Routing & Dispatch

Dispatch control has never been more seamless than with ShredMetrics®. The robust offerings of Q-Shred and the ease of SMMS support empower your shredding team to operate with new efficiencies, including: 

Scheduling

Only a shredder understands the complexities of juggling weekly and semi-regular pick-ups in tandem with one-off jobs, to ensure each day is scheduled with maximum efficiency. Q-Shred has this functionality built in so you can see real-time updates and ensure not just a smooth and timely customer experience but a cost-efficient and headache-free day for your team too. 

Optimized Route Planning

Routing optimization is what the office administration, typically a manager or the owner, uses to instruct Drivers how to efficiently run the day.

If you think manual routing is best – you’ll want to reconsider. Q-Shred Optimized Routing was designed to automatically factor in your preference settings and variables and accommodate multi-day routes. As the Dispatcher, you can select whether to start a route at a Depot, at the Recycler, or at a specific customer location. You can choose to end the day at the Recycler or back at your Plant. Once your route is generated, you can still “tweak” it with an easy “drag and drop” feature to get it “just right,” easily creating the most optimized route in the quickest time.

In addition, shredding trucks can’t travel everywhere. Low overpasses or train bridges, truck-restricted routes, and other factors near specific customer locations layer onto the routing nightmare. Q-Shred considers each truck’s height, width, length, and MGW in optimizing route orders.

Ideal routing is one of the foundational elements for running a successful shredding business. Whether you pull the routes yourself, save more time by outsourcing through SMMS, or run a combination of the two, you’ll discover new efficiencies for both the Dispatcher and your Drivers. 

Optional Turn-by-Turn Directions 

Turn-by-turn directions allow Drivers to best (and most safely) execute the planned routing. 

Accidents, construction, heavy traffic, and other unforeseen circumstances create havoc on the roads daily. While routing creates an optimal plan of attack for the day’s jobs, the literal navigation to each point may need an on-the-fly adjustment to remain maximized. Turn-by-turn requests are submitted by the Driver on their phone on an “as-needed” basis, so the most current traffic conditions are considered. Q-Shred uses commercial truck routing (not Google Maps, Waze, or the like) to ensure your vehicle gets to the next destination without further delay. This optional solution keeps your trucks on route as much as possible but integrates a safer and more appropriate solution than using an automobile-focused navigation system in a truck.

IMPORTANT SAFETY WARNING: Local, State, and Federal Laws prohibit the use of hand-held communications devices in Commercial Motor Vehicles. Don’t get stopped and fined – cell phones must be mounted in a dash mount when used for Turn-by-Turn Navigation.

Real-Time Monitoring – Where is the Truck?

Have you ever felt disconnected from the field? Played phone tag between a customer who is waiting for their scheduled service and a driver who is supposed to be there already? Concerned why your fuel bill is so high when the routes were short? Safety, accountability, and daily progress are accessible through accurate, real-time tracking. A stock Q-Shred feature is order completion monitoring in real-time. To provide a more detailed set of monitoring features, ShredMetrics is an authorized reseller for Forward Thinking Technologies

GPS Tracking

Shredding trucks are expensive. GPS technology from FTS can tell you where your vehicle is right this second and provide real-time alerts about unsafe driving conditions. Our system tells you more than just where the truck is and how fast it is moving.  We use a direct connection to the vehicle’s ECM, allowing you to pull engine diagnostic information and live odometer mileage.  

Fleet Cameras

With the Fleet-Cam system, you can check in on your drivers and the road around them by live streaming from up to 6 cameras at once.  More than just passively telling you where your trucks are, we help your Drivers to stay where they belong and safely away from roads and bridges where they don’t.

ELD

If you are running CDL trucks, we can help you be compliant with the ELD mandate. Our ELD solutions from FTS are registered with the FMCSA as approved ELDs and they’ve been fully tested and certified to be compliant.

Cost Control

Routing and dispatch are critical to every shredding operation because this is where hidden profit and loss variables live. ShredMetrics developed Q-Shred® and SMMS™ specifically with this in mind. Keeping these costs in check, which can so easily creep out of control without proper oversight, can lead to found profits in the following areas:

  • Fuel Savings: It’s a no-brainer that adhering to the most efficient routes helps lower vehicle fuel consumption.
  • Fuel Surcharges: By using accurate fuel surcharges you build a defense against rising operational costs.
  • Driver Vehicle Wear & Tear: Driving in unnecessary and dangerous areas or conditions doesn’t just put the day’s work at risk but also your expensive shred truck, which you can’t afford to have out of commission for repairs.
  • Driver Wages: A well-organized and monitored plan ends the day sooner and discourages Drivers from wasting time on any side trips across town to hit their favorite coffee spot – time is money after all. 
  • Administration Time: Office staff can now use the time spent manually calculating routes on other initiatives to support the business (or as a small business owner, maybe you can go home in time for dinner!). 
  • Customer Retention: More consistent servicing earns happier clients who are apt to renew their contracts instead of looking for a new provider. 
  • Optional SMS “Next Stop” text messaging cuts out wasted time when the customer isn’t ready

Fuel Surcharges

It’s important that your develop your own policy for fuel surcharges. As there is no Federal Standard for the calculations, Q-Shred empowers you to manage fuel surcharges as you see fit for your business.

Q-Shred Fuel Surcharge Options 

  1. Apply a fixed fuel surcharge 
  2. Apply a percentage of the invoice as a fuel surcharge
  3. Use an automated variable surcharge based on the official EIA benchmarks for the price of diesel fuel in your area. 

Your customers may be suspicious of fixed rates or percentages as a hidden way to increase prices, but it’s hard to argue with a fuel surcharge based on the actual US Government statistics. ShredMetrics strongly recommends protecting your bottom line and maintaining client trust by selecting Option #3 and using our automated variable interface. With this option, Q-Shred updates itself automatically every week to get the appropriate EIA data, and then automatically applies fuel surcharges to your invoices according to your business rules. Traditionally this type of calculation is done with Miles Per Gallon, but MPG is a bad metric for mobile shredding trucks that burn as much (or more) fuel while standing still and shredding. ShredMetrics has developed custom algorithms to apply realistic fuel surcharge numbers just for the shredding industry.

This chart from the US Energy Information Administration, a part of the Department of Energy, which feeds Q-Shred’s algorithm. This chart updates weekly, and it is easy to see how prices change over time and are totally out of your control! 

Whether you choose to continue to manage routing and dispatch for your team or utilize SMMS support to offload some of the administrative tasks, Q-Shred software will optimize your workflow and operational efficiency and ultimately create cost savings. 

Schedule a Demo to See How Easy Routing & Dispatch Can Become