Business View Caribbean September/October 2018

60 61 2018 or early next year. Then there is the Sandals Hotel chain.We’re hoping one of the contractors that works with us will get the job to build that one, but the tenders haven’t gone out yet.We’ve also done work at the Bridgetown Port; we sup- plied some of the piling, but that project has been put on hold. “It’s been a very dry year, not much rain, which makes it easier for the building contractors and certain manufacturers, but it’s not good for every- body else, because we depend on the rainfall for our water supply in Barbados.We just don’t want it to come in a hurricane.Thankfully, they tend to form at the east of Barbados and 99 percent of the time they shift and go north.Our main problemwith storms is the roof blowing off houses that weren’t properly built by licensed contractors.” BVC: How does new technology affect Ready-Mix? Proverbs: “Our original concrete plant was run manually, where you pushed a lot of buttons to open and close gates, move materials, etc. Then, 10 years ago, we bought a second plant that came totally computerized. After running that for a while, we decided it worked wonderfully. There was less room for human error. So, we converted our new plant to be fully computerized, as well. Now, if you want a particular strength and quan- tity of cement, you just tap on a computer screen and say, ‘Batch five meters of 3750 psi,’ hit start and it does everything itself. “All our trucks are also computerized. Fuel-wise it increases efficiency, but with our climate we tend to get a lot of computer wiring issues with the vehicles.And our road conditions are not the best– you get a lot of vibration,which leads to the wires breaking, eventually.The only way to deal with that is to pull out the wire harness and replace it. Something else with our trucks on these roads, the suspension is meant for big highways. It’s not as smooth as a car or pick-up with a soft suspension that cushions it when you drop in a hole.” BVC: How do you see the construction industry READY-MIX LIMITED AUTOMATED FLEET MANAGEMEN The Leaders in GPS Vehicle Trackin Highly certified equipment Shock tested in military labs! Manage fuel e€ciency Stealth installation All web-based Available in 26 languages No time wasting No late starts & early finishes No unauthorized vehicle usage Track With Us Today Square Foot Complex , Lower Estate, St. Michael, Barbados BB19188 Tel: 246- 266-8000 , Fax: 246- 427-3997 Email: sales @ontracsystems.com AUTOMATED FLEET MANAGEMENT The Leaders in GPS Vehicle Tracking Square Foot Complex, Lower Estate, St. Michael, Barbados BB19188 Tel: 246.266.8000 // Fax: 246.427.3997 Email: sales@ontracsystems.com n Real time location n Historical Reports n Speed Alerts n Fuel Monitoring n Excess Idling n PTO Monitoring n Increased Productivity n Reduced Fuel consumption n Reduced Vehicle Maintenance Track with us today Ontrac Telematics Corporation was founded in 2008 and has be- come one of the largest and most reliable suppliers of Fleet Man- agement Systems with over two thousand active assets in the re- gion, across many industries such as Construction, Manufacturing, Transportation and Distribution. PREFERRED VENDOR n Ontrac Telematics Corp. www.ontracsystems.com evolving in Barbados? Proverbs: “After 10 years of decline, we’ve just had a change of government in Barbados and, normally, when this particular party is in power, most people tend to have more faith in them and the construction industry tends to boom. So, we’re hoping that this time around the same thing hap- pens.Whenever they’re in power, this government encourages foreign investors to spend money here, with people building massive houses worth 20 to 70 million dollars, each. That is a great help to us because we depend on foreign exchange, since we have to import most everything except limestone for our manufacturing. “We’re keeping our equipment and systems up to date so that we’ll be able to continue providing the excellent quality of service and product that we’re respected for now. Our competitors might give better pricing, but the quality of their product is not as good as ours, and we give much better service. That carries you a long way. And our name is well known–Ready-Mix is synonymous around the world with concrete. “We’ve been in this business longer than anyone on the island, through good times and bad.We have watched homes and businesses we helped to build, succeed, and thrive, just as we have done - brick by brick and strength by strength.We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our loyal customers who have supported us over the years, and espe- cially our Ready-Mix team that works so hard to make it all possible, every day.”