A worker measures a stockpile with the Stockpile Reports iPhone app.The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has begun using an iPhone app to get accurate measurements of stockpile volume and tonnage, as well as keep track of locations.
Last year, the agency’s Materials Supply Chain Management team was tasked with locating new technologies that would improve the agency’s supply chain management operations and reduce operating costs. The team researched available measuring tools, and successfully tested the iPhone app and service from Stockpile Reports, which creates a 3D image of a stockpile and calculates its volume.
TxDOT estimates that more than 500 employees will be responsible for taking close to 10,000 measurements per year and maintaining data for 2,400 stockpiles. Survey crews will no longer be required to calculate stockpile volumes, allowing them to tend to more strategic work.
The iPhone app will allow a single person to video a stockpile in less than five minutes without climbing on top of it and receive accurate measurement results within 24 hours.
“We’re extremely pleased with this partnership,” Stockpile Reports CE David Boardman said in a statement. “We believe that StockpileReports.com will save the citizens in Texas significant money from lowered operating costs and make TxDOT employees more efficient. We look forward to helping the agency meet or exceed their goals.”
TxDOT has already begun deploying the patent-pending technology to its maintenance operations statewide.
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared at sister site Aggregates Manager.
