Hurricane seasons can get wild. You already know the common pitfalls. You’re working in a high demand and high uncertainty environment. You could be running short on personnel. Fuel prices spike. There are power outages everywhere. There might be logistical challenges you didn’t plan for. Not to mention, the high-pressure on your team - not every driver and dispatcher enjoys working in situations like these. 

To successfully weather the storm you need some tried-and-true guidelines for pre-planning and a fuel dispatch software to keep your operations running smoothly. We know this is true because we’ve literally seen businesses benefitting from streamlined operations. Moffitt Services is one of the best examples. They’ve been in the industry since 1947. And today they’re running a 60+ truck operation across 4 business lines (disaster response being one of them). They’ve had significant success with dispatch software. In addition to the regular pre-planning - the dispatch software has been helpful in ensuring that operations don’t become chaotic. 

So, if you’re operating largely out of outdated tech or a dozen spreadsheets and piles of paperwork - it’s time to give some serious consideration to a modern fuel dispatch software to keep your operations running smoothly. 

Here’s how it helps: 

Automated dispatch workflows

If you’re creating orders manually or have to jump between multiple systems to create and dispatch orders - you are likely spending hours just generating orders. During disasters - every minute counts. You can’t rely on papertickets or phone calls to create, schedule and dispatch your orders. With dispatch software - you can create orders and send them to drivers (who receive these orders on the driver app) in just a few clicks. 

Track operations in real-time and optimized routing 

Schedules don’t always go as planned - it gets worse during disaster situations. You should be able to track where your drivers are, the inventory they’re carrying, their entire schedule and re-route vehicles when required. So if there are sudden orders coming in - you can easily route those orders to drivers based on their location and inventory. Or if a customer calls in to cancel - you can re-route drivers remotely without having to go on back and forth calls with drivers. Plus - if your drivers are stuck due to road closure and might not be able to deliver the fuel on time - you can re-assign that order to another driver who might be closer to the customers location and carrying enough inventory - all with a simple drag and drop action. This ensures that there’s minimum delays in deliveries. And all of this can be communicated to drivers through the mobile app - without actually calling them up. 

Seamless deliveries even in no-network areas 

When drivers have to make deliveries with poor/no network - offline mode works best to ensure that deliveries aren’t interrupted. With the offline mode - drivers are still able to access all the information on the driver app. 

Monitor customer tanks remotely and auto-create tank monitor orders 

More than likely, you’re doing a lot of manual work while managing your tank monitor orders. You’ll probably be going through rows of tank monitor data - manually looking at every tank level and identifying which tanks need a re-fill. If you have multiple tank vendors - it gets worse - you end up jumping from one system to another. And then there’s all the hours you spend in manually creating orders. 

But with tank monitor integrations - there’s a better way. You get all the tank monitor data in one place, view tank status in real-time, set up threshold levels for each tank and auto-create orders for tanks based on those threshold levels. So this frees up your personnel to focus on the many other things that need to be done during the crisis rather than wasting time in manual work. Plus - you can track the exact tank location - so this ensures that drivers don’t have to spend an extra second locating tanks. 

Prevent fuel theft with real-time fuel tracking 

Fuel theft is common during disasters. A dispatch software can ensure that doesn’t happen. If you’re able to track every drop of fuel that goes in and out of the trucks - you know exactly how much was delivered, loaded and retained - reducing any chances of fuel theft. 

Running operations at the time of crisis can be easier than you think if you’re using the right kind of tech to manage workflows. What we discussed here is the many ways a fuel dispatch software can make operations easier at time of crisis - and these are things that have worked for fuel marketers like Moffitt Services. In a nutshell, it’s about digitizing operations so you can adapt to changing conditions on the go and focus on the strategic work to ensure uninterrupted deliveries. 

Want to see how all of this in action? Happy to give you a walkthrough. Book a personalized demo here