Status quo no longer: when considering your next dispatch office design, keep in mind how technology is changing the way that you will monitor product delivery

Concrete Producer, The, Nov, 2002

Each delivery that the concrete producer makes consists of several complex functions. Because each function is actually a distinct stage of a truck's readiness for delivery, programmers must monitor each change. Programmers refer to this monitoring of function change as statusing.

Keeping track of each truck's activity can become an enormous task. On a busy day, it can become a mathematical undertaking in a very short time.

Start with the fact that there are seven basic delivery statuses. These are loading material onto or into a truck, departing the plant and driving to the jobsite, arriving on the jobsite, unloading, readying the truck for return, returning to the plant, and then readying the truck for the next load while it's at the plant.

In most concrete operations, a track delivering four loads per day generates 28 statuses plus "in service" and "out of service" statuses. Without a large support staff, keeping a paper trail is almost impossible.

Using these numbers, a dispatch system designed to monitor the work activity of a 10-truck fleet would track about 300 status changes each workday. When these factors are applied to a 50-truck fleet, taking care of delivery business means cataloging about 1500 statuses or 150 per hour in a 10-hour day or one status every 24 seconds. Of course, these status changes aren't evenly spaced. They occur in bursts starting early in the day and at the busiest peaks.

In this first of a special series of articles, we analyze ways that producers can improve the order taking, dispatch, and delivery processes. In this issue, we start by looking at the theory behind truck statusing. Subsequent articles will focus on the computer languages that unite dispatching with accounting systems, the impact of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology on the production process, innovative tools that dispatch managers can employ in the design of their new offices, and how to select a communication medium.

Automating the statusing process

Truck tracking is nothing more than an organized display of where a truck is or should be. Truck-tracking systems can be manual, mechanical, electric, electronic, or computerized. Regardless of the data-recording mechanism used, truck-tracking systems depend upon statusing.

A dispatcher needs to know every truck's current function to plan accordingly. And in this age of continuous improvement and accurate record keeping, each delivery and function in a delivery must be timed and compared with standards and other trucks on the same job.

Status-signaling systems allow the dispatcher to handle more trucks more efficiently. In many circumstances, the installations have paid for themselves by reducing the number of shippers needed or by allowing them to track more trucks.

When programmed to work with modern order-entry software, these systems reduce the tedious maintenance of paper records. In these systems, all status times are automatically captured accurately for reporting and management information.

With the addition of GPS receivers and wired sensors on the truck, all of the basic statusing operations now can be 100% automated. The driver does not have to press any buttons during a typical concrete product delivery.

In ready-mix operations, it is not important to know where every truck is every 5 minutes. In a larger fleet, few communication systems could determine status this often. If the fleet is equipped with signaling units and a good dispatching system, the track-tracking screen is the first indication that a truck is out of position.

If a mixer truck is late to the job, late to the plant, or has an emergency, the dispatcher can locate the truck by sending a GPS location request to the signaling unit using the embedded GPS receiver. The signaling unit returns the truck number, status, and current latitude and longitude coordinates. The truck appears on the map for the dispatcher, who can determine what the problem is based on the route or location.

Modern mapping software allows the user (dispatcher) to zoom in or out or pan around on the map image for a better view of the truck relative to a jobsite, a plant, or another landmark. By being able to see a truck clearly against a map, the dispatcher can help guide the driver if lost or get help in the event of a breakdown or emergency. Dispatch can even call customers to inform them of traffic delays.

If the GPS location request was sent over a standard analog radio system, the request and return might take 5-15 seconds, depending on the type of radio system (such as trunking) or the channel's load. The same request transmitted over a digital system usually only requires 3-5 seconds or fewer.

Smarter systems

One would think that viewing the entire fleet on a map would be helpful. The truth is, it's not. Too much data can be as bad as not enough data. It is comparable to looking at an active beehive and trying to determine what each worker bee is doing at that exact moment. A system is far more effective if it alerts the dispatcher of exceptional situations only. Unless the truck's position can be displayed relative to a specific delivery jobsite and an expected time window, what good is the information?