The February 10th 2020 article at Civil and Structural Engineering Mag caught our attention with this bottom line justification for advanced office-to-field remote asphalt paving control:
“Improve paving productivity and rideability by directly referencing the design rather than a surface or stringline to minimize asphalt usage, reduce waste and overruns and finish projects on time and under budget.”
According to recent press announcements the Trimble® Roadworks 3D Paving Control Platform for Asphalt Pavers, represents the next-generation software platform for 3D asphalt paving control systems. The asphalt paving sector has been relying on high-tech solutions to hit “on time and under budget” benchmarks at least as far back as 2012.
Back then a ForConstructionPros.com headline pronounced; “Hybrid laser-satellite automated grade control system holds milling and paving grade, as well as cross-slopes, on fast-track South Carolina interstate project. The article goes on to state that;
“Fast-track highway improvements have little margin for error in terms of both surface grading and construction time.”
So tell us something we don’t know, right? Challenging fast-track project demands such as aircraft runway-grade precision for interstate paving, often with just a single weekend to complete rely on AGC technology for optimized production.
Any technology that reduces material waste, eliminates overruns, and brings the most complex paving projects in on time and under budget should catch the attention of the entire organization team. They will be involved whether in the office or on site. Trimble’s Hot Swap feature “instantly transfers total station control without the operator needing to stop the machine to make adjustments or re-calibrate”.
Trimble makes a strong case for their 3D paving control system. As digitization continues to increase in the paving sector, not having some version of an automated grade control system could leave companies that lagged behind asking “What did my competitors do that I didn’t?” Now it looks as if Trimble has raised the bar for precision automated paving control, even surpassing standalone satellite machine control to:
- Lay complex designs such as transitions
- Deal with superelevated curves
- Handle frequently changing cross slopes
And our favorite bullet point from Trimble”
- “Achieve accuracy and smoothness specifications, which can mean a bigger bonus.”
High Tech For Asphalt Plant and Fleet Management
With AGC at the end of the line onsite, Trucking Management Software provides essential logistical support at the head of the line in the paving project; asphalt production at the plant. The key to asphalt logistics is breaking down the old school paper-encumbered information silos and making the transition to digitized coordination. And industry-leading pavers such as IMC and Texas Materials among many others in heavy industry are listening.
According to Ruckit, a Trucking Management software provider specializing in asphalt paving logistics, Ruckit is preferred by 6,000 paving companies with 15 million-plus tons of materials moved so far:
“Our mission is to become the preferred platform and marketplace for logistics in heavy construction”-The Ruckit Story
Ruckit founder Kyle Kinsel brings the hard won experience of 2 startups in the aggregates sector including Coastal Crushed Concrete, serving the demands of the Houston construction market. Kyle’s Twin Eagle trucking operation specialized in frac sand logistics and all the inefficiencies that prevailed in the oil industry were the motivation that Kinsel needed to find a better way to move heavy construction materials,
Add to the winning formula Ruckit CEO Tarun Nimmagadda. Tarun was a computer science major and a successful entrepreneur at the University of Texas in 2007. The two were introduced by a mutual friend when they shared the same Austin hotel. Tarun has his own lucrative startup experience on his belt, as one of the founders of Mutual Mobile, back in 2009. The company has since grown into one of the largest mobile app development companies in Texas.
The result? A user-friendly TMS platform that can save up to $25,000 every month for 50-truck operations. Precise truck scheduling and the ability to pay drivers by the minute achieve this impressive benchmark. When Tarun and Kyle had trouble with old school trucking companies resistant to change, they formed their own trucking company to work out the bugs of their brand new technology. In this way their own company performed as a Beta test that let them improve their TMS as they learned the facets of the trucking business literally from the ground up in a variety of heavy industry sectors including:
- Contractors
- Aggregate producers
- Trucking companies
- Independent drivers.
Why independent drivers? By 2016 it became obvious that third-party trucks would also need to be in the TMS loop for eliminating obstacles such as paper invoicing, paper ticket submissions, and accurate real-time data entry. Now Ruckit can boast that 2 of the top 10 aggregate producers are using their platform with more new heavy industry customers coming online every week. So we’d say Ruckit is well on their way to accomplishing their ambitious but achievable mission.
You can check out the Ruckit website to explore better ways for aggregate producers to move heavy construction materials in the digitized construction environment of 2021 and beyond.
Resource Erectors and Your Heavy Industry Company and Career
As longtime aggregate industry participants we at Resource Erectors wouldn’t bet against the Ruckit team accomplishing that lofty mission. As heavy industry human resource experts, we couldn’t have made a better professional match ourselves when it comes to complementary talents that add up to a synergistic HR result that is greater than the sum of its individual professional contributors. But you can’t always count on fate to deal you a winning hand.
At Resource Erectors it’s our mission to find and place the top professional candidates for essential positions from the C-suite to the field in heavy industry positions for engineering, civil construction, aggregates, mining and minerals, concrete, tunneling and more. Over 85% of Resource Erectors candidates placed are still contributing to the success of their companies 5 years later. That helps your organization avoid the high costs of a bad hire and the less obvious but significant ongoing expenses piling up each day when your organization is dealing with critical vacancies in key positions.
When you’re ready to build your dream team or make your move up the professional career ladder don’t hesitate to contact Resource Erectors so we can all get to work.
