Ohio Co-Op Uses Fleet Tracking to Manage Fuel Prices, Customer Expectations And Efficiency
Centerra Co-op, based in Ashland, Ohio, will use DispatchTrack to optimize route planning and truck usage and provide customers with more visibility into their order deliveries. This is DispatchTrack’s first agricultural customer, but as Satish Natarajan, DispatchTrack co-founder and CEO, explains, his team sees a lot of potential growth in this sector.
“Centerra Co-op initially contacted DispatchTrack to help optimize their truckloads which were running inefficiently based on the total volume of feed Centerra was delivering versus the total capacity of trucks,” he says. “The challenge Centerra was facing was two-fold: some trucks were going out with empty bins while in other cases, Centerra was having to rent trucks for deliveries. DispatchTrack was able to optimize truck usage by addressing these loading and volume issues ensuring that Centerra could maximize each truckload which eliminates the need to rent trucks or send out trucks at half capacity.”
The first use of the software will be for feed and fuel trucks with the additional sectors (grain and agronomy) coming online with the software later.
“For propane, Centerra was sending trucks to refill when the propane tanks were only half empty and they were looking for new efficiencies that would help reduce refill trips. DispatchTrack was able to help Centerra plan routes that allowed tanks to refill when they were two-thirds empty, resulting in fewer trips and real cost savings,” Natarajan says.
He adds full visibility into fleet tracking helps manage fuel costs, customer expectations, and sustainability.
“With fuel prices at an all-time high, fleets, particularly those with heavy trucks, must consider optimizing their capacity to minimize fuel costs. Customer expectations for real-time visibility and communication about deliveries are also at an all-time high,” Natarajan says.
