Bailey-Klein Cuts Logistics Costs 22% and Boost Productivity By 2X

Challenge

Modern freight networks run on data but most logistics organizations still rely on disconnected systems that slow everything down

When fleet, maintenance, and route data don’t talk to each other, the result is the same every time: higher costs, downtime, and lost productivity.

Aztela helps logistics and transportation operators build connected data systems that predict problems before they happen and optimize operations in real time.

Bailey-Klein’s growth had outpaced its data infrastructure.
Key operational data lived in disconnected systems:

• TMS (Transportation Management System) for route planning

• Telematics & IoT sensors for vehicle tracking

• ERP & finance for cost management

• Maintenance systems for downtime logs

As a result:

• Teams spent 2–3 weeks each month reconciling spreadsheets.

• There was no unified view of fleet performance, cost per mile, or fuel efficiency.

• Maintenance was reactive—failures caused unexpected downtime.

• Leadership couldn’t model “what-if” scenarios (e.g., impact of fuel price swings or rerouting strategies).

“We had data everywhere, but no way to see it all together. We were making multimillion-dollar logistics decisions on gut feel.”

Solution

Aztela partnered with Bailey-Klein to design a Predictive Logistics Analytics Platform a centralized data and analytics foundation that unified fleet, energy, and financial data to drive real-time decision-making.

Key Workstreams

1. Data Integration & Modeling

   • Integrated 7+ data sources (TMS, ERP, IoT telemetry, maintenance logs, fuel cards).

   • Built a data lakehouse (Azure + Databricks) with standardized data models for fleet, route, and cost.

   • Established unified KPIs: cost per mile, route efficiency index, fuel burn per ton-mile, and downtime cost.

2. Data Products & Use Cases

   • Built route optimization models using traffic, distance, and fuel pricing data.

   • Deployed anomaly detection for driver behavior and idle time.

3. Operations Dashboards & Alerts

   • Delivered BI + embedded analytics dashboards for logistics ops, maintenance, and finance.

   • Configured real-time alerts for route deviation, excessive idling, and approaching maintenance thresholds.

4. Change Management

   • Embedded Aztela analysts with Bailey-Klein’s ops team for 6 weeks.

   • Conducted analytics training for logistics planners and FP&A team.

   • Implemented governance framework ensuring KPI consistency across divisions.

Business Impact

• $3.5M annualized savings in fuel and idle time

• Reduced unexpected breakdowns by 2x

• Automated reporting freed 400+ ops hours monthly

• Leadership gained real-time visibility into logistics cost structure

• Enabled strategic fleet expansion modeling without manual analysis

Technology Stack

Key Takeaways

• Data strategy showed crucial importance.

• Trust, adoption and speed of development in fast changing industries is second to none. Need to have labor and operational drag in check.

• Logistics firms generate massive IoT and operational data but without integration, it’s unusable.

• Analytics directly drives EBITDA improvement by cutting inefficiencies and waste.

• Real-time fleet visibility transforms operations from reactive firefighting to proactive optimization.

• Data foundations built once can scale across multiple distribution centers and regions.

• Focusing on governance and establishing trust, common language between data and business team is crucial.