Heckmann Water Resources and Blueknight Energy Partners, both of which serve the oil and gas industry, have realized cost savings and made their fleets more efficient using PeopleNet’s paperless systems and open technology, the companies say.
Heckmann moves, treats and disposes of water generated by the hydrofracturing process. The company’s fleet included more than 1,000 trucks at the end of 2012 and its work requires extensive compliance documentation.
PeopleNet says it worked with Heckmann to create workflows that have eliminated for one customer more than 700,000 pieces of paper, improved the customers’ efficiency by $1.4 million, shrunk receivables aging from 120 days to 20 days, eliminated $1,200 a day in carrying costs, and improved driver safety.
Another East Texas customer eliminated 2 million pieces of paper annually by getting one invoice per week instead of 18,000 per year (one for each time each well was visited with compliance documents).
Heckmann vice president of business technology Mark Ridgley says PeopleNet helped his company standardize operations and gave management visibility into each site’s operation, as well as helping Heckmann adapt the software for each region’s different laws. Additionally, integrating PeopleNet’s open platform with Heckmann’s financial system and proprietary dispatch application has helped the company become more efficient, he says.
PeopleNet designed customized work order forms that help Heckmann drivers complete any type of pick-up or disposal work order without touching a single piece of paper. The dispatch application sends work orders through the PeopleNet system, which walks the driver through all required information. The information entered by the driver is captured in the back-end system for accurate paperless invoicing. Drivers capture customer signatures with PeopleNet’s Tablet to immediately initiate invoicing, along with the required electronic documentation.
By successfully petitioning to have electronic forms accepted as legal documentation, Heckmann eliminated handling five to six compliance forms and supporting work tickets on about 200 loads per day, which provides savings to Heckmann customers — that no longer have to allot space for storing physical documents for years or puchase forms from the state.
Meanwhile oil and gas hauler Blueknight Energy Partners is using PeopleNet’s Crude Oil Workflow application to optimize driver efficiency in its 200-truck crude fleet.
The Crude Oil Workflow application is tied to Blueknight’s dispatch system, which means drivers no longer have to call all day long for load updates. This saves the company time; electronic tickets and invoicing also save time and make it easier for Blueknight customers, Blueknight IT applications manager W. Scott Morgan says.
The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based fleet began using PeopleNet eDriver Logs last summer and then added the Crude Oil Workflow application.
The Crude Oil Workflow application consists of three core screens that walk the driver through a pickup and delivery. When a driver arrives at his first stop, a custom Pickup Screen appears with customer and load information pre-populated instead of the standard form message.
The Delivery Screen appears when the driver arrives at a delivery location, and a timer automatically records the time spent unloading; after 60 minutes, the “Reason for Detention” and “Comments” fields are required.
The Rejection Screen is used when analysis of the oil reveals it is out of specification and cannot be hauled; the driver presses the “Reject” button on the Pickup Screen to access the Rejection Screen.
Handwriting run tickets at each well site is one of the most time-consuming, aggravating parts of a crude driver’s job, the companies say. If the driver loses the only ticket or it’s unreadable, an operational logjam occurs. Crude Oil Workflow solves the problem by allowing the driver to print both standard and customizable run tickets for a stop after information is entered in the Pickup and Delivery or Rejection Screens. There are up to four types of Pickup Tickets, two Delivery Tickets and one Rejection Ticket. PeopleNet can customize data fields on the ticket to support the unique needs of the hauler.
The Crude Oil Workflow application is populated with data that resides within the PeopleNet System, such as trailer number, which eliminates the need for the driver to take additional time entering information the system has access to.
Blueknight says it plans to extend PeopleNet to its field services fleet — around 150 trucks that haul natural gas condensate, also known as drip gas.
Photo Credit: Heckmann Water Resources
