Disrupting the Hauling & Logistics Industry

A Brief History

Redskin Transport started with just a few trucks, but has quickly scaled– with 32 employees, 26 trucks, and 40 owner-operated trucks that they broker daily. This hauling company was founded in 1990 by Rock VanWey in Newark, Ohio.

Today, Redskin Transport offers services such as selling and delivering salt, sand, gravel, limestone and topsoil, as well as supplying bagged de-icing salt products for property management, industrial, commercial, and landscape companies and homeowners. Additionally, Redskin Transport provides driveway services such as reclamation and grading.

Struggles Before Dauber

Leading Up to Dauber

Redskin Transport was, and continues to be, part of a niche industry. This meant if they settled on just any hauling, transportation, or software service run by people who had never worked in the industry themselves, they would never reach their full potential.

After researching various companies and poking around on the internet, the team at Redskin Transport finally reached Dauber Applications’s website. Founder of Redskin Transport, Rock VanWey, initially thought the name was interesting and was intrigued, so he decided to reach out to Dauber. Within an hour after Rock sent his message, Dauber’s owner– who had dedicated his entire career to the hauling and logistics industry– called him back to set up their official first meeting.

“I don’t see myself ever looking at another company – especially once we’ve mastered the algorithm for our back office operations.”
– Rock VanWey, Founder of Redskin Transport

 

Life With Dauber

 

Since Implementing Dauber Into Their Hauling Services, Redskin Transport:

A Few of Redskin Transport’s Favorite Dauber Features:

Due to their evident success, Redskin Transport is excited to expand their partnership with Dauber by actively researching and experimenting on an innovative solution to implement Dauber’s software into their back office operations.

Redskin Transport says they’ve thrown a curveball at Dauber, but they’re confident they’ll successfully disrupt the industry with their innovative solution.

Site Contractors: There is Not a Truck Shortage

Before founding Dauber, I was a construction project manager for 20 years. I’ve heard every excuse imaginable as to why a project was running behind.

One excuse that seems to be in vogue lately for Site Contractors not hitting their production rates is the “truck shortage.” From foreman to managers to owners, this excuse has been accepted as true and the reason for projects to finish late and to pass on opportunities for new projects.

There is Not a Truck Shortage! There is a Leadership and Technology Shortage.

Did you know that dump trucks are driving loaded only 35% of the time? The remaining 65% of their working hours are spent driving empty back to pickup, or waiting on site to be loaded or unloaded.

The good news is there are several opportunities to turn a truck’s empty or idle time into productive movement of materials through technology based accountability and optimization.

Accountability

Hold drivers, suppliers and field personnel accountable to the efficient use of truck time.

Drivers

Using technologies, like Dauber, dispatchers and site contactors can track drivers current location and historic routes. Compare turn around time between trucks to identify drivers who may be taking longer than necessary or taking breaks when they should be working.

Suppliers

It seems everyone is busy these days that includes material suppliers. Help your suppliers service your project better by tracking load times at pickup. See trends throughout the day to plan the best time to get loaded.

Field Personnel

Is your field team operating at maximum efficiency? Give them visibility into truck locations in real-time, so they can be prepared to unload quickly, or if trucks are several minutes away, work on other tasks.

Track unloading times across several days to measure improvements.

Optimization

Traditional truck dispatching has basically been unchanged over the past 80 years. Dispatchers communicate with drivers via phone (now text messages) and tell them the list of loads for the day.

Technology now makes it possible to reduce empty drive by finding backhauls, space trucks to prevent caravans and queuing, create an optimized next-day plan in minutes and adjust to changing conditions automatically.

Backhauls

Perhaps the biggest opportunity to increase truck productivity lies in the time a truck drives empty. Most projects operate in a silo, meaning a truck will work one particular project at a time.

Savvy dispatchers and site operators will look for backhaul opportunities. Backhauls from human dispatchers tend to be obvious when observed on a map.

Technology can provide deeper analysis of daily loads to find hidden partial backhauls and combinations of three or more projects to make efficient circuits.

Caravans & Queuing

Several minutes per day are wasted by caravanning trucks. Drivers tend to be social and prefer to drive in packs. This leads to delays as trucks wait on one another to load or unload.

An optimized planning tool, like Dauber, can be set to limit the number of trucks on site at a time, thus staggering deliveries.

This also increases field productivity as trucks arrive at a more consistent rate. Technology can help avoid the problem of having several trucks on site to start the day, and the resulting echo effect of truck caravans.

Assignment Planning

Dispatchers typically spend several hours every afternoon and evening to determine the best truck assignments for the next day.

With technology, a better plan can be found in only a matter of minutes.

Automatic Change Adjustment

The only thing certain about a trucking plan is that it will change before the sun rises.

Stuff happens. Trucks don’t show up. Orders increase. Projects finish early.

Instead of leaving loads undelivered or sending trucks home early, use technology to automatically adjust to changes throughout the day.

There is Not a Truck Shortage

You can do more with the trucks available. Dauber customers increase productivity between 10%-20%.

As a Site Contractor, how much more money could you make this year with a 20% improvement in truck productivity?

I often hear contractors wish trucking companies were more professional. The only way for that to happen is to treat them like professionals. Lead them to a better future. Provide for them or require that they use technology to improve productivity.

And stop using the “truck shortage” as an excuse!