February 6, 2023
DSPTCH, the premier renewables labor marketplace, is excited to announce an upcoming groundbreaking new feature: turn-by-turn navigation to every wind turbine in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
This bold, audacious, ground-up, massive scale, organic effort was inspired by and for the wind technicians across the country. After hundreds of discussions, we encountered a recurring frustrating, wasteful, and inefficient industry-pervasive problem that hindered the ability to get to work. In short, when driving out to a job, technicians would be able to see the asset, O&M building, or turbine, but they couldn't figure out how to navigate the maze of lease lines and private roads. Moreover, none of the industry standard navigation apps mapped these either!
In many cases, technicians would spend their weekends and evenings navigating to upcoming job sites, drop a pin on the map, and then breadcrumb their drive back to town on fitness or running apps, just to ensure they wouldn't be late for work.
We were inspired by the lengths, dedication, and tremendous efforts folks would go to provide for their families and keep society running.
Even so, we came back adamantly convinced that this unspoken field burden is a disrespectful and wasteful use of a technician's time. So we decided to solve that for the entire industry across three countries immediately. Since then, we've mapped over half of a million private, lease, and field roads, we've cleaned up mismapped or no-longer existent tracks, and we've reached near 100% turn by turn navigation to every wind turbine in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Our efforts have gone everywhere the wind blows, from the southern reaches of Mexico to near the arctic circle in Canada.
We believe that technology has the ability to change the way we all work, drive fundamental improvements to productivity, and improve the world around us. Due to that driving core philosophy, we've decided to make DSPTCH's turn by turn navigation free to every technician that signs up for the app.
We believe if you put the technician first, drive fundamental productivity, and build software that delights the 95% of users, instead of just the 5% of back office suits- we can fundamentally accelerate the energy transition, improve efficiency, and create a safer world.
DSPTCH makes it easy for technicians to reach their destination quickly and safely, and it significantly reduces the amount of time they spend on the road. In researching this problem, we realized some of the fastest growing renewable energy areas of the country are also home to the deadliest and most dangerous roads. Our enormous efforts enable DSPTCH to dramatically reduce distracted driving, the need to reference hand-drawn or paper maps, lowers the temptation to text or call colleagues for directions, and ultimately, will help save the lives of technicians by allowing them to focus on the road.
This is one of the most monumental and foundational leaps forward in Wind Industry safety. When it comes down to actual recordable injuries, across the industry, companies, and geographies, driving is still the most dangerous common source of injuries, accidents, and risk.
Of course, our new turn-by-turn navigation feature also improves asset uptime, by ensuring prompt and more reliable service work.
The feature also helps to reduce service costs, lower fuel costs, and eliminates unneeded wear and tear on vehicles.
Simply put, when technicians can reach turbines quickly and safely, they can get the job done faster. This also means that they use less fuel, which helps to lower fuel costs and reduce the company's carbon footprint.
Time and time again, when we put the field, day to day operations, and the boots on the ground first, we find that we end up building features that drive enormous profitability and productivity benefits!
Overall, DSPTCH's navigation feature is a game-changer for industry. It makes it easier for technicians to reach turbines, improves asset uptime, reduces service costs, lowers fuel costs, and reduces our carbon footprint. The feature is available to all DSPTCH users, and it is already helping to make the renewable energy industry more efficient and productive.
