Operations play a crucial behind-the-scenes role in end-to-end fuel dispatch. It’s a revenue center for companies in this space. But, for all these years, the different stakeholders – drivers, dispatchers, and accountants managing different workflows have had to do so with limited tech access. As a result, operations processes weren’t the most efficient.
So, what’s not working in your current dispatch processes?
Fuel dispatch operations as a function has certainly gathered a lot of steam. In fact, in most of the conversations we’ve had with customers, manual workflows turn out to be the biggest challenge.
Orders, delivery tickets, and receipts are all recorded on paper or some makeshift excel sheet. Dispatchers pick up the phone each time they want to know where the driver is. You’re pacifying angry customers who either got billed wrong or whose orders are delayed. That’s the state of dispatch operations and logistics without a software. Challenges like these and so many more – you can’t count them on your fingers.
As one of our customers, McNeece Bros says – There’s always human error associated with manual processes and paperwork. Shuffling around paperwork, entering data manually into back office and accounting systems is a big challenge.”
Just the lack of automation slows down the entire operations process. Add to that: a lack of integration between different systems (back office and accounting).
Basically, operations are the backbone of the entire fuel dispatch system. If you have more than just a few orders to fulfill, it’s necessary to optimize operations and scale your business. And so, a modern dispatch solution is ideal.
Now you know the why, we can further help you figure out the ‘how’.
There are so many trends and technologies making operations scalable and you certainly can’t wall your business from the ones talked about in this piece.
Scaling operations with a fuel dispatch solution
1. Automating order creation and assignment
Every industry today has picked on technology to automate processes and reduce dependency on people and paper. There’s no reason for fuel marketers to continue sticking to processes created in the 1960s. The priority should be of reducing back-and-forth calls and stacking up bundles and bundles of paper tickets.
The only way to do that is to automate the entire process. Modern-age dispatch softwares bring in complete automation to the order creation and assignment processes.
When softwares are on the cloud, dispatchers can easily receive orders on their monitor screens and automatically pass those to specific drivers. And that’s a win-win for drivers and dispatchers alike.
Dispatchers no longer have to note down orders on paper or type on spreadsheets and drivers no longer need to handle paper tickets for every order. Instead, dispatchers can focus on important activities and leave the rest for the software to run. And drivers, on the other hand, can manage their orders better and deliver faster.
2. Real-time tracking and monitoring of drivers
As a dispatcher, you’re not only managing logistics but also people (drivers). And that can get pretty tough if you have to be on calls constantly to know where drivers are, what’s the order status etc.
To scale the level of operations you need to be able to handle a large number of orders without pulling your hair all day. With real-time tracking and monitoring of orders, you know exactly
- Where your drivers are
- Which customers are they delivering to
- What does their shift look like for the day, and
- Communicate in real-time about any issues drivers might be facing while delivering the order.
Basically, you ensure you have no blind spots in dispatching. You don’t need to pick up the phone every time you want to know the whereabouts of drivers. It’s all there on your screen.
3. Geofencing
Geofencing allows you to set virtual parameters around a specific location. Leveraging this tech, you get automated reports on
- When your driver enters that specific location
- How much time he spends when he leaves
- When he leaves that location
- Gallons delivered per minute that lets you quantify efficiency and even the ROI per customer.
This way, it’s much easier to track drivers. And you no longer have to engage in mundane follow-ups. The focus now shifts to more important responsibilities like optimization and growth – which after all, is what business is all about.
4. Wireless integrations
One of the ways to streamline operations is having a smooth communication between drivers and dispatchers. Wireless integrations enable that.
With wireless integrations, dispatchers can easily
- Send real-time updates to drivers
- Monitor tank levels
- Automatically sync delivery gallons and more.
So in addition to streamlined communication, wireless integrations help reduce the challenges of manual order entry, double data entry, and data inaccuracies.
5. Inventory and shift reconciliation
Reconciliation is a super complex process. When it’s not automated it leads to a lot of accounting errors. Manually punching in gallons delivered and BOLs in a spreadsheet is not just time-consuming and inefficient but also bound to be full of human errors.
By Integrating all of the order-related data into a cloud platform you can automatically reconcile every shift. This way, accountants are spending a lot less time looking for discrepancies in data.
6. Integration of back office, accounting, and dispatch softwares
Dispatch operations and logistics have a lot of moving parts and generally a lot of data stuck in different systems. Modern dispatch solutions are capable of supporting the integration of accounting, back office, and other data sources. What you get is a single system of record that gives all stakeholders complete visibility into all key data points.
There’s an easy flow of data between systems and that’s key to optimizing and doubling down on operations ROI.
Cloud-based dispatch solutions
If it weren’t for dispatch softwares, you would still find your driver, dispatchers, and accountants sifting through tonnes and tonnes of paper every single day.
FleetPanda’s unified dispatch software offers a comprehensive platform to automate and scale operations workflows. A super intuitive interface allows dispatchers to get up and running on the platform quickly. As for drivers, an uber-like app makes their day-to-day job much easier.
Moreover, our accounting and back office partners like DM2, NetSuite, Anova, and others further help you integrate all of your data into a single system.
To know more about how FleetPanda can partner in your journey to scaling operations, book a demo with us.