Packaging: Printer keeps transportation company

Last year, YRC Transportation began integrating freight locations across the United States due to operations requirements. The company provides services for the shipment of industrial, commercial and retail goods, and senior engineer Jeff Lucas is responsible for evaluating new technology that might allow the company to move goods faster and more efficiently.

In field operations, there are as many as 40 users sending files to a single printer, says Lucas. Most are bar coded freight bills and waybills, but users regularly print as many as 12 additional general documents, totaling at least 50,000 documents a day.

In his analysis of which line matrix printer is up for the job, Lucas looked at reliability and the quality of the bar codes. For YRC, it can be extremely labor intensive if the bar code is not readable, resulting in additional labor for key-punch entries and a slower workflow. While speed is not the driving issue, quality of the print output is.

Before selecting a new solution, Lucas put the printer through a six-month trial in a lab. “We’ve run printer stress tests and we are finding it is one of the best printers in my 20 years of working with them,” says Lucas.

The ribbon cartridge replacement is a significant advantage over the older models, he says. Specifically, it is the clockwise motion of the spool winder in the over the counterclockwise movement requirement in the older model.

The integrated Internet portal has been very helpful on a daily basis, says Lucas. It gives the status of the printer within seconds, verifies what other printer options may be available and assists with asset inventory management.

Lucas says, “From producing readable printouts to the flexibility offered through the Internet portal, the printer with keeps our business on the right road.”

Printronix
800-665-6210
http://www.printronix.com

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