D i s p at c h i n g & C o m m u n i c at i o n s
Standing in front of the truck are Ken Kauffman
and his son Chris Kauffman (on right).
Photo courtesy of George Francy with ADD Systems.
operations run ten times quicker, Dad was
immediately on board.
"Now we are completely paperless except
for a print out of one piece of paper, which
is the manifest," said Chris, (see "Paperless
Steps") a system that benefits the drivers, but
has an even bigger impact in the administrative department.
"The back office has changed more than
anything." They used to have a driver come
in two to three hours early in the morning to
do the routing. "Now, it takes my dad a half
hour to an hour in the afternoons."
The driver previously responsible for that
can now get out on the road earlier, roughly
translating to 15 more stops a day. But the
back office benefits don't stop there.
"Posting used to be such a huge thing!"
Chris said it was a job that needed to be performed by one employee over the course
of the entire winter. Now, it takes that
employee just a couple of minutes because
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Raven updates the posting as soon as the endof-shift files are uploaded to the E3 office
computer. The technology has eliminated
an entire administrative role and has freed
that employee to take care of other parts of
the business.
"We handled changes in the past," he said,
"but this (technology) makes it easier for
everyone." In a matter of seconds they can
pull up a screen that shows the drivers' locations and give them a change in deliveries.
However, they did have some drivers that
were hesitant to adapt to the new technology.
"But it's an easy product to learn, anybody
could pick it up." Now, the general consensus
of the drivers is that they love it.
"They get to do less," Chris said, without
all the manual paperwork that needs to be
done. Another thing that surprised him was
that some of the drivers actually complain
when their GPS isn't working. This switch
to depending on technology to help them
June 2013 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com
find the best route has been an unexpected
outcome, with some guys, some of them
driving in their territories for a very long time,
having found different, faster ways of getting
to places.
"A map and a computer look at it so
objectively," Chris said. "So it gives the most
efficient route."
At first, some of the drivers tried tweaking
the order and/or the routes of the deliveries,
but most now follow, without question, what
the computer spits out.
"The technology knows all," he said. "It
runs the whole process in the most efficient
way." l F ON
