Our dispatch is seasonal chaos. Can software keep up?

The chaos is exactly what the board is for. Peak season fails because verbal coordination doesn't scale past a few trucks. A dispatch board makes the current truth visible to the counter, the yard, and the drivers at once—and priorities are changed in one place instead of three.

Contractors expect credit flexibility. Will a system slow orders down?

Done right it speeds them up. Credit runs at order entry in seconds for accounts in good standing, so routine orders never wait. The system only inserts a pause where exposure genuinely warrants it—and gives that exception a fast resolution path instead of a dockside argument.

Do drivers actually use phones for delivery confirmation?

Yes, when the flow is shorter than the paperwork it replaces: arrive, two photos, a signature, done. The photos protect the driver as much as the company, which is why adoption usually stops being an issue after the first disputed delivery gets resolved in minutes.

Can it handle our will-call counter volume?

Will-call is a first-class mode on the dispatch board: order placed, pick staged to a will-call bay, customer notified, pickup confirmed. Counter staff see what's staged and what's waiting, which is most of what makes pickup lines move.

Building Materials & Lumber

Internal systems for building material distributors.

A building materials yard runs on logistics that change by the hour. The same morning holds will-call pickups where a contractor's crew is waiting in the lot, boom truck deliveries that need a clear jobsite and a signed ticket, and special orders from the mill with lead times someone promised a customer three weeks ago. Contractor accounts buy against job names and credit lines, and a credit hold discovered at dispatch means a loaded truck going nowhere.

The ERP handles inventory and AR. It does not run the dispatch board, remember that the Elm Street site has no access before 9 a.m. and needs a crane offload, or reconcile what came back from the jobsite against what was credited. That operational layer is what Praxyt builds.

Where building material distributors lose time and margin

Dispatch run off a whiteboard and radio calls

Will-call orders, yard pickups, and scheduled deliveries compete for the same trucks, forklifts, and boom operators. When the board is physical and the changes are verbal, drivers wait, customers wait, and the yard re-handles material it already staged.

Jobsite delivery details that live in drivers' heads

Gate codes, site contacts, offload requirements, delivery windows, "don't come before the concrete pour"—the details that make a delivery succeed are known to the driver who ran the route last time. A substitute driver means a failed delivery and a re-delivery on your fuel.

Contractor job accounts and credit checked too late

Contractors buy against multiple jobs, each with its own credit exposure and lien considerations. When credit review happens at invoice time—or at the loading dock—orders stall with material already pulled and crews already waiting.

Special orders with no visibility after the PO

The window package, the engineered beams, the specific shingle color—ordered from the manufacturer with an eight-week lead, then silence. The customer calls weekly. The answer requires phoning the mill. Promise dates slip and nobody tells the contractor whose schedule depended on them.

Jobsite returns that become disputes

Material comes back weathered, partial, or not from your yard at all. Without photos at delivery and a documented pickup, restocking fees and credit amounts turn into arguments with exactly the contractors you can't afford to alienate.

Quotes by job that nobody can find at order time

The contractor got a job quote in March, orders in June, and expects March pricing. If the quote is a PDF in a folder—or worse, a verbal number—the order desk either honors a phantom or starts the relationship with a pricing argument.

Example Systems

What we build for building material distributors

Dispatch board for will-call and delivery
One board for pickups and deliveries: staged status, truck and boom assignment, time windows, and yard priorities. Changes propagate to everyone—no radio relay, no whiteboard lag. A yard-scale version of removing workflow bottlenecks.
Job-account credit workflow
Credit checks run at order entry against the specific job account, with exposure visible per job and per contractor. Holds surface before material is pulled, with a clear resolution path instead of a dockside surprise.
Delivery confirmation with photos
Drivers capture placement photos, signatures, and site conditions on delivery. Returns pick up the same documentation, so restocking discussions start from evidence instead of recollection.
Special order tracker with customer visibility
Mill and manufacturer POs tracked from acknowledgment to receipt, with slippage flagged automatically. Contractors can check status in a portal instead of calling your desk weekly—see customer and vendor portals.

Illustrative Workflow

Sample workflow: order to jobsite delivery

An illustrative example of how a delivery order can flow when credit, dispatch, and confirmation are one connected path instead of three handoffs.

Illustrative workflow, not a client system. The real version is shaped around your yard, your fleet, and your credit policies.

Integration notes for building materials operations

Your ERP stays the system of record for inventory, pricing, and AR. Dispatch, delivery confirmation, and credit workflow wrap around it and post transactions back.
Credit data from bureaus and your own payment history feeds job-account limits, with overrides logged and auditable.
Telematics and routing from your fleet tools can feed ETAs and route status back to the dispatch board where the volume justifies it.
Photos and e-signaturefrom drivers' phones attach to the delivery record and flow to the invoice, so POD documentation is part of the transaction, not a separate filing job.

Diagnostic questions worth asking

How many deliveries failed last month—wrong time, no access, customer not ready—and what did each one cost?
When was a credit hold last discovered after material was staged or loaded?
If your most experienced dispatcher is out for a week, what stops working?
What percentage of jobsite returns are credited at full value because you can't document condition?
How many special orders are past their original promise date right now, and do the affected contractors know?

Questions building material distributors ask

: The chaos is exactly what the board is for. Peak season fails because verbal coordination doesn't scale past a few trucks. A dispatch board makes the current truth visible to the counter, the yard, and the drivers at once—and priorities are changed in one place instead of three.
: Done right it speeds them up. Credit runs at order entry in seconds for accounts in good standing, so routine orders never wait. The system only inserts a pause where exposure genuinely warrants it—and gives that exception a fast resolution path instead of a dockside argument.
: Yes, when the flow is shorter than the paperwork it replaces: arrive, two photos, a signature, done. The photos protect the driver as much as the company, which is why adoption usually stops being an issue after the first disputed delivery gets resolved in minutes.
: Will-call is a first-class mode on the dispatch board: order placed, pick staged to a will-call bay, customer notified, pickup confirmed. Counter staff see what's staged and what's waiting, which is most of what makes pickup lines move.

Keep exploring

Your dispatch board should survive your dispatcher's day off.

Show us how an order moves from counter to jobsite today. We will help you find the workflow worth fixing first.

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