If your business includes employees driving a company vehicle to make deliveries, visit customers or provide services, the rising price of fuel is prying extra dollars out of your wallet. So what are your options? Well, you could pass those extra costs onto your customers, right? Logical, yes. Popular, NO! So what if technology could help you keep fuel costs to a minimum, stay competitive and deliver additional cost savings and administrative benefits?
Mobile technology isn't just for large companies like UPS, FedEx and Schwans. There are low cost, well-designed mobile solutions targeted at small to medium sized businesses that deliver the same efficiencies and savings that the big boys enjoy. But with regard to saving fuel, how can replacing your current paper-based system with mobile technology help? Here are three practical ways:- Accurate, Turn-By-Turn Driving Directions - Drivers getting lost in a gas-guzzling, V8 powered delivery van while searching for a destination is very expensive. Every mile spent driving around is costing around 50 cents! Most mobile devices, even the low cost Android devices, contain a GPS receiver and driving directions software that can take drivers directly to their destination with NO extra roaming. Better yet, buy a solution that allows you to provide your drivers with the most efficient driving route based on where they need to go throughout the day.
- Report To The Office for Assignments...Why? - With a paper-based system, drivers generally have to report to the office for their assignments and THEN hit the road. In many cases, this happens multiple times a day, putting potentially unnecessary miles on a vehicle. What if your technician could finish one job and then use their mobile device to see where they need to go next? Rather than driving back to the office, your mobile workforce could access customer information, address, directions, task lists and more right at their fingertips. Granted, there are certain situations where the driver has to pick up goods to deliver that make that trip unavoidable. However, if your driver is providing services or can stock the truck in the morning to handle multiple deliveries, then the number of trips can be drastically reduced. Not only does that reduce your fuel costs and vehicle maintenance costs, but also saves you and your drivers valuable time.
- Magically Transfer Assignments to Another Driver - In a perfect world, every delivery or job is completed on time. In the real world, stuff happens! A one hour jobs take three, road construction causes delays, and there is always the occasional accident. When it's 4 o'clock and you still have three more jobs to do, you might want to enlist in the help of a colleague whose day went a little smoother. Using your mobile device, all it takes is the tap of a button to send a job (or two if you're lucky) to another technician. No need to meet up to hand him the work order and no need to spill the details over the phone and hope it gets communicated properly. The work gets done, the customer is happy and again, fuel is saved.
So there you have it. Three possible ways a mobile solution can help mitigate high fuel prices. Rumor has it the US will see a $6.00 per gallon (regular gas, diesel may be higher) increase in 2011!!! What will that do to your bottom line? If your fleet is small or uses especially fuel thirsty vehicles, the extra expenses could deliver a devastating blow.
Going mobile delivers many other benefits outside of the fuel price discussion. We'll continue to outline them in other blog entries. If you can't wait, please visit our website to see what going mobile can do for you.
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