OTTO DÖRNER Is Dispatching in Real Time

The OTTO DÖRNER Group now controls approximately 180 vehicles, both its own and from third-parties, with the transport management and telematics system OPHEO. The solution developed by initions AG based in Hamburg, Germany, particularly convinced OTTO DÖRNER with its fully integrated telematics, the integrated forecasting function as well as the calculation of the profit contribution for each vehicle used, even during dispatching. The 60 user licenses are used in two subsidiaries of the OTTO DÖRNER Group in the business units Gravel and Sand, as well as Disposal. These subsidiaries not only supply gravel and sand to construction sites, but they also take care of construction waste disposal.

Before finally opting for OPHEO, OTTO DÖRNER had looked into and analyzed many transport management systems. “OPHEO has proven to be the most intelligent and innovative software for controlling our fleet in a competitive comparison,” Managing Director Oliver Dörner explains. In addition, the “initions AG’s high level of industry expertise” in the building and bulk materials sector convinced him. OTTO DÖRNER uses the OPHEO modules Dispatching Cockpit, Tariffs, Fleet and Personnel, Reporting, telematics system OPHEO MOBILE, as well as the OPHEO PORTAL for analyzing the telematics data.

OPHEO fully integrates both tour planning and telematics solution. The mobile terminals in the vehicles are commercially available tablets with Android operating systems, equipped with the telematics app OPHEO MOBILE. This app handles order management. A box mounted in the truck directly transfers information about current driving times from a digital tachograph to OPHEO. In a first step, OPHEO MOBILE was installed in the the company’s own 65 vehicles. Besides the navigation system, drivers benefit from easy communication via text messages and automatically generated timesheets, which could be available for payroll accounting in the future. Another 80 trucks of transport companies that are regularly OTTO DÖRNER contractors are to follow in the next months.

With the telematics solution, the dispatchers can track all connected trucks in real time. OPHEO calculates, based on current location data, whether the trucks are still on schedule and provides an outlook on the estimated time of arrival at the following destinations. In the event of impending delays, dispatchers can react in good time and work with precise values. This forecasting feature won OPHEO the Telematik-Award in 2014.

OPHEO already shows during the dispatching process which contribution margin each deployed vehicle will generate and to what extent these values will shift in case of changes to the plan. This “smart planning” makes the dispatcher a dispatching controller. He can immediately see the financial impact of his planning in euros and cents in OPHEO’s Dispatching Cockpit and no longer has to rely solely on his experience when making decisions. Contribution margins are calculated based on freight revenues OPHEO retrieves for each order from ERP Kifa. The revenue is compared to the tour costs, which are calculated on the basis of the cost models stored in OPHEO.

OTTO DÖRNER Kies und Umwelt Mecklenburg GmbH & Co. KG has already been using OPHEO since mid August 2015. At the beginning of September, the go-live at OTTO DÖRNER Kies und Deponien GmbH & Co. KG had followed. “initions AG always give us very competent and reliable advice and we feel very well looked after.” initions also met all agreed project deadlines”, Project Manager Andreas Mackens emphasizes.

Hamburg-based OTTO DÖRNER GmbH & Co. KG is one of the leading private companies in Northern Germany in the fields of waste disposal, recyclables trading, gravel and sand as well as landfills and soil remediation. The family-owned company, now in its third generation, employs over 920 people and generates sales of more than € 160 million.