Contrary to social media conditioning, you can throw out the first load without announcing it to the online world.
Random workers who post frustrating pictures with rudimentary questions online betray a company’s professional image. Maybe your asphalt company puts new hires through many hours of training before putting them in the field, but the plethora of basic, can-you-believe-this-newbie problems hitting the Internet for people who may not be friendly to our industry to see is both staggering and unacceptable.
Here’s an idea for at least keeping the mix from embarrassing you right out the gate.
When the plant starts up—whether that’s first thing in the morning or firing up for night paving—the first load through the system should be viewed as “practice.” (Of course, your plant operator isn’t really “practicing” how to run a drum mix operation with a DOT-specified material, or with a high-volume customer’s pricy surface course material. But you want to view the first load as the load that warms everything up and gets the chunks and clunks out of the way.)
If mix has been sitting in the silo cone overnight, do you consider it good enough to go in a truck and out to a highway project where your crew will try to manipulate it?
No. The answer to that is no.
Take the first one or two loads of the shift—which should empty the silo cone—and drive it directly to the RAP pile. Do not pass “GO.” Do not collect $200. Just take it to the RAP pile, consider it highly valuable recycle material for another day, and move on with the next load. The next load should be ready to go to the crew in the field.
As for the other problems your crewmembers are sharing with the Internet—that’s something for your public relations officer to address. You are welcome to forward this email to that person or to any other worker who needs to see this tip!