As a lead Driver I was really looking forward to what the journey ahead lay. On going through the requirements and various discussions, it didn’t seem to be an easy road trip. The challenges that hovered included a lot of dependency on Push notifications and Geofences.
We believed our road trip in building this application would turn over the original road trips these drivers take on a daily basis. All the thoughts came true after being on the field with actual Drivers on a CEMEX plant and going with them to various job sites for which CEMEX provides construction materials.
The road was not always smooth and we had a bumpy ride with quite a few road blocks. Slowly and gradually we cleared the field as we reached the milestones. After a long drive of six months and many breakdowns later, being a “Driver” with the real Driver in a truck was true bliss.
A typical day in the plant would start with Clock-in followed by activities like inspecting the truck and informing the Batcher that the truck is ready to load. On receiving the order the app would kick in. Each of the status gets triggered automatically as and when the process is complete like Loading, Loading Complete, To Job etc. On exiting the plant and reaching the Jobsite, the geofences comes into play and it was amusing for the Drivers to see that it all worked automatically. They could even get the Proof of delivery signed in the application, which is currently a process on paper, and I could see their delight when they nodded their heads.
The trip that started from a meeting room in Garage reached all the way till the CEMEX plant in Monterrey. All road blocks were worth it after seeing a contented smile on everyone’s face in acceptance of the application.
PS: This is a real experience from my professional life.
