Unregistered Carriers on 8/27/2009 - 2347
Unregistered Carriers on 8/28/2009 - 2309

Recently, I was talking to Bill Leonard about what it takes to move a state's registration percentage up 1% - say, for example, from 75% to 76%. This, in turn, prompted me to take a look at some of our numbers here in Illinois for August.

On August 1, our numbers were 16,453 registered and 2,742 unregistered for a registration percentage of 85.72%.

This morning, 8/28, our numbers were 17,077 registered and 2,309 unregistered for a registration percentage of 88.09%

So we registered 624 carriers, took a net of 433 carriers off our unregistered list and moved our percentage up 2.37% in the process.

This is not work for the "faint of heart"!

I have jury duty on Monday, so I'll be back as soon as I'm done with that.

Have a great weekend!

Some Early UCR Email Research

Unregistered Carriers on 8/26/2009 - 2371
Unregistered Carriers on 8/27/2009 - 2347

Kathy ran some numbers today on a segment of carriers that is one of our "focus" segments - new, unregistered USDOT number carriers.

For about a month now, we've been sending emails to all USDOT carriers who:

Had a USDOT number greater than 1841370 (first 2009 DOT number)
Were Based in IL
Met the UCR Universe criteria
Were Unregistered At "Run-Time"

A total of 154 carriers have met this set of criteria over the past month. Of those 154, 82 (53%) are now registered.

The beauty of this approach is that we had to do very little - if anything - to get them registered. Worst case is that we had to answer a phone call, which we are more than happy to do.

We'll try to share more research with you as we check out the data.

Stop The Madness!!! No, On Second Thought, Don't

Unregistered Carriers on 8/25/2009 - 2371
Unregistered Carriers on 8/26/2009 - 2371

Man, did we get blasted with new carriers!

Yesterday, we did about 30 registrations. Today, we got 30 new additions to our unregistered list - most of them new USDOT numbers - so our net reduction of unregistered carriers is a big fat goose egg! It's really a good thing, but it looks funny in the stats. Nobody will ever convince me that we don't have 400,000 carriers in the UCR universe.

On the positive side, we went over 17,000 registrations for 2009
which is just amazing to me. Look out, California! We're coming on strong!

Who's The Right Person?

Unregistered Carriers on 8/21/2009 - 2387
Unregistered Carriers on 8/24/2009 - 2371

I'm amazed at the number of times we find new carriers on our unregistered list, send them a UCR application, follow up later and discover that the person who should have gotten the form has no idea what we're talking about. It happens often enough that I don't think it's a front - I think the paper never finds its way to the appropriate people.

Assuming that you monitor your unregistered carriers ... and assuming you contact these carriers ... and assuming that you follow up on your contacts ... you still have to make sure that the form gets to the person who can act on it.

If all we do is send mailings once in a while, we're probably not going to hear from a lot of our carriers. Try it for yourself. If you don't have the names of any of your unregistered carriers, give me a call. I'll give you some names. Send them forms. Then, follow up on each carrier until you get some closure on that carrier --- registration, de-activation, etc. Don't just send them a form and forget about them. It's actually kind of interesting --- and you'll be amazed at what you find!

Update on My "Secret UCR Stretch Goal"

Unregistered Carriers on 8/21/2009 - 2400
Unregistered Carriers on 8/24/2009 - 2387

You might recall that on July 17th, I made the following statement regarding my "Secret UCR Stretch Goal":

California has registered 18,023 carriers as of this morning's Iteris report. We have registered 16,074 - so we're 1,949 registrations behind them. But they still have a pool of 10, 165 unregistered carriers, while we only have 3,006. You can see the problem. Even if I register all of my unregistered guys - my "getting to zero" goal - I'll only have a total of 19,000 UCR registrations. CA only has to register another 1,000 guys to beat me. As I said, it's just a fun goal anyway. The more carriers we all register, the better.

Well, here are the new numbers as of this morning:

CA --- 18,551 registrations with 9,921 carriers unregistered
IL --- 16,943 registrations with 2,387 carriers unregistered

We're only 1,608 registrations behind CA ... but we probably still don't have a prayer! What the heck! It's good to dream!

August UCR and New USDOT Carriers

Unregistered Carriers on 8/15/2009 - 2414
Unregistered Carriers on 8/20/2009 - 2400

Before I get back to new USDOT carriers, I'd like to report on August registration here in Illinois:

412 registrations / $41,729 / $101 per registration

The reason I keep reporting these revenues every couple weeks is because the average registration - even this late into the registration year - seems to stay pretty consistently around $100! Not $39! Big difference! Why is that? Because some of the carriers that "come out of the woodwork" and onto the unregistered list are not new carriers at all, but rather carriers who haven't updated their MCS-150 since 2004. As soon as they get onto our radar, we contact them and WHAM-O ---- an $806 registration!

Getting back to new USDOT carriers, one could argue that going after new USDOT carriers is not a worthwhile endeavor because, after all, they probably really ARE just $39 registrations. Well, if you believe that, you are most likely mistaken, my friend!

