What Did Ozinga Dispatch Technology Look Like 30 Years Ago?
Ozinga has been around for a long time. One of the reasons we’ve been able to thrive year after year as a fourth-generation, family owned company is by investing in our people and the technology we use every day to make sure we’re pushing the boundaries of the construction materials and logistics industry.
The technology we use in our ready-mix dispatch has changed drastically over the years, as our coworkers can attest to. Barb Robertson, who currently works in our Inside Sales Department, joined Ozinga’s dispatch team in 1985 and she provided an overview of our technological capabilities that she witnessed firsthand in the early 1990s.
In 1992, we were moving away from pen and paper and began using computers to enter orders. We only had two IT techs at the time, so if there was an issue with software or other computer problems, Barb became the go-to technology expert who was responsible for phoning our off-site helpline in Alabama.
“I wasn’t a programmer. I wasn’t an IT person. The guy (from the off-site helpline in Alabama) would talk me through it. . . I would get it running and be the hero,” Barb said.
We now have programs that can pinpoint a truck’s exact location from pickup, to delivery, to pour, but back in the 1990s we had a huge magnetic board with rectangles to represent each truck on the delivery schedule. Our dispatchers would make an educated guess about where the truck was at any given time, but it was by no means an exact science.
The same was true for figuring out the best route to reach our customers. Barb created a spreadsheet that listed the approximate travel times from each of our plants to popular delivery destinations. “We didn’t have Track Your Truck, we didn’t have Google Maps, it cracks me up when I think about it,” Barb added. Today, we have sophisticated GPS systems that allow drivers and dispatchers to track construction zones, truck-friendly routes, and bad weather.
Figuring out how much concrete a customer needed was also a lot trickier. Dispatchers used a tool called a slide rule to figure out how many cubic yards a customer needed to order based on the dimensions of their project and how thick they wanted the concrete to be. Nowadays, it’s as simple as pressing F8 on your computer and using our concrete calculator to work out the amount in a matter of seconds. Customers can even use the calculator on our website.
In our materials and logistics operation, we’re making technological strides as well.
Last year we implemented an RFID reader at one of our yards that automatically links a driver’s truck to their designated order number and allows them to check-in and confirm their order at a kiosk without contacting dispatch at all.
We’re always trying to find smarter, more efficient ways to help us work together with our coworkers and make everyone’s job easier, while providing our customers with quality service.
Curious what it’s like to be an Ozinga dispatcher? Check out the day in the life video.
