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11 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Dispatch Software

By Aastha Malhotra 23rd March 2021

A dispatch software makes infinitely more sense compared to traditional means of dispatch management, irrespective of the nature of your delivery needs. It’s a digital tool that takes care of end to end needs of field service businesses. It can automatically assign resources and personnel to tasks, provide you detailed reports of operations, assist in predictive maintenance, send out alerts, and much more.

In this article, we’ll take you through some of the key benefits of using dispatch software, and tell you why this is the perfect time to make the switch from legacy systems to one of these.

Key Benefits of Using Dispatch Software

Smoother operations

Ensure smooth delivery operations with dispatch software

Trucking dispatch software has gotten quite popular in recent years because of the ease it imparts to fleet management. With intuitive dashboards showcasing relevant information on one screen, fleet managers get equipped to plan better. They can coordinate the movement of cargo across hubs, cities, and borders, without breaking a sweat. The live chat feature makes communication ever so convenient for end-users.

Field service dispatch software is often equipped with AI and ML capabilities, as well. Therefore, it can help find the most efficient routes, plan the loading scheme for vehicles, map out a courier delivery plan, and plan maintenance. With such tasks taken care of by the transportation dispatch software, your business cruises through all the roadblocks.

Improved scalability

A growing business comes with its own set of challenges. Managers end up in unfamiliar territory in case of having to manage more resources and personnel than anticipated. The situation gets a lot grimmer if you’ve been using manual methods for dispatch management. 

A field service dispatch software, on the other hand, makes growth the second nature of your business. You can easily scale the size of your fleet, area of operations, team size, and even the nature of services you provide. 

Improve scalability with dispatch software

Quicker response

Unforeseen circumstances are a usual event if you are running field operations. There is no way you can control external circumstances. It can be terrible weather conditions, vehicle breakdown, blocked roads, and tons of other possibilities affecting your operations. There are only two ways you go from such situations: either you let it affect your entire business like a domino, or you are well prepared to tackle the tricky situations. 

The latter is possible only with an advanced dispatch management system. It can quickly come up with an alternative route in case of roadblocks, send out a rescue unit in case of vehicle breakdown, use live chat functionality for quick assistance, and plan with weather into consideration. The flexibility of an emergency medical dispatch system is one example of how these tools are ideal for a quick response.

Increased reliability and customer satisfaction

Fogginess in delivery dates is unacceptable. Customers now want an exact time window for cargo delivery. It requires tedious planning from your side to work with such low tolerances. Advanced dispatch systems let you monitor vehicles and resources in real-time, providing you reliable data for accurate predictions.

You can keep the end-user updated with the live status of the product, and stick to your side of the bargain with accurate ETAs using a dispatch track app. You can also use the live chat feature to put customers in touch with drivers. The reliability helps your internal operations, as well. You’d know when a resource would be available for the next task. Delivery dispatch systems leave you with more satisfied customers, which in turn amplifies the bottom line of your business.

Higher transparency

One challenge you frequently encounter as a field service business owner is that you don’t have concrete information about what’s happening on the field at a given time. When you deploy a team of workers on the field, there is no way of knowing if they are doing their jobs properly other than sending a supervisor along with them. Now that can’t be an effective way to tackle such situations.

A field service dispatch software comes with functionalities that let you manage dispersed teams with ease. Remote time stamps, resource monitoring, and workflow tracking give you a much clearer idea of what’s being accomplished regularly. Even the in-house teams are easier to manage with the tool. Leverage this improved transparency to take care of any chinks in your armour.

Lesser time spent on back-office operations

Invoices, bills, contracts, payslips, etc. take up a lot of your human resource capabilities that could otherwise be utilized in more productive tasks. On top of that, humans are more likely to make errors in the case of monotonous tasks such as these.

Quick back-office operations with dispatch software

The delivery dispatch software can take care of back-office operations for you and do a much better job of it. It can generate invoices based on the resources used and the time consumed in a task, initiate payments to vendors, generate payslips for workers based on the hours of service, and even analyze contracts in some cases. 

Predictive maintenance

Field service businesses rely heavily on vehicles and equipment they use for different operations. They are regularly serviced to maintain them in top-notch conditions and extend their life. However, mere regular service isn’t enough at times. 

Quick predictive maintenance with dispatch software

The vehicle or the equipment almost always starts showing signs of wear and tear before the failure. A dispatch fleet management system uses sensors to identify such signs of failure beforehand and suggests repair before any heavy damage occurs. Predictive maintenance is one of the advanced features of a delivery dispatch system and highly popular among large fleet owners with expensive equipment.

Resource optimization

The highly competitive landscape has pushed field service businesses to stretch thin. They have no option but to use all their resources to the fullest of capabilities. The goal is always to eliminate redundancy, and dispatch scheduling software lets you deploy resources for the maximum output. 

Whether it be making sure that trucks don’t make trips while they are empty, or to come up with cargo loading patterns to move higher volumes, the delivery dispatch tool does it all. And the byproduct of this increased efficiency is that you spend less per operation and generate more revenue.

Streamlined data flow facilitating efficient communication

A truck and a field service business have a lot in common. They both need the internal components to work in synergy for the best performance. All the departments under your business need to be on the same page to avoid conflicts and deliver the optimum service to customers.

A dispatch software acts as the central hub for all your operations showcasing all the necessary data needed to move forward. Since the system makes sure all the relevant information reaches all the relevant people promptly, everyone finds it easier to excel at their jobs. You no longer have to sit down, making phone calls to tons of people to update them about the next step of the process. The software sends out notifications instead, whether it be to the driver’s dashboard or an email to the inventory manager.

Flawless decision making

Flawless decision making with dispatch systems

The more moving elements you have under the umbrella of your business, the more ways there are to get the job done, and the more difficult it becomes to identify the correct path to move forward. Thankfully, moving company dispatch software comes with advanced analytics and relieves you of much of the mental stress.

It makes some of the calculation-based decisions for you, such as planning the last-mile delivery strategy and optimizing routes. It provides data-rich dashboards organized with graphs and charts so that you can work on improving the productivity and efficiency of tasks at hand. 

Automate tasks

Automation is getting increasingly common among businesses, and field services aren’t any different. There are plenty of tasks that courier software can and should take care of. 

For instance, if we talk about a business delivering orders for an eCommerce website, barcode scanning can be automated. Dispatch scheduling is another key task that can be automated. The software would consider the due dates of packages sitting in the hub and then dispatch courier accordingly.

Similarly, if you are overseeing a construction business, then you can automate equipment inspections and task allocation to keep things moving smoothly. The extent of automation would also depend on the capabilities of the tool you use. 

The Wrap-up

Dispatch Software

An advanced delivery system leverages various technologies such as telematics, big data, and IoT to provide you superior control over day to day courier dispatch. You can easily control the extent of features you wish to have on the delivery dispatch system, and customize it to serve your specific business needs. 

It doesn’t matter if you manage 20 or 200 vehicles, or if you cater your services to 10 or 100 cities, a delivery dispatch system is non-negotiable for any field service business. As you can see, the perks of using such a tool are plenty, and most dispatch software pays for themselves in the long run.

The sooner you move from manual and legacy systems to advanced software, the better it would reflect on your bottom line. Tookan is the perfect platform to get you started. It comes with a wide range of features right from tracking to dispatching, and we don’t even charge you a penny for the first 14 days. So get started right away and harness the power of our platform to make delivery management a breeze for your business.

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