Is your $5 Million Fleet Management System Making Your Dispatchers Less Productive?

Sarah has been dispatching mining equipment for 12 years. She can coordinate 68 haul trucks, 13 excavators, and 22 dozers in her sleep. She knows every operator’s habits, every equipment quirk, and every bottleneck in the operation. She’s exactly the kind of experienced professional you want running your fleet.

So why does she spend half her shift fighting the $5 million fleet management system that’s supposed to make her job easier?

Last month, I watched Sarah work for an entire shift. What I saw was a masterclass in operational expertise being systematically undermined by software designed by people who have never sat in a dispatch chair. By the end of the shift, she had accomplished her goals – but despite the technology, not because of it.

This isn’t Sarah’s story. This is the story of dispatchers across the mining industry who are drowning in features they don’t need while missing the tools they desperately want.

The Productivity Paradox: More Features = Less Efficiency

Here’s what Sarah’s day actually looks like:

6:00 AM: Sarah arrives and needs to see the current status of all equipment. The FMS takes 3 minutes to load the main dashboard, then another 2 minutes to refresh with current data. In those 5 minutes, she could have gotten the same information with 4 radio calls.

6:15 AM: Equipment operator calls in a mechanical issue. Sarah needs to update the status, create a work order, and notify maintenance. In the old system, this was one radio call and a note on her board. Now it’s: navigate to equipment status screen (4 clicks), change status (dropdown menu with 23 options), generate work order (new window with 15 required fields), send notification (email system that maintenance doesn’t monitor anyway). Total time: 8 minutes for what used to take 30 seconds.

8:30 AM: Production supervisor wants to know why tonnage is behind target. Sarah knows it’s because the Truck fleet running off of 5 shovel had to take an alternate route due to road conditions, and Excavator 12 is running slower because of big boney material created by blast fragmentation issues. But the FMS doesn’t track route changes or blast fragmentation issues, so she has to explain verbally what should be obvious from the data.

2:00 PM: Equipment breakdown requires immediate rerouting of 6 trucks. Sarah can see exactly what needs to be done and could coordinate it in 2 minutes over the radio. Instead, she has to update each truck’s assignment in the system (6 separate screens), which takes 15 minutes, during which operators are sitting idle waiting for instructions.

By the end of the shift: Sarah has spent 2.5 hours interacting with the FMS and 9.5 hours actually dispatching equipment. The system that’s supposed to increase her productivity has actually reduced the time she spends on her core job.

Problem #1: Death by Information Overload

Modern fleet management systems pride themselves on providing “complete operational visibility.” What this means in practice is that dispatchers are drowning in data they don’t need while missing information they do need. A real life case of “Water, Water everywhere, but not a drop to drink”.

Sarah’s main screen shows:

Real-time GPS location of all equipment (useful)
Fuel levels for every truck (not useful during shift)
Maintenance schedules for next month (not useful during shift)
Production rates by hour for last week (not useful during shift)
Weather forecast (she can see outside)
Tire pressure alerts (maintenance problem, not a dispatch problem)
Operator break schedules (useful, but buried under everything else)

What she actually needs on her main screen:

Current equipment locations and status
Immediate issues requiring attention
Production targets vs. current performance
Operator communications
Next scheduled stops/breaks

The result: Sarah spends time filtering through irrelevant information to find what she needs to make decisions. It’s like trying to have a conversation at a rock concert.

Problem #2: Workflows Designed by People Who Don’t Mine

Here’s a an approximation of a workflow from Sarah’s FMS for reassigning a truck fleet after shovel down event:

Right click on “Each of 10 Trucks”
Select “Equipment Assignment” from dropdown menu
Find Loading Unit in a scrolling list of 15+ pieces of loading equipment
Click “Add New Assignment”
New window opens with current assignment details
Click “Change Destination”
Select new destination from dropdown (organized alphabetically, not by operational logic)
Enter “Reason for Change” (required field, free text)
Set priority level (3 options, unclear what they mean)
Click “Update Assignment”
Confirm change in popup dialog
Return to main screen and verify change took effect

Total time: 3-4 minutes
What it should take: “Shovel 5’s Trucks, go to shovel 9 in pit x” (10 seconds)

The software treats every truck reassignment like a major operational decision requiring documentation and approval. In reality, dispatchers make dozens of small adjustments every hour based on changing conditions. The system turns routine decisions into administrative exercises.

Problem #3: The Real-Time Lag Problem

“Real-time” fleet management isn’t real-time when it matters most.

During equipment breakdowns, dispatchers need to make instant decisions. Operators are waiting. Production is stopped. Superintendent is calling. Every minute costs money. This is when dispatchers earn their salaries.

But Sarah’s “real-time” system has massive blind spots. In equipment down situations, 60 seconds feels like an hour. By the time she hunts down the required information it has costs thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars in lost production.

Real example: Shovel breaks down at 10:47 AM. Sarah immediately knows she needs to fire up a secondary (backup LU) and reroute 14 trucks. She starts making radio calls at 10:47. The shovel maintenance crew doesn’t even show up to the down shovel until 11:09 to start troubleshooting. Maintenance doesn’t give an update about the shovel status until 11:25. By then, Sarah has already solved the problem using radio and experience, asking her drivers to take an early lunch (Checks it doesn’t violate new CBA changes) while sending the lead hand over to start and warmup the secondary loading unit. Effectively combining delays and reducing overall production loss.

Current FMS systems today don’t get this strategic game of 5D Chess. The handling of these “play calls” happens dozens of times a shift and are at the very heart of creating high performing teams.

