How The Journal of Hazmat Transportation Uses MoonClerk

Vince Vitollo, president and publisher of The Journal of Hazmat Transportation talks with us about his publication and how he implemented MoonClerk instead of building out his own custom payment system.

Can you tell us a little about what your company does?

PRI International, Inc. publishes The Journal of HazMat Transportation, focused exclusively on providing expert review and analysis of U.S. and International hazardous materials transportation regulations throughout North America and Europe. 

How did you get started?

I started The Journal in 1990, as the Chemical Packaging Review. At the time there was no good independent publication covering classification, packaging, and other issues faced by transporters of hazardous materials.

What have been some key factors in growing your business?

Knowing your market and being persistent in getting people to talk to you. I’ve found that getting someone on the phone is still the most powerful way to stay in contact with your audience.

What do you use MoonClerk for?

We use MoonClerk to accept payments for subscriptions and to collect for our advertising fees. 

Before MoonClerk, did you use another payment system? If so, which one?

Before MoonClerk we had a credit card machine in the office and a roundabout web payment system. Every card had to be manually run, as did electronic payment receipts. It took up time that could be better spent elsewhere.

What made you decide to use MoonClerk?

We had to retire our old web payment service out of security concerns and wanted to find a better way to accept credit card payments. After looking into other ways to process orders, we decided to try out Stripe. Then our IT person found MoonClerk while researching ways to integrate Stripe. I didn’t want to lose any time or business waiting to implement a customized solution if I didn’t have to, and MoonClerk fit our needs.

What was your experience when switching and getting started with MoonClerk?

Great. It was fast and easy. In little time we were accepting new payments over the web and it has simplified the way we accept payments on the web.

What do you like about MoonClerk?

MoonClerk’s form creator provides the options we need to make a good-looking form, quickly. It was easy to integrate into other webpages. I like the security that MoonClerk provides our customers through Stripe.

How has MoonClerk improved or helped your business?

MoonClerk streamlined the process by which we accept and process payments and allows us to focus energy elsewhere. Through Stripe and another web service, Zapier, our payments are automatically tracked on a Google Docs spreadsheet that we set up – now our latest information is available at a glance with useful summary information. All of this wasn’t hard to set up and it’s saving us money in fees and man-hours.

Any advice for others who are in similar industries?

If you’re in the print or publishing industry, you know how important it is to incorporate technology into your business if you want to stay competitive.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Frank Pierce