Investing in a Global Positioning System (GPS) technology fleet management system promises many benefits and returns if you have not yet automated the dispatching and tracking of your ready-mix trucks beyond the plant gate.
But how do you know your operation is ready to take flail advantage of a GPS investment? What are the crucial factors to look for when designing and procuring a wireless fleet management solution that will deliver maximum returns?
Here is a brief look at the advantages, key questions, and the critical points to consider when evaluating an investment in a GPS-based fleet management system.
Compelling advantages
With more than one year of using fully integrated systems under the concrete industry's belt, the real-world returns are indeed impressive. Topping the list are marked increases in fleet productivity and customer satisfaction, both resulting from tighter control over the concrete delivery process.
GPS-based systems are at their best when they are part of a fully automated solution that incorporates reliable sensors feeding real-time status information through mobile data units into a truly intelligent computer system at the central office. The system needs to be integrated across the board, tying together fleet management, dispatch, order processing, sales, payroll, finance, and accounting.
These end-to-end systems give producers an unobstructed view of their entire operation. GPS-enabled components log in the location and status of every truck at every stage of every job in real-time. The resulting tighter control over the scheduling and delivery process leads to greater fleet productivity that yields fast paybacks on the system--from six months to a year in some cases. Key drivers behind these rapid returns on investment are time savings, error reduction, and optimized scheduling that enables each mixer to log three to five additional loads per week during high-volume periods.
Advice from providers
Wally Johnson, vice president of sales for Systech Inc., a batching controls manufacturer based in Darien, Ill., has often worked with leading fleet management solution providers. Systech provides end-to-end Windows-based technology solutions, from batching and dispatching systems to comprehensive back-office software.
Such solution providers include Trimble, of Sunnyvale, Calif., and TracerNET Corp., of Chantilly, Va., which provides all-inclusive, on-vehicle mobile data units and sensor packages, as well as the software that links the GPS and main office computer systems.
These technology suppliers were asked to provide a Top 10 list of key factors concrete producers should keep in mind when choosing the right system. Sherryl Dorch, director of marketing communications at TracerNet, suggests producers ask themselves these questions:
1. Do you manage over 30 trucks?
2. How do you communicate with your trucks when they are en route?
3. Do you ever need to dynamically re-route your trucks?
4. Do your trucks make time-sensitive deliveries?
5. Is information describing your delivery cycle reliable and accurate?
6. Do you know where your trucks are at all times?
7. Are your customers satisfied with your current delivery process?
8. How are you notified when your vehicles require service?
9. Would having an automatic status of driver performance, wait time, load time, idle time, and travel time enhance your fleet utilization?
10. Would a total end-to-end information source that is integrated with your dispatch and back-office applications, such as payroll, accounting, sales, operations and maintenance, provide a competitive advantage?
Johnson advises those making the decision to buy such systems to look for these specific attributes:
1. Fully automatic system. No extra effort should be required by dispatch or drivers to give 100% accurate reporting. The system should automatically locate jobsites on the map without any data entry.
2. Full auto-statusing. The system determines and signals for ticketing, loading, leave plant, arrive job, adding water, start and stop pour, wash out and leave job, and arrive at plant.
3. Interactive system messaging. Illegal pours, for example, are reported immediately. Quantity of water should be reported immediately, as well as amount that is leftover onboard.
4. Reliable communication backbone for the area you service. Not all cellular providers have equal coverage in all areas. So don't use radio for GPS. You may need to experiment with cellular carriers to find the best in your area. They all have "holes" in their coverage area, regardless of what their literature says.
5. Third-party mapping. Have others maintain mapping. Make sure they connect to your system via the Internet so the mapping can be kept current for your area.
6. Sensor reliability. Make sure quality sensors are utilized. The purpose of the system is to be 100% reliable. Bad sensors destroy integrity.
7. Flexibility and fit. Make sure the system fits your operation. Properly designed and implemented GPS will dramatically increase productivity as much as 1/2 cubic yard per truck hour. To achieve this, make sure your systems provider takes a true partnership approach to your operation.
8. Dynamic integration. Signaling and dispatch systems need dynamic integration. Old-fashioned interfaces or periodic polling of data between signaling and dispatch systems limit functionality.
9. Full data access. Make sure you have access to all of the data from the GPS system, as it is a treasure trove of information about how to improve your operation.
10. 24/7 Service. Customer service from GPS provider is essential. You will need 24-hour access, backed by a guaranteed response time.
With fast paybacks, optimal fleet productivity, and enhanced customer relationships, GPS-based fleet management solutions are changing the competitive landscape for ready-mix concrete producers.
Learn More on GPS
The following are suppliers of Global Positioning System technology for the concrete production industry.
Command Alkon
800-624-1872
www.commandalkon.com
World of Concrete booth #4755
Dinet Inc./Wireless Data Solutions
760-724-5355
www.wdso.net
Syntech Inc.
630-515-0200
www.systech-inc.com
World of Concrete booth #6345
TracerNET Corp.
800-525-3045
www.tracernet.com
World of Concrete booth #5067
Trakit-Signaling-Statusing
801-273-1650
www.fmei.com/trakit
Trimble Navigation
800-827-8000
www.trimble.com
World of Concrete booth # 1239
RELATED ARTICLES: 1-800-CONCRETE goes retail.
1-800-CONCRETE is evolving him a retail concrete venture. The program started three years ago, through 1-800CONCRETE LLC, as a convenient way to hook Lip contractors who need concrete with producers in the contractor's same area code. The contractor would call 1-800-CONCRETE and be automatically connected to a producer who had signed up for business in that area code.
But since May 2003, homeowners in Georgia who call the telephone number are connected to the office of the new program, 1-800-CONCRETE Inc., in Loganville, Ga. The order then is given to a producer who has signed up for business in the homeowner's zip code. In some cases, three producers may be signed up for the same area as additional suppliers in case the primary producer can't fill an order.
Robert "Buddy" Pittard, owner of Tucker Concrete in Tucker, Ga., contacted the service's Michigan office and asked for the Northern Georgia area. Pittard first supplied the c.o.d./retail customer service to his company only. After a three-month trial, he decided to expand the service to other retail customers and suppliers in Georgia. 1-800-CONCRETE Inc. now leases the telephone number from 1-800-CONCRETE LLC, in Michigan, for the remaining portions of the country not committed under the old program.
"The c.o.d./retail concrete customer currently has a difficult time getting his questions answered and ordering small amounts of concrete." says Fred Grimes, general manager of 1-800-CONCRETE. "He might want a patio or sidewalk poured and have dozens of questions. But most concrete producers are better designed to service their commercial accounts, be it a residential or commercial builders, than c.o.d./retail customers. Dispatchers don't have time to spend 15 or 45 extra minutes on the phone answering dozens of questions for a possible 3-, 5-, or 9-yard job."
But these small jobs also earl come with high margins and be quite profitable. So 1800-CONCRETE Inc. will do most of the legwork, leaving producers to do what they do best--make concrete, handle their commercial customers, and deliver concrete. At 1-800-CONCRETE Inc., a concrete coordinator collects the information on the phone about the job from the homeowner or his designee and then asks the designated producer if he can fit the job in.
