"Tive began as a trial, but quickly became a new standard operating procedure for RKC, and it also piqued customer interest."
- Ryan Suydam, Funder
RKC Logistics, an Armstrong Transport Group agency led by owner Ryan Suydam, was founded in 2016 and has carved out a unique niche in the world of job-site deliveries. Specializing in freight headed to arenas, schools, churches, music venues, and major sports stadiums, Suydam and his team handle everything from bleacher seating and basketball apparatuses to flooring—and even tens of thousands of stadium cup holders. The work is complex, involving manufacturers, dealers, job-site teams, and tight installation schedules, all of which leave zero room for delivery surprises. Traditional tracking tools couldn’t keep up with customer demands. Cell-phone tracking frequently failed, carrier systems were often dropped mid-journey, and visibility gaps caused costly delays for job-site crews.
“The struggle for us has always been finding reliable tracking. I needed something that would put tracking in my control.”
For RKC, late or missed deliveries don’t just inconvenience customers, they have the potential to decimate project budgets. A single late truck can trigger surprise costs for labor, boom lift rentals, and overnight accommodations, adding to unplanned expenses. Because those customer impacts ultimately become service issues for him, Suydam began looking for a more reliable solution. Tive’s real-time tracking—not dependent on driver apps, carrier portals, or cellular permissions—finally gave RKC the clarity they’d been missing. The first major test was a cross-continent shipment from Maine to Alaska, where the freight first needed to meet a vessel in British Columbia. “I could see the shipment all the way across the country,” Suydam said.
“Using Tive trackers on high-value shipments just makes sense. I can guarantee that if something's showing up late, you don’t have to dispatch your labor crew and be out thousands of dollars in last-minute labor and equipment adjustments.”
Tive didn’t just help RKC improve operations; the solution become a powerful sales tool. That first cross-continent trial led directly to new business when a manufacturer saw the tracking and requested test devices for their own incoming shipment. “This Tive tracker turned into a new customer for me, and it ultimately may turn one of my customers into a direct Tive customer,” Suydam shared. “That’s the cool thing about Tive. It doesn’t just improve operations, it creates opportunities. Being able to track freight on rail is a complete game changer. If we see it’s running behind and we have a tight delivery, my customers don’t dispatch their labor crews unnecessarily, which has the potential to save thousands of dollars.”
“Seeing Tive in action makes all the difference. If you move high-value cargo, having complete visibility—from pickup to delivery—is a no-brainer.”
Tive has become a key differentiator for RKC Logistics, not only in operations but also in brand perception. Suydam actively markets the technology, especially to customers who have experienced the pain of late deliveries and job-site frustrations. “It sets you apart when you're speaking to the right audience,” he said. “The people who feel this pain immediately understand why they need Tive.” And unexpected benefits continue to appear. Tive’s light alerts have enabled Suydam to catch unauthorized co-loads on partial truck shipments in real time, a capability he described as “amazing.” And geofencing has helped him identify route deviations early enough to prevent both losses and misunderstandings.
“I don’t know how we did it before solutions like Tive. We were shipping blind back then. Tive is game-changing, and it sells itself.” And in a business where every mile matters, confidence is everything.
.png)
