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Recycling at National Scale, Procurement at Local Speed
PADNOS is a national leader in metal, paper, and plastic recycling, operating across nearly 30 locations in Michigan and supported by a fleet of more than 100 truck drivers who keep materials moving between customers, suppliers, and processing centers. The business runs on speed. When a driver is stopped, customers wait, suppliers wait, and the daily logistics ripple in ways that cost real money. That operational tempo shaped how PADNOS thought about procurement: it needed to support drivers and field teams in the moments that mattered, not slow them down with multi-step approvals or desktop-only tools.
For years, PADNOS managed procurement through legacy systems supplemented by email, Excel, and phone calls. The combination worked for office staff but broke down at the edges of the business where the work actually happened. When the team set out to modernize, the goal was not a feature upgrade. The goal was to make procurement disappear into the rhythm of the operation, so the drivers, coaches, and buyers who keep PADNOS moving could spend their time on the work rather than on the process around it. Levelpath became the platform that delivered that outcome.
Outcomes after rolling out Levelpath:
- 76% faster cycle times on supplier and service requests
- 6,000+ hours of annual fleet downtime saved by giving drivers a direct path to suppliers
- 180+ employees adopted Levelpath in three months, without adding procurement headcount
- 24/7 visibility into supplier and contract data across nearly 30 locations
The Challenge: Legacy Systems and a Mobile Workforce
PADNOS historically relied on legacy procurement and maintenance management systems. Combined with email, Excel, and phone conversations, those older tools led to significant delays in purchase order approvals and invoice fulfillment. As Rick Spykerman, Purchasing Manager at PADNOS, explained, "Completing orders would take longer as the legacy systems and our Microsoft Outlook folders would cause a wait for someone on our team to update the price to match what it was."
The bigger problem was mobility. None of the legacy tools had native mobile capabilities, and that mattered because more than 100 truck drivers needed to stay moving. When a driver experienced a breakdown on the road, the path back to operational was painfully manual. The driver would call their coach. The coach would call maintenance. Maintenance would either send help or call purchasing. Purchasing would contact the supplier. The whole exchange could waste the better part of an hour, and that was on a good day. The consequences ran straight to the customer experience: delayed pickups, missed container exchanges, and frustrated drivers asked to manage problems that the tools could not solve for them.
For a business where breakdowns are a daily occurrence, the calculus was clear. PADNOS needed a procurement platform built for the way its workforce actually operates, with a front door simple enough that anyone could use it and mobile capability good enough that drivers could solve problems from the cab of a truck.
Why PADNOS Chose Levelpath
PADNOS was first introduced to Levelpath by a team member who had prior experience with procurement technology. From the first demo, the team focused on one thing: simplifying and streamlining procurement and the workflows around it. Levelpath's AI-powered platform offered an immediate answer.
"Our 'aha' moment with Levelpath was really the potential of the front door, how we could deliver guided buying and get the users to exactly where they needed to be. This goes into the whole truck driver use case, which was one of the key areas for our team to tackle." Rick Spykerman, Purchasing Manager, PADNOS
The guided buying experience, paired with the mobile app, made it possible for PADNOS to envision a workflow where drivers could initiate a repair request from the road, suppliers could respond immediately, and the entire process would happen without a single phone call. That vision became the implementation roadmap.
Guided Buying and Stronger Workflows
The first capability PADNOS deployed was guided buying through Levelpath's intake experience. Rather than asking employees to figure out which form to fill out or which supplier to contact, the platform routes users to the right action the moment they begin a request. That change alone reduced the friction that had previously caused work to stall.
The team also formalized internal sales and approval processes. Spykerman emphasized the shift, saying, "Before Levelpath, account executives just kind of flew purchase requests through to their manager. Now, we are formalizing that process where the order has an intake and then a quick digital review before placing assets and doing business with the supplier." Accountability moved from informal to systematic, without slowing the pace of work.
Centralizing Contract Management
After years of storing contracts across various SharePoint drives, PADNOS used Levelpath's contract repository to consolidate the entire library. The team started by migrating older contracts to align renewals and other key dates with automated triggers. Routine activities that previously fell through the cracks, like timely renewals and approvals, now happen on schedule because the platform surfaces them.
The benefit is structural. Workflow, approvals, and management of supplier agreements now run through a single source of truth. The shift, in Spykerman's words, is "a significant improvement over our previous method." Procurement, finance, and the operating teams who depend on supplier agreements all benefit from the same up-to-date view.
Drivers in the Field, Procurement in Their Pocket
For PADNOS, the most consequential change has happened on the road. Truck drivers can now connect directly with suppliers through the Levelpath mobile app, with all the necessary paperwork available in the background. Drivers handle situations independently rather than playing telephone through coaches, maintenance, and purchasing. The fleet saves more than 6,000 hours of downtime each year as a direct result.
"Levelpath allows drivers to get repairs for our equipment if ever needed throughout the routes. The app is already downloaded on our phones, and with four easy touches in the app, you can have repairs on the way in a fraction of the time it took before." Freddie Griffes, Mobile User, PADNOS
"The simplicity of Levelpath is really life-changing for us at PADNOS, especially with our 100+ truck drivers who need to keep things moving." said Spykerman. The mobile-first design is not a nice-to-have. It is the reason the platform took hold so quickly across PADNOS's workforce.
Adoption Across the Business, Without Adding Headcount
What began with truck drivers using the Pathfinder function quickly expanded. Recycling Center coaches, Purchasing, Contracting, Sales, and even the Executive team came onto the platform within months. By the end of the third month, more than 180 PADNOS employees were active in Levelpath. Spykerman captured the moment: "Our team was so impressed. Levelpath saved PADNOS enough time and made it so much easier for our team that, in three months, we were able to expand to other areas of the business and did so without having to grow headcount to manage the service offering."
The platform absorbed broader use cases as adoption grew. General contracts for HR and Marketing now live in Levelpath. Purchase request links route through the Pathfinder front door. The long-term plan is to make Levelpath the single place anyone at PADNOS goes to begin a project, no matter the department.
Results: Cycle Times, Cost Savings, and a Confident Audit Trail
The combination of guided buying, automated approval workflows, and a centralized contract repository reduced inefficiencies across the procurement function. Supplier and service requests now complete 76% faster than they did under the legacy system. Procurement, finance, and suppliers all benefit from the expedited paperwork and payment process, making the platform, as Spykerman put it, "a win for everyone involved."
Beyond cycle time, the impact shows up in three additional ways. First, invoicing has been automated. With purchase orders coded and invoices already in the system, drivers and buyers can match and process payments without manual intervention. Second, operations have been centralized. Procurement, contracting, and general purchase requests all flow through Pathfinder, reducing the need for staff to remember where each type of work lives. Third, visibility into supplier agreements and performance has stepped up significantly. PADNOS can now track KPIs related to spend management and workflow efficiency, simplify data collection for financial audits, and ensure compliance with yearly requirements without scrambling at the end of each cycle.
Looking Ahead
The PADNOS team continues to expand the platform's footprint inside the business. Each new use case adds incremental value, and the consistent feedback from users is that Levelpath rewards adoption rather than punishes it. Spykerman summarized the partnership: "When we look at how quickly the Levelpath product is progressing compared to some alternatives we also work with, it is just worlds different."
For PADNOS, the future of procurement is mobile-first, AI-powered, and built around the people who actually do the work. Levelpath made that future operational, and the team is just getting started.
