The Jordano’s truck shows up, the delivery is made and the food is ready for your menu…What you don’t see is the immense amount of work that goes on beforehand to ensure your order arrives safely and on time – welcome to Jordano’s Transportation Department.
In 1985, Jordano’s Transportation Manager, Troy Carbaugh, began working at Jordano’s running local routes. Soon after, he was transferred to the night crew where he helped pull orders for the next day’s deliveries. Troy then went on to become a delivery driver, and after 12 years of route delivery he moved to the position of driver trainer. In 2002, he was promoted to his current position. One thing’s for sure – Troy knows what it takes to efficiently deliver products to our customers!
Often times, people don’t even think about the logistics it takes to get the food and supplies delivered to a foodservice establishment – but there is SO much to know. As Transportation Manager, Troy wears many hats. He works closely with our salesforce concerning deliveries to our customers; our purchasing department to ensure our Backhaul Program is running efficiently; our equipment and supplies department to coordinate large equipment deliveries; our credit department concerning collections; and, of course, our fleet department for the maintenance and repair of our fleet.
A large territory requires a large fleet
Currently, Jordano’s service territory spans as far north as Ragged Point in Monterey County, as far south as San Clemente in Orange County, and then from the coast inland to Tehachapi and Lake Isabella. In total, Jordano’s serves six Central and Southern California counties.
Our 55 Class A drivers, three Class B drivers, router, safety coordinator, and Troy closely plan and monitor all aspects of the transportation routes to ensure our fleet of 43 state-of-the-art trucks, eight shuttle trucks and four vans are on time.
“Back in 1994, we ran 21 routes. Now we run 43 routes; a growth of more than 100 percent,” said Troy. “In the same timeframe, our staff has grown from 28 drivers to almost 60. When I first began my career at Jordano’s, we ran most of our routes with bobtail trucks without refrigeration or ramps. Today our fleet is truly state of the art. Our trailers have two temperature control zones to handle our frozen and refrigerated products, and the majority have lift gates allowing our products to be loaded onto pallets.”
Technological advances
The efficiency of the department has increased in recent years due to two things – improved communication-based technologies and the rapid increase in the number of lift gate trailers we deploy.
“On the communication side, once we know what deliveries are being made, we use the Roadshow route planning program to set up our routes,” said Troy. “Each customer is set up in the routing program along with their delivery days and time windows. Our router then puts the routes together trying best to ensure on-time deliveries. Next, our Truck Builder program allows our warehouse’s night crew to build our loads to specification the night before they’re due to ship out. When the shipments are loaded and ready to roll out, our On Board Computer (OBC) allows for instant email contact between the driver and dispatch. The OBC’s have navigation and training applications accessible to each driver. They also allow us to see how the driver is doing on their route and gets them help should they fall behind.”
The added lift gates allow whole orders to be directly taken off the trailers and placed right at our customer’s back entrance, greatly improving driver productivity levels. They also help alleviate much of the physical demands of the job which keeps our drivers healthier and happier.
All hands on deck
It’s no surprise to learn that this department isn’t small. “Needless to say, the most important members of the transportation department are the delivery drivers themselves,” said Troy. “They interact with our customers so much that they truly know what their needs and concerns are.”
“The extremely organized, Adam Herrera, has been our main router for 10 years now,” said Troy. “He takes all the orders, upwards of 600 per day, routes them using our aforementioned Roadshow program, and then builds each route using our Truck Builder program.”
Vince Dominguez serves as Jordano’s driver supervisor and Troy’s right-hand man. “Along with interacting with our drivers and various other departments, Vince handles our payroll and ensures that we remain compliant with all of the Department of Transportation’s rules and regulations. A huge job, and one he is highly proficient at.”
What’s more? Jordano’s shuttle drivers take our trailers to our yards in Ventura, Santa Maria, Bakersfield, and Sylmar. These trailers are then picked up in the mornings by our resident drivers who deliver to our customers in various regions. Our Los Angeles backhaul drivers depart each morning from Santa Barbara to pick up products from San Fernando Valley all the way down to San Bernardino and Ontario. “The Backhaul program allows us to pick up fresh meat and seafood that our customers order that day, then ensures next-day delivery,” said Troy. “We also have a small fleet of vans and drivers that deliver second runs to customers in the Santa Barbara area.”
The warehouse
The transportation department’s largest daily challenge is taking all the orders that come in and getting them loaded on the trucks in a way that helps each driver successfully get the products to our customers when they need it.
“Our night crew takes the routes after Adam builds them, then pulls each order according to the route,” said Troy. “They put each specific order together so they’re loaded onto the next morning’s trucks in the most efficient way possible. In order to do so, all orders have a hard cut off time of either 4:00 pm or 4:30 pm (depending on the location), for next-day delivery.
It’s the night crew that is responsible for having all orders loaded on the trucks and properly invoiced by the time our drivers come in.”
Jordano’s Backhaul program brings products back to our warehouse each day to be unloaded, received and stocked for the night crew to pull. “I have to give kudos to our entire warehouse staff because they do an amazing job day in and day out,” said Troy.
Service with a smile – rain or shine
Jordano’s transportation department literally has drivers on the road 24 hours a day, rain or shine. “Easily the favorite part of my job is the day-today interactions that I have with our drivers,” said Troy with a smile. “There is no one in the world that I respect more than these men who get to work hours before dawn and sometimes work up to 15 hours a day. They perform a difficult job in all kinds of conditions.
For example, during a recent storm we had drivers delivering in the snow in Frazier Park and in flood conditions in Ventura County. I am constantly amazed at their loyalty, skill and work ethic.”
Jordano’s truly takes pride in all the members of our “family,” and our transportation department is a huge part of that. Hats off to Troy and his talented department who ensures our customers receive the products they need when they need it.
