subject: Electronic Driver Dispatch And When You Would Need It [print this page] Couriers rely on software to help run almost every element of their business. As time goes on and the software which is available improves, it begins to be able to make an impact in more and more different areas of the courier industry. One area in which technology and software has begun to make more significant inroads is the actual dispatching of courier drivers. A feature that is known as electronic driver dispatch is now an important part of many types of dispatching software, and can provide a number of different benefits to a courier company when it comes to dispatching their drivers in the field.
The usefulness of this type of feature in software stems from a large part from its integration with GPS technology. It all starts when a customer places a request for service in with the courier company. They will in their order tell the courier company what they need picked up, and where they need it picked up from. The courier company can use that address with their software and locate via GPS all the drivers they have which might be a suitable match to make that pickup, and then use their judgment to decide who should be sent on the new delivery.
The next thing they need to do is get those instructions to the driver. In the past this would be completed using a phone or radio call. However, these can be difficult to coordinate, and it is extremely easy for one party to mishear the other which can cause erroneous pieces of information about the shipment to be communicated. None of this is a problem with electronic driver dispatch. The dispatcher can use the software to interface with the GPS unit the driver is carrying with them and simply upload all of the instructions right to the drivers unit.
This can include everything from the specifics of the delivery itself right down to the GPS route they should take in order to get to the pickup location. This is all done in very little time, and with very little chance for error. Errors are always the things which end up causing couriers the most problems. They make the courier inefficient, which costs money, and causes customers to be dissatisfied as it slows down the speed of service. When you find a courier that is using electronic driver dispatch, it means that you are essentially finding a courier that is going to be making very few mistakes in its dispatching procedures.