Here's the current breakdown of our 388 unregistered new carriers in IL:

$ 39 - 275
$116 - 69
$231 - 40
$806 - 4

Add, total, divide, etc. and you get an average of $80.39 per potential registration.

Worth it? You bet!

Have a great weekend!

The Top 10 "New Carrier" States

Unregistered Carriers on 8/15/2009 - 2457
Unregistered Carriers on 8/20/2009 - 2414

In order of most USDOT #s issued in CY09(per Iteris):

CA 3173 (1421 registered)
TX 2554 (1183 registered)
IL 1839 (1466 registered)
FL 1475 (560 registered)
NY 1452 (376 registered)
MI 1441 (274 registered)
GA 1251 (430 registered)
NJ 1092 (244 registered)
WA 1034 (247 registered)
NC 987 (314 registered)

Of note is the fact that there are almost 10,000 unregistered carriers just among this group.

Another interesting number is this one: six. That's the number of states who have registered less than 20% of their "new carriers". And they are not necessarily states that have struggled with their overall registration percentage.

I don't raise these issues because I want to "call out" or embarrass anybody. I raise them because we need better awareness and better methods. This is the central mission of a Best Practices committee, so I hope you accept my observations in the spirit they are intended.

We'll discuss a couple more issues tomorrow.

Registering the New Carriers

Unregistered Carriers on 8/14/2009 - 2477
Unregistered Carriers on 8/15/2009 - 2457

I mentioned this yesterday, but it bears repeating:

Since 1/1/09, a total of 32,752 carriers have 1) received new USDOT numbers and 2) met the criteria for the UCR Universe. Of that number, we have registered a grand total of 13,065 carriers - 39.89%.

In other words, we are not doing a very good job (in my opinion) of registering the newest, freshest UCR Universe carriers. And it's not just a few carriers - there are 20,000 unregistered carriers in this group.

The best thing I can tell you is that if you monitor the USDOT numbers issued to UCR Universe carriers in your state, you will be amazed as to how many of them are not on your radar. This statement does not pertain to Maine, however. Maine has 133 new USDOT numbers and has registered 114 of them - 85.71%. I'm guessing it's part of their IRP/IFTA procedure. We're next, having issued 1839 USDOT numbers that are UCR Universe material and registering 1466 of them - 79.72% We don't have the IRP connection, but we have the ITERIS information connection that enables us to work this group pretty good. And, as you know from past posts, we have always focused a lot of attention on this group.

After that, it goes down hill fast, with no other state being above 60%. Many states are below 25%!

If you'd like to know more about these numbers and what you can do about yours, give me a call. We really need to do better in this category!

I'll be out Monday thru Wednesday, watching some serious world-class tennis at the Cincinnati Masters. My next post will be Thursday. Until then, give some thought to those new guys!

Registering New USDOT Carriers Under UCR

Unregistered Carriers on 8/13/2009 - 2507
Unregistered Carriers on 8/14/2009 - 2477

I ran some numbers recently regarding our ability to register new USDOT carriers and found the results kind of interesting.

Since 1/1/09, a total of 32,752 carriers have received new USDOT numbers and met the criteria for the UCR Universe. Of that number, we have registered a grand total of 13,065 carriers - 39.89%.

This is a far cry from our overall registration percentage of 70+% for the UCR Universe at large. No doubt about it - we have to do better than that!

In my next post, I will talk about some reasons why I think we're slipping in this area - and what we can do to overcome them.

Have a great weekend!

Sorry!

The last two days have been quite hectic and I haven't been able to post.

Tomorrow, however, I plan to talk about a new subject that I think you'll find pretty interesting.

Stay tuned!

Here's A Virtual Guarantee!

Unregistered Carriers on 8/10/2009 - 2548
Unregistered Carriers on 8/11/2009 - 2526
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 45 / $5249 (avg $116)

I don't care how diligent you are - you have not contacted all of the carriers on your unregistered list. How can I be so sure? Because we track them - at least we track our own carriers. Every day, we are confronted with new additions to our list - not just new USDOT #s, but also carriers who show up because they have updated their MCS-150, or got an inspection, or been involved in a crash.

I was astounded the other day when we had 87 new additions!

If your state is struggling with UCR revenue, you owe it to yourself to better understand the dynamic nature of your unregistered list.

Getting To Zero --- We're Half-way There!

Unregistered Carriers on 8/5/2009 - 2608
Unregistered Carriers on 8/6/2009 - 2548
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 30 / $2898 (avg $96)

For those of you who have been following this project from the outset, we started on 3/17 with 5,123 unregistered carriers. As you can see, we are now sitting at 2,548 - just to the good side of the 50% mark. This is a signficant milestone for us. As you know, we have learned a lot in the process and have helped to create a few tools and processes for other states to use along the way.

We are not finished yet. Today, we are testing a new tool that takes our daily unregistered list and parses it into diverse chunks that are usuable by various sections of our Transportation Division - enforcement, registration, etc. If you'd like more information, give me a call.

