The 35-year-old, 100% asset-based regional carrier automated its portal and email scheduling with Qued — including a custom workflow built from scratch for a major food manufacturer — and its senior CSR is finally getting off work on time
BROADLANDS, Va., Aug. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Qued, a leader in developing sophisticated, automated appointment scheduling solutions for supply chain and logistics companies, today announced a strategic partnership with Hoekstra Transportation, a 100 percent asset-based regional truckload carrier based in St. Anne, Illinois. Hoekstra deployed Qued's Smart Appointments platform earlier this year to automate portal- and email-based appointment scheduling across a short-haul network built on velocity: 75 trucks, an average length of haul of about 175 miles, multiple turns per truck per day — and roughly 75 to 80 percent of loads requiring a confirmed appointment.
Hoekstra's story starts in a potato field. The family farmed and hauled its own produce on its own trucks before Steve Hoekstra bought a small paper-hauling business and built the trucking operation that has now run for 35 years. Today, about 90 percent of Hoekstra's business is food and beverage — packaging, finished product, and shuttle moves between plants and distribution centers for some of the biggest names in the category — all of it moved directly for customers, with no brokered freight.
That heritage shapes how Hoekstra buys technology: deliberately. "We're pretty selective about what we get distracted by," says Steve Hoekstra, President of Hoekstra Transportation. The company chose Qued on trust — a longstanding relationship with a Qued team member from her years at McLeod Software — and didn't evaluate anyone else. The bet paid off quickly. Onboarding was, in the team's words, seamless: "All we had to do was send them our information. They took it and they ran with it." When one major food manufacturer's scheduling requirements proved too unique for any template, Qued built the workflow from scratch — and it now runs across inbound, outbound, and shuttle moves.
"It's done. It's working perfectly," reports Shawndra Arvin, Hoekstra's Senior Customer Service Representative.
For a lean operation, the impact goes beyond speed. The email flood that once dominated the appointments desk is gone, and when Shawndra is out, her backup can finally keep pace — the automation holds the line.
Qued's platform uses machine learning to find the best appointment slots in real time based on ETAs, facility capacity, historical performance, and the specific requirements of each location. It connects directly to the transportation management system a carrier already runs, and it works on every channel a facility can require: web portals, email, and AI-powered voice calls.
"Hoekstra runs one of the leanest, fastest-turning regional operations in the Midwest, and they buy technology the right way — deliberately, on trust and proof," said Tom Curee, President of Qued. "When their account needed a scheduling workflow that didn't exist, we built it from scratch. That's the standard, whether you run 75 trucks or 7,500."
"They're not selling you just what they have — whatever the format, whatever the process needs to be, they're going to work with that," said Steve Hoekstra, President of Hoekstra Transportation. "We're a small guy in their mix, but they treated us like any of their biggest customers. They tackled it, and I thought that was great."
"I use Qued daily. Honestly, it's a couple of clicks and everything is just done," said Shawndra Arvin, Senior Customer Service Representative at Hoekstra Transportation. "It's given me back my time to focus on customers and build the relationships we need to succeed in this industry, instead of just sending emails. I'm even starting to get off work on time. I'm wholeheartedly behind Qued."
Hoekstra joins a growing roster of asset-based carriers running on Qued, from family fleets to some of the largest carriers in North America.
About Qued:
Qued is a cloud-based, AI-powered smart workflow automation platform transforming load appointment scheduling for brokers, 3PLs, and carriers. By automating the scheduling process, Qued eliminates manual work, simplifies multi-stop load appointments, and ensures seamless coordination across the supply chain, improving both operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.qued.com or contact us at [email protected].
About Hoekstra Transportation:
Hoekstra Transportation is a 100 percent asset-based regional truckload carrier headquartered in St. Anne, Illinois, about an hour south of Chicago. Family-built and rooted in a potato-farming heritage, Hoekstra has served the Midwest for 35 years, operating roughly 75 trucks in dry van service within a 500-mile radius of the Chicago metro area, with a focus on food and beverage freight moved directly for its customers. For more information, visit www.hoekstratrans.com.
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SOURCE Qued
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