FUE L DE L I V E RY
for the start of his day. He then requests his first call, which has been loaded into the system by the dispatcher, and includes the address, a brief customer history and what the job entails. Once he arrives at the location, the tech presses a button to start the clock ticking, for accurate billing. After the job is done he enters “work performed” codes, notes parts that were used, adds any comments, and hits a “send” button to transmit the information to an employee at the office who handles dispatching and billing. (For more on how Standard Oil uses Automated Wireless, see the profile of Service Manager Al Breda in the May 2011 issue of Fuel Oil News.)
DIGITAL DISPATCHER Digital Dispatcher is marketed as an inexpensive option, the company’s literature says, because there is “no massive hardware investment. Most customers already have the cell phones, comput- ers and other hardware tools necessary to implement the system.” “We typically use the cell phone network and the cell phone
itself as the field mobile device, which you can pick up at the local Verizon, Sprint or AT&T store,” said Tom Duffey of Digital Dispatcher, based in Jenkintown, Pa. “That’s our point of differ- entiation. Smart phones and rugged tablets are very inexpensive. You can get a rugged tablet for under $200.” In comparison,
ruggedized handheld computers and ruggedized laptops cost thousands of dollars, Duffey pointed out. 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 optimi- zation, which is growing increasingly useful, Duffey said. “There are a lot of companies that are doing 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 typically involve “a cumbersome, labor-intensive voice commu- nication between the dispatcher and a driver in the field can be 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, Digital Dispatcher offers software for managing oil burner and air con-
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JUNE 2011 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com
