Late deliveries wreak havoc on profit and productivity in the oilfield, causing increases in non-productive time (NPT), extensions on equipment leases, and even loss of commodity or reduced commodity price. Everyone in the oil and gas industry is affected by shipping dilemmas, and everyone spends far too much time finding and tracking trucks, extinguishing fires related to late deliveries and false information, and even assigning blame and liability.
These problems are so prevalent, and have gone inadequately addressed for so long, that they have been accepted as an industry precaution. Many energy companies, trucking companies and even suppliers have attempted to develop in-house technology solutions to solve the issues. Unfortunately, this is quite costly for those companies, and further fragments supply chain issues. Consequently, once the firms have invested significant time and money, they often find adoption is quite low due to technology aversion and app fatigue in the oilfield, and users not wanting to learn a different system for every vendor or project. We have analyzed these past failures to uncover why they don't seem to correct the problem.
"A successful supply chain technology needs to take in to account each arm of the supply chain and provide customized benefits for each party. In the simplest of terms, failing to provide this 'What's in it for me?' destines any solution for failure."
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Ryan Hunt, Founder and CEO of Rig CallOut
In-House Technology Issue 1: Single-Sided Benefits
Anytime an organization tackles an in-house problem they are inherently operating from a self-serving bias. Internal development teams rarely look at the problem from everyone’s perspective. This results in a solution that solves one side of the problem while casting a burden of compliance on the other parties. This approach is destined for failure, as it rarely produces workflow efficiencies for the other parties and often increases inefficiencies with no benefit other than maintaining the customer relationship.
Rig CallOut is vertically integrated throughout the entire supply chain. Operators receive real-time visibility. Suppliers receive streamlined communication and release capabilities. Carriers get access to an incredibly simple-to-use set of tools to manage their deliveries and document workflows; and drivers are given the relief of reduced check-in calls and are safer on the road. Most importantly, every user can use the same system for every delivery.
Delivering benefits to each member of the supply chain is critical in driving adoption throughout the industry.
In-House Technology Issue 2: Innovation Stagnation
Every IT team in the oil and gas industry is racing to develop solutions to increase efficiencies and decrease expenses. These teams are taxed with multiple development projects, and often struggle to address the bugs that pop up after a release. This, in itself; often causes the software developed to begin innovation stagnation almost immediately. There are also struggles to manage the software as talent on the development teams change and code becomes degraded or outdated. In addition, third parties may not voice criticism in fear of disrupting the relationship; further compounding the issue.
At Rig CallOut, solving supply chain issues in the oilfield is not “something we also do.” It is ALL we do. We continually work with companies on all sides of the oilfield supply chain, and our development teams are designed to operate independently of each other to ensure our platform delivers an in-house "feeling" solution for all parties. We strive to keep it incredibly simple to overcome the technology aversion the oilfield faces. We listen and roll out client requested features regularly. Yard release features, advanced Geo-Fencing requiring even less of the drivers’, time stamped load details and consolidated data entry are just a few of the features we’ve released at the request of our customer’s demands over the last couple of months.
In-House Technology Issue 3: Driver Adoption
Most in-house technology is developed with a grand vision that once you tell a driver to do something, they will simply do it. That is rarely the case. Drivers have been bombarded with self-solve solutions from every direction for too many years. Dispatchers commonly create spreadsheets just to maintain driver login credentials to more easily accommodate each required customer platform. Apart from custom technologies, drivers also have to adhere to the laws surrounding the Electronic Drivers Logs (ELD), to monitor drive time through the DOT.
With over a decade of direct experience with oilfield deliveries under our belt, and extensive research through interviews and surveys over the past two years, we’ve developed our solution to cater to the drivers. In fact, when starting Rig CallOut our biggest rebuttal was “You’ll never get drivers to adopt.” To the contrary, they are not just adopting, they are asking us for access. Our system uses technology they already have, with advanced geo-fencing, and the carrot of more autonomy, less distractions, less check-ins and ultimate control over their own communications. It’s a welcome solution to the hassles they have faced.
Universal Problems Require Universal Solutions
The oilfield supply chain is broken, fragmented at best; and Rig CallOut helps to galvanize it and bring everyone together in a way that has never-before been possible.
We have developed a first-of-its-kind Internet of Supply Chain (IoSC) solution providing 360° visibility and truly uniting the entire oilfield: suppliers, trucking companies, drivers, and upstream and midstream companies. Regardless of who is supplying, shipping or receiving. Rig CallOut has devoted the very best, impartial, team and years of development and capital to ensure everyone has access to a platform that will support any company and be easily adopted by any user.
We have developed a series of best practices to keep drivers on the road and servers humming with data. Our solution encompasses several key features to ensure a smooth shipment tracking experience including:
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We employ trained experts (Customer Success Managers) to walk drivers (and every user) through the platform from initial training through adoption.
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Our driver app, web platform, and Customer Success Manager team is bi-lingual to accommodate Spanish speaking users.
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Live onsite training for all users is included.
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Our Universal Licensing allows any user to share their access with any other part of their own supply chain at no additional cost to them.
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Our app minimizes driver interaction and automates pick-up and delivery updates to ensure accurate data and driver safety.
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Our platform is designed to eliminate information mining from other members of the system. Your competitive data is safe!
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Our platform easily accommodates brokered loads with the same level of tracking, revolutionizing the operations of brokerage and 3PL firms.
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