Restaurant Technologies uses telemetry, equipment design for delivery advantage

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16019250506_cf70a51cc4_zRestaurant Technologies works with many of the national big boys – McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King – as well as many other regional and independent restaurant groups. In all, it services more than 21,000 foodservice locations.

One of its distinct advantages involves the use of a telemetry system – a “black box” – at customer locations to monitor fresh oil supply. When inventories drop to a certain level, replenishments are automatically sent in one of the customized delivery trucks.

The company can also synchronize its pickups with its deliveries. When one of its Kenworth T370s pulls into a restaurant, it can replenish the establishment’s cooking oil tank with fresh oil, while at the same time drawing out used oil from the restaurant’s storage tank.

“We are the only ones that can do that on a national basis,” says Becky Mueller, Restaurant Technologies national fleet manager. “We have a fleet of nearly 200 medium duty trucks, domiciled at 41 depots across the country that can service foodservice locations in this fashion. Our patented design with multiple tanks gives us a unique delivery advantage, which also includes simultaneous waste oil removal all in one unit.”

While “oil management” is an on-going service for these companies, Restaurant Technologies also supplies all the oil management equipment and storage tanks, as well as a web-based customer portal that sends automated alerts to customers when standard operating procedures are not in compliance. It also provides ongoing training and equipment maintenance.

“In a low-margin industry, we have a competitive advantage of not only saving our customers money in the delivery and pickup of oil, but in providing quality in everything we do,” said Mueller.  “It’s why we have a 98 percent retention rate with our customers.”

In 2013, the company began replacing its fleet with Kenworth T370s in single and tandem-axle configurations.  There are 30 currently in service with more on order. The tandems are spec’d with Paccar PX-9 engines, rated at 350-hp and driven through Allison automatic transmissions. The single axle T370s are powered by the Paccar PX-7 engine rated at 300-hp and also driven through Allison automatics.

Since the Kenworth T370s leave fully loaded with oil – six fresh tanks hold up to 20,000 pounds of oil in the tandem axles, and 12,000 pounds of oil in the three fresh tanks on the single axles – saving weight was a consideration in the specs.

Mueller said on any given week, up to 800 routes will be driven, each with 10 to 14 customer stops. Its routes range from 85 miles for the day up to 650 miles.