Dispatchopedia

The American Concrete Institute's standard guide for proportioning concrete mixtures — the primary technical reference for concrete mix design in the United States.

Granular materials such as sand, gravel, crushed stone, and recycite used as base components in concrete, asphalt, and road construction. Aggregate dispatch involves coordinating dump trucks, loaders, and stockpile management across quarries and job sites.

AI-washing is the practice of marketing software as AI-powered or intelligent without delivering meaningful AI capability. In concrete and ready-mix dispatch software, it typically describes platforms that add a chatbot or basic rules engine and rebrand as "AI-powered" while the underlying dispatch decisions remain unchanged.

The production, transport, and placement of asphalt mixtures for road surfaces, parking lots, and other paved areas. Asphalt dispatch operations coordinate hot-mix delivery from the plant to the paving crew within strict temperature windows.

A facility where concrete ingredients are combined according to a specified mix design before being loaded into delivery trucks. Also called a concrete plant or batching plant. Modern batch plants integrate with dispatch software via API or ULINK protocol.

Concrete products manufactured in a factory setting — including CMU blocks, retaining walls, pipe, and structural precast panels — then transported to the job site. Dispatch for block and precast involves flatbed and boom truck scheduling.

The hydraulic binder that activates with water to harden concrete — and the ingredient that most directly influences strength, durability, and setting characteristics.

Cloud-based describes any software that runs on cloud infrastructure rather than on a local server. The term is broad and includes both cloud-native platforms designed for the cloud from day one and lift-and-shift platforms migrated from on-premise environments. In concrete and ready-mix dispatch software, cloud-based is the umbrella category — but the architecture underneath determines whether a platform delivers on the cloud's promise.

Software designed for the cloud from day one, built on modern services that scale automatically with demand, handle near real-time data, and update frequently without disruption. In dispatch software, cloud-native architecture is the foundation that supports continuous improvement, real-time data flow, and AI-driven optimization.

Cloud-washed refers to legacy software that has been moved to cloud infrastructure and marketed as a cloud platform without being architecturally redesigned for the cloud. In concrete and ready-mix dispatch software, cloud-washing typically describes on-premise systems that have been lifted from plant servers onto hosted infrastructure while retaining the same monolithic architecture, batch processing patterns, and slow upgrade cycles that limited them on-premise.

The engineered process of selecting and proportioning each ingredient in a concrete batch to achieve specified strength, workability, and durability.

Concrete slump is a measure of the consistency and workability of freshly mixed concrete. Expressed in inches (or millimeters), the slump value indicates how much a standard cone of fresh concrete settles under its own weight after the mold is removed. A high slump means the mix is wetter and more fluid; a low slump means it is stiffer and drier. Slump is not a direct measure of concrete strength — it is a consistency check.

The standard unit of measurement for concrete volume in the United States. One cubic yard equals 27 cubic feet. Most ready-mix trucks carry between 8 and 11 cubic yards per load.

A self-service web interface that allows customers to submit delivery requests, view order status, track trucks, and access delivery history. Customer portals in construction materials use a request-and-approval workflow rather than direct ordering.

→ See /features/customer-portal

The central interface — physical or digital — where a dispatcher views, assigns, and manages truck loads, delivery schedules, and job site assignments. Modern dispatch boards are software-based and integrate GPS tracking, order management, and ticketing.

An all-in-one dispatch management platform purpose-built for concrete, aggregate, and asphalt fleets. Dispatch360 combines GPS tracking, order management, eTicketing, route optimization, customer portals, and payment processing into a single unified system.

Regulatory requirements set by the U.S. Department of Transportation governing commercial vehicle operations, including driver hours of service (HOS), vehicle inspections, and weight limits. Concrete and aggregate fleets must maintain DOT compliance logs.

A concrete mixer truck with a rotating drum that keeps ready-mix concrete agitated during transit from the batch plant to the job site. Also called a transit mixer or cement truck.

Electronic ticketing and electronic proof of delivery — the digital replacement for paper delivery tickets. eTickets capture load data, timestamps, signatures, and delivery confirmation in a tamper-resistant digital format.

→ See /features/eticketing-epod

Near real-time location monitoring of fleet vehicles using GPS hardware and software. In dispatch operations, GPS tracking enables dispatchers to see truck positions, calculate ETAs, and optimize delivery routes.

→ See /features/fleet-tracking

Haul-back ticketing is the workflow for tracking both legs of a round-trip haul as a single connected job — the outbound delivery of material from a pit, quarry, or plant to a job site, and the return trip hauling different material back to a designated destination. In aggregate and construction materials operations, haul-back is common on excavation, road construction, remediation, and site-prep projects where trucks carry product out and spoils, fill, or reclaimed material back.

The system used to create, schedule, modify, and track customer orders from initial request through delivery completion. In concrete dispatch, order management includes pour scheduling, load sequencing, and real-time status updates.

→ See /features/order-management

Perpetual Ticketing is a dispatch workflow in which loads are continuously generated and ticketed against a single open job or customer account — without requiring a new order to be created for each individual load. The term was coined by Dispatch360 to describe a real and widely-practiced operational pattern common in aggregate hauling, asphalt paving, and any multi-load operation running against a long-term project or standing account. Every load produced under a perpetual ticket is individually tracked, timestamped, and archived automatically.

A private LTE network communication system that enables instant voice communication between dispatchers and drivers without relying on cellular phone networks. Used in fleet operations where reliable, one-to-many communication is critical.

→ See /features/fleet-push-to-talk

Concrete batched at a central plant and delivered in a rotating drum truck to jobsites within a strict time and temperature window. Ready-mix is the most widely used form of concrete in commercial and residential construction, and one of the primary verticals Dispatch360 was built to serve.

The process of determining the most efficient delivery sequence and routing for a fleet of trucks, factoring in traffic, load windows, job site access, and driver hours. Also referred to as corridoring or dispatch-approved routing.

→ See /features/route-optimization

An independent trucking contractor hired to supplement a company's own fleet during high-demand periods. Third-party haulers operate their own equipment but receive dispatch instructions and load assignments from the hiring company's dispatch system.

→ See /features/third-party-hauler-app

ULINK — short for Universal Link — is a communication protocol used to connect concrete batch plant control systems with dispatch software. Originally developed by Command Alkon, ULINK became the de facto industry standard for batch-to-dispatch integration in ready-mix operations despite being built on communications technology dating back to 1967. It remains in active use across the industry today, even as modern alternatives begin to emerge.

Concrete produced by a volumetric mixer — a specialized truck that carries cement, aggregates, water, and admixtures separately and mixes them on demand at the pour site. Unlike ready-mix concrete, volumetric concrete is batched in precise quantities after the truck arrives, eliminating the hydration clock and allowing multiple mix designs from a single load.