Last week I was in Las Vegas visiting clients and while I was riding in my Uber I thought about how nice and convenient it is that Uber is available to ride in and visit clients. If Uber was never founded and started, we all would still be riding around in taxis. Heck, I might still be waiting or my taxi to pick me up or if I was in the taxi, I would be watching the fare continue to rise as we were stopped at a stop light. I’ve never understood that and I know we’ve all been there. I realized that because of Uber, the ride share/taxi industry has changed, and because of technology, it’s changed for the better. I started thinking about my industry, the Ready Mix industry, and thought about all the changes that have come about through the years but more importantly the changes that seem to be coming about almost monthly. Better trucks, better GPS and ways of tracking trucks and managing the logistics of deliveries, and of course newer and better ways to clean and protect your fleet/investment, especially when that investment is anywhere between $200-$300K, or more…per truck.
If new technology had not come along, our industry and each company would be much less efficient and effective in the way they run their business. But along those lines, the old way of removing concrete and cleaning trucks was with a Muriatic/hydrochloric acid, damaging and corroding your trucks, potentially injuring employees and having to use multiple products because of all the restrictions concrete removers (acids) have. With the new technology that is out there that we have perfected, you know longer have to use acid based products to remove concrete and clean and protect your trucks/investments. Imagine….No more injuries, no more fumes, no more paint jobs, no more PPE’s, no more damage to the trucks, no more pointless repairs..NO MORE ACID.
Oh yeah, so how do tanning salons relate to all this. I recently had a friend come back from a tanning salon and I asked if they knew the damage they were doing to their body. Of course they said no one at the salon told me the tanning beds were causing me damage, they just told me about the latest and greatest tanning bed they had to offer. Now we all know the damage from tanning beds won’t show for months to years, just like the damage using acid to clean your ready mix trucks. Boy, that sounded familiar to me, I now wonder if the people that work at those tanning salons are also reps that sell concrete removers and truck washes to the ready mix industry. They all walk in saying they have the latest and greatest product for their fleet, yet they never tell them the damage the product they are selling will do to their trucks, their employees, or to the environment. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is, UNLESS, they have all the documentation, accreditations, certifications, endorsements, OEM approvals, patents, etc. to provide. There shouldn’t be anything to hide. If there are any restrictions on when and how to use the product, or they don’t recommend reading the product label or SDS sheet because “you don’t have to do that, I’m telling you everything you need to know, I know my product inside and out,” those should raise red flags immediately.
The Ready Mix industry is a great industry and the technology that is coming out is only making our industry stronger as long as we all adapt, evolve, and accept the changes.