When a company is looking for new dispatching software to improve their courier company in some way, they are going to be bombarded with all the features that the manufacturers of those programs use to try and sell those products.
The truth is that a lot of the features and software will be the same between the various options that are out there, and there are many other features that will be irrelevant based on what kind of courier company and what kinds of services a given company offers.
There are certain features though which are either so useful, or so important for cost savings that they should absolutely not be overlooked.
If it is not something that you already have in place with your courier company, one feature that you should be in the market for is electronic driver dispatch.
When an order comes into a company that does not have this feature included in their software, the dispatch office has to call the driver directly in order to provide them with the instructions that they need to make the pickup on the new delivery.
When they have electronic driver dispatch however, this is a much more automated process.
With this type of system in place, the dispatch office simply enters all of the pertinent details into the system and uploads them wirelessly to the driver.
The driver receives all the details to their wireless device, which may even include an uploaded GPS route so that they can easily see the most efficient route to get to their pickup location.
When the drivers have to communicate manually with the office, there are many more chances for something to go wrong.
For instance, they could mishear the instructions that they are being given, or either write something down wrong or enter it wrong into their computer in their vehicle.
Either way, when the instructions are uploaded wirelessly, it saves time and reduces the margin for error in that part of the process.
Another thing that is worth thinking about is that the process can get sped up even faster when the orders are placed online instead of over the telephone.
In that situation the information has all been entered into the system, all part of the same software, which will make it that much easier for the dispatch company to upload the instructions to the driver.
This speeds up the process another step again, and again reduces the errors that might be made.
The truth is that a lot of the features and software will be the same between the various options that are out there, and there are many other features that will be irrelevant based on what kind of courier company and what kinds of services a given company offers.
There are certain features though which are either so useful, or so important for cost savings that they should absolutely not be overlooked.
If it is not something that you already have in place with your courier company, one feature that you should be in the market for is electronic driver dispatch.
When an order comes into a company that does not have this feature included in their software, the dispatch office has to call the driver directly in order to provide them with the instructions that they need to make the pickup on the new delivery.
When they have electronic driver dispatch however, this is a much more automated process.
With this type of system in place, the dispatch office simply enters all of the pertinent details into the system and uploads them wirelessly to the driver.
The driver receives all the details to their wireless device, which may even include an uploaded GPS route so that they can easily see the most efficient route to get to their pickup location.
When the drivers have to communicate manually with the office, there are many more chances for something to go wrong.
For instance, they could mishear the instructions that they are being given, or either write something down wrong or enter it wrong into their computer in their vehicle.
Either way, when the instructions are uploaded wirelessly, it saves time and reduces the margin for error in that part of the process.
Another thing that is worth thinking about is that the process can get sped up even faster when the orders are placed online instead of over the telephone.
In that situation the information has all been entered into the system, all part of the same software, which will make it that much easier for the dispatch company to upload the instructions to the driver.
This speeds up the process another step again, and again reduces the errors that might be made.