New Mobile Smartphones and Tablets drive Extra Profits in Delivery and Field Solutions

With mobile communications and laptop or computer software program, fuel oil dealers can automate substantially of their delivery and management processes to improve efficiency and productivity. Implementing such technology also accelerates the invoicing approach, which is usually a boon towards the bottom line.

Digital Dispatcher



Digital Dispatcher is marketed as an cheap choice, the company’s literature says, mainly because there's “no huge hardware investment. Most buyers already have the cell phones, computers and also other hardware tools necessary to implement the program.”

“We generally use the cell phone network and the mobile phone itself as the field mobile device, which you'll be able to choose up at 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 inexpensive. You could get a rugged tablet for under $200.” In comparison, ruggedized handheld computers and ruggedized laptops cost thousands of dollars, Duffey pointed out.

Learn much more here on propane delivery handset software.

Digital Dispatcher includes a full back office suite, which interfaces with customer accounting software. This includes a fuel delivery field management solution for home heating oil deliveries, which features a comprehensive interface to existing customer accounting software packages.

For example, Duffey said, work orders are picked up by the Digital Dispatcher program, working in conjunction with the accounting 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 a lot of companies that are doing much more same day, will-call deliveries in addition for the pre-defined routes,” he said, and Digital Dispatch is especially suited for that scenario. What would typically involve “a cumbersome, labor-intensive voice communication between the dispatcher and a driver in the field is often managed with a couple of clicks of a mouse,” Duffey said.

The system also makes use of a Bluetooth connection in the field to interface with electronic registers on the oil trucks, and printers to print reports and delivery tickets. In addition to fuel delivery field management software program, Digital Dispatcher offers application for managing oil burner and air conditioning service departments and their technicians in the field.