With mobile communications and computer application, fuel oil dealers can automate significantly of their delivery and management processes to improve efficiency and productivity. Implementing such technologies also accelerates the invoicing procedure, which is often a boon for the bottom line.
Digital Dispatcher
Digital Dispatcher is marketed as an cheap solution, the company’s literature says, for the reason that there’s “no enormous hardware investment. Most prospects currently possess the cell phones, computers and also other hardware tools essential to implement the program.”
“We ordinarily make use of the mobile phone network and the cell phone itself because the field mobile device, which you’ll be able to pick up in the neighborhood Verizon, Sprint or AT&T store,” said Tom Duffey of Digital Dispatcher, based in Jenkintown, Pa. “That’s our point of differentiation. Smart phones and rugged tablets are very affordable. You can get a rugged tablet for under $200.” In comparison, ruggedized handheld computer systems and ruggedized laptops expense thousands of dollars, Duffey pointed out.
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Digital Dispatcher includes a full back office suite, which interfaces with customer accounting computer software. This includes a fuel delivery field management answer for home heating oil deliveries, which features a comprehensive interface to existing customer accounting application packages.
For example, Duffey said, work orders are picked up by the Digital Dispatcher system, working in conjunction together with the accounting computer software. The Digital Dispatcher program features tools to help execute those work orders, including route optimization, which is growing increasingly useful, Duffey said. “There are quite a bit of companies that are doing more same day, will-call deliveries in addition towards the pre-defined routes,” he said, and Digital Dispatch is especially suited for that scenario. What would normally involve “a cumbersome, labor-intensive voice communication between the dispatcher and a driver inside the field could be managed with a couple of clicks of a mouse,” Duffey said.
The system also makes use of a Bluetooth connection inside the field to interface with electronic registers on the oil trucks, and printers to print reports and delivery tickets.