Problem #4: Integration Theater

Sarah’s mine has “integrated” systems. The FMS talks to the ERP. The maintenance system connects to the planning system. Everything is connected to everything else.

On paper, this integration is supposed to streamline operations. In practice, it creates more work.

When equipment goes down for maintenance:

Sarah updates status in FMS
Maintenance updates work order in CMMS
Planning adjusts schedule in mine planning system
ERP automatically generates parts requisition
Production updates targets in reporting system

Five systems, five updates, five potential points of failure. And if one system is slow or offline, the entire workflow breaks down.

What Sarah wants: One update that automatically handles everything else. What she gets: Five systems that require manual synchronization and constant checking to ensure they’re all reflecting the same reality.

Problem #5: Designed for Reports, Not Operations

Here’s the fundamental problem: most fleet management systems are designed by people who read reports about mining operations, not by people who run mining operations.

The system excels at generating beautiful reports for management:

Equipment utilization by shift
Production efficiency trends
Fuel consumption analysis
Maintenance cost tracking
Operator performance metrics

These reports are perfect for monthly reviews and budget planning. They’re useless for real-time operational decisions.

Sarah doesn’t need to know that Truck 23 averaged 47.3 tons per hour last week. She needs to know that Truck 23 is currently stuck in mud and needs a dozer to pull it out.

The system is optimized for historical analysis, not operational management. It’s like using a telescope to perform surgery – technically impressive, but completely wrong for the task.

Problem #6: The Training Trap

When dispatchers struggle with the system, the solution is always “more training.”

Sarah has been through:

Initial 3-day FMS training
Advanced features workshop
Power user certification
Quarterly refresher sessions
Online modules for system updates

Total training time: 180+ hours
Time spent using advanced features: Near zero

Why? Because the “advanced features” are designed for edge cases that happen once a month, not the core tasks that happen every hour. Sarah has become an expert at using 10% of a system that has 90% unnecessary complexity.

Problem #7: The Mobile Myth

“Now with mobile access!” the vendor proudly announced. Dispatchers can access the FMS from tablets and smartphones.

Sarah tried using the tablet version during pit tour inspections. Here’s what she discovered:

Screen unreadable in direct sunlight
Interface designed for engineers, not ops
Requires constant network connection (spotty in the pit)
Takes 30 seconds to load each screen over cellular
Battery dies in 4 hours of field use

For Sarah, Mobile access means Sarah can be frustrated by the system anywhere on the mine site, not just in the dispatch office.

What Dispatchers Actually Need

After watching Sarah and talking to dozens of other dispatchers, here’s what they actually need from fleet management systems:

1. Instant Information

Equipment status updates in under 5 seconds
One-screen view of only decision critical data
Visual alerts for issues requiring immediate attention
Clear prioritization of what needs action now – in metrics her superintendent thinks are important

2. Single-Action Workflows

Reassign truck: one click
Report breakdown: one screen, 3 fields maximum
Contact operator: integrated communication
Update status: simple dropdown, not 23 options

3. Contextual Intelligence

System understands operational priorities
Suggests solutions based on current conditions
Learns from dispatcher decisions
Provides relevant information, filters out noise

4. Reliable Communication

Integrated voice/text with operators
Group communications for coordinated moves
Emergency broadcast capability
Message history and acknowledgment tracking

5. Flexible Decision Support

“What-if” scenario planning
Impact analysis for proposed changes
Alternative routing suggestions
Resource optimization recommendations

How We Got Here

The problem isn’t that software vendors are incompetent. The problem is that they’re building systems for mining executives who approve purchases, not for dispatchers who use them daily.

Executive priorities:

Comprehensive reporting
Integration with other systems
Compliance and audit trails
Long-term analytics
Impressive demonstrations

Dispatcher priorities:

Speed of routine tasks
Reliability under pressure
Simple, intuitive workflows
Real-time responsiveness
Minimal learning curve

The systems that gets purchased solves the executive’s problems. The system that’s improves the companies bottom line solves the dispatcher’s problems.

The Path Forward

This isn’t an argument against fleet management systems. It’s an argument for a better mine operating system.

What works:

Real-time equipment tracking (when it’s actually real-time)
Historical data for planning and analysis
Integration between systems (when done properly)
Mobile access (when designed for field conditions)

What needs to change:

User interface designed by dispatchers, not developers
Workflows optimized for speed, not completeness
Intelligence that helps decisions, not just data storage for reports
Systems that adapt to operations, not force operations to adapt

Questions for Your Current System

Ask your dispatchers these questions:

“What percentage of your shift is spent fighting the software?”
“What tasks take longer in the new system than the old way?”
“What information do you need that the system doesn’t provide?”
“What information does the system provide that you don’t need?”
“If you could redesign the main screen, what would it look like?”

If your dispatchers’ answers sound like Sarah’s experience, you’re not alone. But you also can’t afford to accept it.

The Bottom Line

Your fleet management system should make your best dispatchers even better, not turn them into data entry clerks.

Sarah is a $100,000/year employee with 12 years of experience who can coordinate million-dollar equipment fleets. Making her spend 20% of her time wrestling with software is like buying a Ferrari and using it to haul gravel.

The mining industry deserves dispatcher tools built by people who understand dispatching. Until we demand better, we’ll keep getting software that impresses executives and frustrates operators.

Your dispatchers didn’t get into mining to become software experts. They got into mining to move dirt efficiently and safely. It’s time our software helped them do exactly that.

Is your fleet management system helping or hindering your dispatchers? I’ve worked with operations teams to optimize workflows, improve system adoption, and bridge the gap between software capabilities and operational needs. Let’s talk about making your technology work as hard as your people do.

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