The LDS of the future

[Jax]

NWG in this theory there has to be a class to get a card which produces $, also the tank needs analyzed so when PP blending it wont explode, you could switch tanks,, so need to bee camera on for liability reasons. and many more things need for this to happen.

:ssst: He said it was banked gas . . . .

For this to work, each cylinder will have to be registered with the filling station and given a unique bar code prior to the after-hour fill. The filling station will have to look up the cylinder in a database and make sure it has a valid hydro and vis and also to make sure that the after-hours filler is not asking for a cave fill. The technology is probably available but it's the Pareto Optimum (80/20 rule) problem. 80% of the fills will only require about 20% of the effort to set up but the remaining 20% of the fills will require most of the effort to get right. My guess is that the remaining 20% would be locked out from getting the after-hours filled. It's an interesting problem to work on, however.

Or, <gasp>, they could have the customer sign a statement of knowledge and responsibility that tanks filled must be within vis and hydro, before issuing the card!

I sure wish we'd hold the individual responsible for his or her own stupidity.

 

[boulderjohn]

Time for mods to close this thread down as no one has made a significant effort to post on the LDS of the Future in ~30 posts...

I disagree. I have learned a lot about the discussion of the LDS of the future discussion in the past posts. I was wrong in my identification of Brendon, but in the process of being wrong I found a dive shop successfully operating OW courses for $1,295 while surrounded by shops selling the same certification level for less than 1/3 that cost. That shatters a lot of beliefs about what a shop can do in this regard.

There you go spreading propaganda... Considering we work on a livaboard that shoe really doesnt fit... Part of the reason we say south florida, we cover alot of ground. I guess we could have said the Bahamas or US Virgin Islands or the Keys since we spend so much time there... South florida is merely a departing point..

And this is a revelation about Brendon's claim that it is possible to work full time as an instructor and pull in a good annual income while doing so. If he had revealed that he was doing it while working on a liveaboard rather than as an independent instructor getting students via word-of-mouth referrals, it might have changed the conversation a tad, don't you think?

 

[Jill from Phoenix]

Well, every round a banter deserves a random note.

I don't like the term LDS. Maybe it's from an old boss I had long ago. Everytime I called it the dive shop, he'd correct me and call it the dive center. Maybe he spelled with it a -re. It's a dive centre...(note the difference in accent )

So, now everytime I think of shop I think of chop shop, pawn shop, and other seedy things for which should not be taking place at a center of diving.

Whereas a center (or centre, remember use the accent ) sells more than dive equipment, it is an area for congregations and meetings, it offers formal and informal education, it's a center for all things diving!!!!

 

[Jill from Phoenix]

Before my current contracting work, some of my most profitable years were as a liveaboard instructor. I had lots of brown paper bags of cash hidden on the boat. The crew used to joke we hope customs never really searches us because they would have thought we were drug dealers with all that cash.

 

[Wookie]

Well, let's try to steer this train back onto the rails then.

Someone mentioned vendor machines a bunch of posts ago. The LDS I frequent most often had an idea for setting up an after-hours self-serve fill station that would run off their banks. It would be card-operated ... basically, you swipe a card, punch in the working pressure of your cylinder, select your mix (air or EAN32, since you're running off their banks), and fill your cylinders.

The technology to set something like this up is readily available, and not terribly price-inhibitive. The convenience it offers would allow shops to reduce hours (and therefore overhead) while offering an attractive service to their customers.

My guess is that at some point some LDS is going to try something like this ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Here is my guess as to how that will work in the USA. First off, someone will get their panties in a wad and point out that a drive up fill station will necessarily mean that someone is putting compressed gas on the nations highways, thereby bringing all of the DOT requirements. DOT requires that any fill station operator by trained in site specific OSHA HAZWOPER training. Part of that training is to recognize that cylinders be properly marked and have current VIP and hydro markings. OSHA requires that fill station operator training be logged and each fill station operator and instructor sign the logbook as proof of training received. The fill station owner is responsible for maintenance of this log.

The scenario goes like this: Jax develops the software to make the swipe work and sells it to me. I put together the system with pressure gauges and solenoid valves and sell it to the LDS of the future. The LDS of the future puts it together with an online training program so that if you want your self-serve fills, you complete the online OSHA HAZWOPER training. Meanwhile, the LDS of the past cuts the end off the fill whip. The LDS of the future installs security cameras. The LDS of the past calls the state DOT law enforcement officers to investigate. They shut down the self-serve fill station while they conduct their investigation. Can you see that lasting less than 6 months?

I can only think of 4 or 5 other reasons it would be extremely difficult to make work.

 

[mathauck0814]

I guess I wonder about the "problems" with the current LDS that needs fixing. Automating a fill station doesn't seem like the sort of silver bullet that will turn a shop around... if nothing else, filling tanks gives the dive op something to do.

I do think that diver services are the way to go. Organizing dives, training, repairs, consulting on gear purchases, etc. Take the inventory down to bare essentials (LDS becomes one big save-a-dive shop) and reduce the sqft-age and focus on the service end.

 

[Jax]

Here is my guess as to how that will work in the USA. First off, someone will get their panties in a wad and point out that a drive up fill station will necessarily mean that someone is putting compressed gas on the nations highways, thereby bringing all of the DOT requirements. DOT requires that any fill station operator by trained in site specific OSHA HAZWOPER training. Part of that training is to recognize that cylinders be properly marked and have current VIP and hydro markings. OSHA requires that fill station operator training be logged and each fill station operator and instructor sign the logbook as proof of training received. The fill station owner is responsible for maintenance of this log.

The scenario goes like this: Jax develops the software to make the swipe work and sells it to me. I put together the system with pressure gauges and solenoid valves and sell it to the LDS of the future. The LDS of the future puts it together with an online training program so that if you want your self-serve fills, you complete the online OSHA HAZWOPER training. Meanwhile, the LDS of the past cuts the end off the fill whip. The LDS of the future installs security cameras. The LDS of the past calls the state DOT law enforcement officers to investigate. They shut down the self-serve fill station while they conduct their investigation. Can you see that lasting less than 6 months?

I can only think of 4 or 5 other reasons it would be extremely difficult to make work.

So the swipe of the card would cause the door to lift, where one could pull out the whip . . . .

The above would be funnier if it weren't so damned true.

 

[RTee]

Correct me if I am wrong but I think that such a concept might already be in place in Florida cave country where folks just happen to get their breathing gas from LDS drive through, fill in the applicable register and then settle their account at the end of their week or so.

Therefore, such an idea might not be that farfetched that one could have such a system installed. With tanks already pre-registered (tank id, hydro, VIP, cft and PSI), one individual could drop by, swap his customer card, choose pre-registered tank, choose applicable banked (pre-mixed) gas, hook system up and then press start. As somebody else mentioned, you could even add a barcode to a VIP sticker for scanning purposes and have the system under video surveillance to ensure that the tank that get scanned is also the one getting the fill...

 

[RTee]

So the swipe of the card would cause the door to lift, where one could pull out the whip . . . .

The above would be funnier if it weren't so damned true.

Considering that one swipe of a bank card will usually unlock doors to grant you access to bank machines and be under the scrutiny of a video camera, I do not see why such a control method could not be implimented to access a whip and an O2 analyzer. Transaction is completed once the individual enters final O2% content of his tank...

 

[Jax]

It won't work because the past LDS will call the DOT and have the place shut-down for [-]six months[/-] a year to do the investigation.