New Mobile Smartphones and Tablets drive More Earnings in Delivery and Field Solutions

With mobile communications and computer application, fuel oil dealers can automate significantly of their delivery and management processes to boost efficiency and productivity. Implementing such technology also accelerates the invoicing method, which might be a boon towards the bottom line.

Digital Dispatcher



Digital Dispatcher is marketed as an low-cost solution, the company’s literature says, mainly because there is certainly “no huge hardware investment. Most customers already possess the cell phones, computer systems and also other hardware tools essential to implement the technique.”

“We generally use the cell phone network and the cell phone itself because the field mobile device, which you'll be able to pick up in the regional 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'll be able to get a rugged tablet for under $200.” In comparison, ruggedized handheld computer systems and ruggedized laptops cost thousands of dollars, Duffey pointed out.

Learn a lot more here on fuel delivery handset software.

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

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



The technique 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, Digital Dispatcher offers software program for managing oil burner and air conditioning service departments and their technicians in the field.