Paperless Systems Drive Oil and Gas Fleet Savings

Heckmann Water Resources and Blueknight Energy Partners, both of which serve the oil and gas industry, have realized cost savings and made their fleets more efficient using PeopleNet’s paperless systems and open technology, the companies say.

Heckmann moves, treats and disposes of water generated by the hydrofracturing process. The company’s fleet included more than 1,000 trucks at the end of 2012 and its work requires extensive compliance documentation.

PeopleNet says it worked with Heckmann to create workflows that have eliminated for one customer more than 700,000 pieces of paper, improved the customers’ efficiency by $1.4 million, shrunk receivables aging from 120 days to 20 days, eliminated $1,200 a day in carrying costs, and improved driver safety.

Another East Texas customer eliminated 2 million pieces of paper annually by getting one invoice per week instead of 18,000 per year (one for each time each well was visited with compliance documents).

Heckmann vice president of business technology Mark Ridgley says PeopleNet helped his company standardize operations and gave management visibility into each site’s operation, as well as helping Heckmann adapt the software for each region’s different laws. Additionally, integrating PeopleNet’s open platform with Heckmann’s financial system and proprietary dispatch application has helped the company become more efficient, he says.

PeopleNet designed customized work order forms that help Heckmann drivers complete any type of pick-up or disposal work order without touching a single piece of paper. The dispatch application sends work orders through the PeopleNet system, which walks the driver through all required information. The information entered by the driver is captured in the back-end system for accurate paperless invoicing. Drivers capture customer signatures with PeopleNet’s Tablet to immediately initiate invoicing, along with the required electronic documentation.

By successfully petitioning to have electronic forms accepted as legal documentation, Heckmann eliminated handling five to six compliance forms and supporting work tickets on about 200 loads per day, which provides savings to Heckmann customers — that no longer have to allot space for storing physical documents for years or puchase forms from the state.

Meanwhile oil and gas hauler Blueknight Energy Partners is using PeopleNet’s Crude Oil Workflow application to optimize driver efficiency in its 200-truck crude fleet.

The Crude Oil Workflow application is tied to Blueknight’s dispatch system, which means drivers no longer have to call all day long for load updates. This saves the company time; electronic tickets and invoicing also save time and make it easier for Blueknight customers, Blueknight IT applications manager W. Scott Morgan says.