Managing a fleet of trucks and containers and optimizing their use is one of the many challenges scrap metal recyclers face in their operations. 

In this third installment of our series, ScrapWare discusses how its software simplifies truck dispatching and container tracking for scrap metal recyclers.  Our earlier posts have focused on inventory management, compliance efforts and the benefits of moving from paper to electronic documents.  ScrapWare’s truck dispatching and container tracking modules offer the same opportunities for streamlining and simplifying your workflows, resulting in greater efficiency and profits.     

What Dispatch Software Can Do for Scrap Metal Recyclers

For scrap metal recyclers, moving material is a key part of your business.  The ability to simplify and optimize your dispatching, be it for one truck or many vehicles, offers opportunities for great efficiency and savings.  This is true especially at a time when fuel and vehicle maintenance and insurance costs are increasing.The purpose of truck dispatching software is to help a company deploy their truck fleets and rollingstock as efficiently as possible with software-assisted route optimization and asset tracking.  The software helps keep track of trucks and containers, communicate with drivers, and provide them with routing information, among other things. 

Why Industry-Specific Software?

The demand for this type of information has led to a proliferation of off-the-shelf truck dispatch software products that can be used by any type of business.  The downside of this type of solution is that it does not integrate with your entire operation.  An industry-specific software will seamlessly coordinate with the purchases, inventory, contracts, and accounting systems of your business.  This coordination provides for an even greater simplification, since your entire operation is run through one system.

In the scrap metal recycling industry, a good truck dispatch software will be able to boost your business in the following five ways:

  1. Provide complete visibility over activity and processes, from start to finish, in real time.
  2. Conduct precision scheduling for container movements and vendor servicing, this allows for routing and fuel optimization.
  3. Provide updates in real time on truck fleet activity, driver activity and productivity.
  4. Calculate total landed costs of materials.
  5. Simultaneously dispatch from multiple locations while providing reporting to one central location.

Simplify Decision Making with Accurate Reports

It’s easier to make important business decisions when accurate information is available at your fingertips.  The reports in ScrapWare’s Dispatch Module make it stand out from off-the-shelf products.  ScrapWare can provide an endless array of reports to fit a particular business need.  ScrapWare’s Dispatch Module includes reports on:

  • Dispatch scheduling and analysis in detail and by vendor
  • Trip miles, delays and summaries
  • Fleet miles analysis and trip analysis
  • Yard Delay
  • No Load Report
  • Mileage by Truck
  • Driver productivity, and many others

Easy to Use

A software system cannot simplify your business if it is hard to use.  Ease of use gives ScrapWare an advantage over other systems.  ScrapWare is known for combining advanced functionality with simplistic usability.  ScrapWare has made sure its design is intuitive, using a color-coded interface, pop-up menus, and field validation to help ensure data accuracy and make it easy for scrap yard staff.  After you fill in the blanks, the Dispatch Scheduler processes your data to optimize fleet allocation and timing.  It will even present the dispatcher with vendor servicing priorities.  ScrapWare can customize and print dispatch tickets, apply multiple containers to one ticket and assign a number automatically to each ticket. 

Enhance Simplification with Seamless Integration

The Truck Dispatch Module is powerful as a stand-alone product, but when teamed with ScrapWare’s other modules, it can seamlessly integrate with all other aspects of a scrap metal recycling business to enhance the simplification. 

When interfaced with the Purchases Module, a scale operator can convert a previously issued Dispatch Ticket into a Commercial Ticket.  This “first-time final” capture of the data reduces the amount of time required to process an inbound load of commercial material.  When combined with the Container/Trailer Tracking Module, Dispatch provides precise, immediate container location reports.

There’s More in Store

Optimizing fleet management with truck dispatch software is only one of the ways ScrapWare software simplifies scrap metal recycling management.  Check back soon for the next part of our series on what ScrapWare can do for your business to simplify scrap metal management.


About ScrapWare Corporation: Since 1989, Rockville, Maryland-based ScrapWare Corporation has been the software of choice for the recycling industry. Its ease of installation and simplicity saves users time and money while helping them achieve compliance and maintain accurate business insights. With state-of-the-art functionality tailored to each organization’s unique requirements, ScrapWare is an advanced dynamic software solution that alleviates the most pressing recycling industry worries. For more information, please call (301) 517-8500 or visit https://www.scrapware.com/.