We publish theses on how the ready-mix industry is changing. The articles you read here are documents we’ve thought hard about, but they are theses, not verdicts. We invite peer review, and we revise on the record.
How we cite
We work in four trust tiers.
- Tier 1: pre-2024, peer-reviewed or primary-source authoritative.
- Cited freely. Examples: NRMCA Mixer Driver Recruitment & Retention Survey (2022), USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, U.S. Department of Energy outlook reports, ASCE Infrastructure Report Cards, IEA pre-2024 publications, peer-reviewed academic literature in concrete and construction.
- Tier 2: pre-2024, authoritative but not peer-reviewed.
- Cited with attribution. Examples: NRMCA pre-2024 reports, ASTM and ACI technical publications, established trade journals.
- Tier 3: 2024 or later, primary-source authoritative.
- Cited with explicit dating and attribution. We acknowledge that any data published since 2024 sits inside an information environment we approach skeptically. Where we cite this data, we prefer primary-source publishers (NRMCA, ERCOT, IEA, ACA, USGS) over journalism. Examples: NRMCA 2026 Fleet Benchmarking Report, NRMCA Performance Benchmarking Survey 2025, ERCOT 2025 long-term load forecast.
- Tier 4: 2024 or later, business journalism, vendor announcements, or corporate disclosures.
- Cited only when corroborated by Tier 1–3 sources, or framed explicitly as the secondary source it is. Examples: TechCrunch coverage of Microsoft and Meta capital expenditure, CNBC reporting on construction labor shortages, Bloomberg coverage of CRH ventures activity, Meta Engineering blog on the BOxCrete project.
We try to surface the trust tier in the way we attribute. If a footnote leans on Tier 4, we name the journalist or outlet rather than implying it’s primary data.
What we publish
Inline footnotes on every claim that carries a number. Where the figure is plant-specific or depends on assumptions (idle rate, blended cost basis, fleet composition), we say so. We do not publish unsourced claims.
What we don’t publish
Architecture details, specific customer names, vendor relationships under non-disclosure, model behavior, training data composition, internal financial projections, or any commitment we cannot keep. The IP that makes our system work stays in the kitchen. The thesis is what we put in front of the industry.
Errata
We revise on the record. When we change a figure, correct an attribution, or pull a claim, we note it inline with a short editor’s note and a date. We do not silently re-edit published work.
Peer review: write to us
We are engineers and researchers who care about getting this right. If you find an error, have better data, want to challenge a claim, or have run different numbers and want to compare:
We will read it. We will respond. If we are wrong, we will say so.
Last reviewed: April 25, 2026.