Online system allows real-time monitoring of sample results and wait times
CBH Group will track grain deliveries across Western Australia with a new app in 2018-19, following successful trials last year.
The co-operative’s general manager of operations David Capper said the Carter’s Delivery Form (CDF) app would help CBH better manage cycle times during harvest and help prioritise future investment in the delivery network.
“It allows CBH to accurately measure the performance of sites during harvest including wait times before the sample shed, and all the following steps in the delivery process,” he said.
Instead of relying on paper forms, the app allows growers and truck drivers to pre-submit information of their grain deliveries while on the farm and notify the CBH receival site of a coming delivery.
When the load arrives at site for sampling, the information is automatically transferred and once assessment is complete, results are immediately available in the CDF app.
This enables the truck driver to choose whether to accept a grade and continue with the delivery, or to opt to deliver to another site.
Capper said nearly 19,000 loads of grain were delivered during the 2017-18 harvest through the app’s trial phase, with nearly 900,000 tonnes of grain delivered via the app.
CBH said the app also allows grain growers to see where their trucks are in the delivery process, as well as seeing sample and weight results, in real time.
The app will also monitor which grain delivery sites are open at any one time, which grains are being accepted at each site, and the approximate waiting time at the site – speeding up the process of delivering grain and ultimately leading to improved cycle times.
“We can now take this data, analyse the patterns at each of the sites and generate efficiencies where safely possible to keep harvest moving for growers,” Capper said.
CBH, which handles about 90 per cent of WA’s total grain harvest every year, will roll out the app to all four port zones – in Kwinana, Geraldton, Albany and Esperance – in time for the coming harvest.