The Growing Popularity of Email - Part 5

Unregistered Carriers on 8/5/2009 - 2626
Unregistered Carriers on 8/6/2009 - 2608
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 18 / $933 (avg $51)

This will be my last post about email - at least for now. You can probably tell by now that I'm pretty excited about the prospects!

From my perspective, email is a numbers game. And, from the numbers game, comes the opportunity to encounter carriers in an entirely new way.

Let's say that we send 300 emails in a day. Of that 300, we may get email responses from 30 people. Some people have questions. Many people apologize for not filing. Either way, a quick response back to them usually results in a quick registration. Everybody wins - and very few resources have been expended.

Contrast that with the old manual mailing. It probably costs any of us $1.00 per piece - not even counting the costs of staff time - to print up the letters and envelopes, put stamps on them and mail them. 300 pieces of mail - $300 in costs. Then you wait for the mail both ways. Is the response any better? We don't think so.

If you need convincing, let me know and I'll send you some email addresses for some of your own unregistered carriers. You can try it yourself - and I'm betting that you'll become a believer!

Have a great weekend!

The Growing Popularity of Email - Part 4

Unregistered Carriers on 8/5/2009 - 2661
Unregistered Carriers on 8/6/2009 - 2626
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 31 / $3321 (avg $107)

I'd like to say a few words about the Iteris Emailer function. In my opinion, this little tool may be a significant key to States getting all of their carriers registered.

In a nutshell, the Emailer tool keys off the email addresses in the MCMIS records. The tool allows you to create as many different emails as you want, choose which set of carriers you want to send each email to (currently, the choices are 1 - All Unregistered Carriers and 2 - New DOT #s), send it to 1 -all of them, 2 - 500 of them, 3 - 300 of them, etc. and give you a listing - downloadable to a spreadsheet - for each email "campaign".

The tool then takes care of sending each email and taking care of any bad email addresses.

My advice: get it - use it. It's great!

The Growing Popularity of Email - Part 3

Unregistered Carriers on 8/4/2009 - 2687
Unregistered Carriers on 8/5/2009 - 2661
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 20 / $1587 (avg $79)

OK, so here's a question concerning email "etiquette". Once a carrier has been emailed - and they don't respond - what is the appropriate amount of time to wait before we email them again?

We originally decided that 30 days was the right amount of time. But when we actually sent emails to everybody and then waited the 30 days, we felt that we had lost continuity. So ...... we changed the waiting period to 15 days and we are firing off a new batch of emails as we speak.

I'll keep you posted!

The Growing Popularity of Email - Part 2

Unregistered Carriers on 8/3/2009 - 2737
Unregistered Carriers on 8/4/2009 - 2687
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 42 / $3981 (avg $95)

So how does the email process actually work?

First, you have to have access to the SAFER email addresses. This can be accomplished through access to MCMIS, access to a CVIEW or access to the UCR-Link product.

Once you have access to email addresses, you can usually download these addresses into some kind of spreadsheet so that you can actually see and work with the addresses.

In our early days of email use (a couple of months ago), we downloaded our unregistered list, which included email addresses, and manually populated our emails one name at a time. This method was very effective, but it was, well, manual!

Now, we use the Iteris emailer, which does the work for us. How beautiful is that?!?

I'll go into a couple of issues related to email use in my next post.

The Growing Popularity of UCR Email - Part 1

Unregistered Carriers on 7/31/2009 - 2771
Unregistered Carriers on 8/3/2009 - 2737
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 32 / $3091 (avg $96)

I've heard from a couple more states who are having darned good results using email to contact their unregistered carriers. Let's talk a little about what's going on in that arena.

First, the email addresses most states are using to contact their unregistered carriers are the email addresses in the MCS-150 information provided by the carriers to the FMCSA.

Informally, we have observed two things:

1) About half of all the carriers in the UCR universe have email addresses and
2) About 90% of these email addresses are good

The prevailing assumption has been that these email addresses are considered valid and legitimate contact addresses. Our experience to date has been that as long as carriers are contacted in a professional and responsible manner, there is very little "push back".

End of July UCR Totals ... and Pennsylvania

Unregistered Carriers on 7/30/2009 - 2796
Unregistered Carriers on 7/31/2009 - 2771
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 32 / $3091 (avg $96)

For the month of July, we finished with 635 registrations and $63,025. That's just a hair under $100 per registration - with no individual registration over $806. Add to that another 85 registrations done on the Indiana Web site and we have what I would call a fine month.

For those of you who don't know, however, I'd like to point out what's going on in Pennsylvania. By my calculations, Pennsylvania has registered just under 2,000 carriers in the month of July! 2,000 carriers! And what is their secret?

According to Gerard Clark's email, "We have a trilateral push using delinquent mailer ntoices, 2008/2009 emailer notifications, coupled with an agressive telephone calling program."

Hard work, lots of phone calls, delinquent mailings ... and Iteris' email notification program. An impressive combination indeed! Nice work, Pennsylvania!