Now that consumers have so many channels and tools available to them right at their fingertips, they expect the same type of efficiency and transparency during the order status and fulfillment process. When dispatchers need to update their customers on their estimated delivery times, they often resort to calling drivers. Drivers get distracted, and it and can cause friction as it can feel like micromanagement.
Dispatchers send instructions and updates through phone calls, texts, or emails that the driver then has to stop what they’re doing to check, or completely misses until it’s too late. It’s a time-consuming and frustrating experience for drivers, and as the ones responsible for ensuring products actually make it to their destination, they need to be able to have a way to do their jobs more efficiently and without inconvenience. Arming drivers with the information they need in the cab – not over the phone – can help streamline operations, boost fleet performance, and provide customer experiences that are second to none.
Ohio Ready Mix
Ohio Ready Mix is a family-owned company that was founded in 1968. The operation began with Duff Quarry, a limestone company, and then they quickly extended their services to ready mix concrete. They started out plants in Huntsville and Bellefontaine, Ohio, and quickly grew to four locations and six total plants. They have a fleet of 38 ready mix trucks, along with dump trucks.
Equip Drivers to Do Their Job More Efficiently
Ohio Ready Mix wanted to increase visibility into their trucks and the performance of their drivers, but the telematics system that they were using was expensive and unreliable. Ohio Ready Mix wanted a solution that was easier to use and that they were able to troubleshoot more efficiently. They are big advocates for Command Alkon solutions, already utilizing COMMANDbatch for batching, COMMANDqc, and Integra for dispatch. The last piece that they needed to really tie a bow around their operations was Command Alkon’s telematics and fleet management system; they equipped their entire fleet with TrackIt.
The implementation process was relatively seamless. The hardware can be easily installed in the truck, so easily that some of Ohio Ready Mix’s employees were able to install a few themselves.
“I’ve been part of nearly every implementation project that we’ve had, and I was really impressed and happy with how the implementation of TrackIt went.”
- Jeremy Sloan, Vice President of Operations at Ohio Ready Mix
There was even buy-in from the drivers, which typically isn’t the case in the beginning of a new implementation. The drivers were thrilled to go from a solution that didn’t work to having a reliable tool to help them to do their job better.
Boost Confidence in Dispatch Personnel and Empower More Effective Dispatching Operations
Jeremy was impressed with how seamlessly TrackIt worked to notify customers with a text message, greatly reducing the amount of calls that they receive asking about an order or where the truck is at in the delivery process.
“We’ve seen the volume of calls that eat up dispatch and order taking time go down drastically. I would say close to 30% of the repeat phone calls have gone down because they're receiving those text messages, and they're getting that information from Integra through their TrackIt system.”
TrackIt has also improved their ability to understand the status of each truck in the delivery cycle, equipping their customer with the knowledge they need to know about where trucks are and if they need to make adjustments to combat any issues that arise in the cycle.
Ohio Ready Mix’s dispatchers have taken to using the information from TrackIt to plan out how many trucks are needed per jobsite and per location and have been able to dispatch trucks more efficiently and effectively.
The Alerts & Messaging functionality of TrackIt brings peace of mind in that dispatchers are confident that drivers receive their messages and know if something has changed in their route, or if there is an additional plant that they need to stop at. It also enables drivers to now where they need to go. Prior to implementing TrackIt, Jeremy and his team realized that the drivers were not getting to the jobsite as quickly as they had thought; with the turn-by-turn visual and audible directions that the systems provides, dispatch has the confidence needed to efficiently schedule the right amount of trucks for the job because they can see where each truck is and know when they can make it to the job.
Enable Full Visibility in the Delivery Cycle
Earlier in the year, Ohio Ready Mix began piloting Delivery Cycle Monitoring (DCM), a new feature of TrackIt. The pilot lasted 4-6 weeks before they made the decision to implement it in all of their trucks. The DCM feature automatically captures timestamps for Begin Pour, End Pour, Loading, Loaded, and Wash status to the TrackIt Cloud, informing dispatchers of every stage in the delivery cycle and helping them to better plan for upcoming orders.
“Knowing that my trucks are at the begin pour status or the end pour status lets me know whether or not I can assign trucks to different plants and dispatch them. It has been a huge help for us, and it has helped me to understand the efficiency of my drivers.”
Dispatchers and drivers are central to the entire operation. Making their work more efficient can reap many benefits across the organization and provide a better experience for customers. For more information on how TrackIt and the Delivery Cycle Monitoring functionality can take your hauling operations to the next level, visit www.commandalkon.com/gettrackit.
