Running fuel dispatch operations on paper is chaotic for every business. Trust us. We’ve had hundreds of conversations with fuel marketers. We’ve even had our share of experience running a fleet fueling business. So we’ve seen it all. And this front-row seat has only strengthened our belief in paperless fuel dispatch.
To a lot of fuel marketers, paperless fuel dispatch does seem the way forward. But to some, it’s still not a necessity. And that’s usually because –
- This is how we’ve always done it
- Why fix what’s not broken
- It’s going to be difficult for the team to adopt a new software
- We’ve tried legacy systems in the past but they haven’t worked for us
We hear this all the time.
But the truth is that even though manual processes and paperwork might be working for you – but they’re not efficient. With the way this industry is changing – the increasing competition, high customer expectations, and need for automation and AI tools – there are benefits of paperless fuel dispatch operations that will change the way you manage operations – especially if you want to focus on the important work and not just spend your day shuffling around paper.
This part is going to help you better understand the many reasons you need paperless fuel dispatch:
End the chaos and paperwork for dispatchers
Dispatchers end up doing a lot of overtime because they’re creating orders on paper, and figuring out driver schedules and routes by going through tons of paperwork. And then there’s the constant back and forth with drivers to either get some updates on an order or route an emergency order or pass on some delivery-related/customer-related information.
Here’s a dispatcher from Ohio describing his day – “I used to come in at 5AM so I can see how I can best fit them into the driver’s schedule. Then I had to look at the tank monitor portals for all our customers. Almost 60% of our business has recurring orders – so I had to create the same orders every week. I was working so much overtime.”
If only there was a better way to do this – imagine the hours of busywork dispatchers would save. This is where fuel dispatch software helps.
And the here’s what that same dispatcher said after switching to paperless dispatch – “I’m working on things related to growth and expansion, and I work normal hours!”
With paperless fuel dispatch – all of the grunt work is automated. Dispatchers can create orders in just a few clicks. Tank monitor data is auto-created based on custom-set threshold levels. Recurring orders are set up on auto-create mode – just like a recurring meeting on a calendar – and now they never have to worry about missing an order.
Give drivers their easiest day every day
“Drivers save about an hour of busy work of creating delivery tickets, managing paperwork from the day before, or creating their routes for the day. Now they’re not going to need paper tickets for the deliveries. They simply hop on the truck, and they’re out in the yard delivering fuel. Everything happens at the click of a button.” says Patrick McNeece, Partner at McNeece Bros.
That’s one of the biggest benefits of paperless fuel dispatch.
Drivers have ALL the information they need to deliver orders on a simple app. They get their entire schedule for the day – including customer and supplier details, post-trip, and pre-trip checklists so they don’t have to constantly call dispatchers.
Meter integrations enable them to capture all delivery numbers directly on the app – so they’re not running back and forth between trucks to manually note down readings. And all BOls, delivery documents, and customer signatures can be captured on the app.
Without it – drivers get too caught up with the paperwork in the field. And the result is – inaccurate delivery records, wrong fuel delivered to the wrong customer, or wrong fuel pumped into the wrong asset.
The app ensures that drivers have everything they need to deliver orders successfully.
That makes deliveries efficient, and accurate and the jobs of drivers a lot easier.
Know exactly what’s happening in operations
Operations no longer remain a black hole. Because your entire operations are running on a single system and not spread across a bunch of tools/spreadsheets – you have a pulse on where drivers are, order status, driver schedules, routes, and inventory on trucks – you can track all of it, in real-time.
You have access to data across every aspect of your operations. And that helps you in day-to-day decision-making.
Here’s what Carl, Co-owner of Moffitt Services has to say – “We now have operations data on our fingertips which was not possible before on our pen and paper mode. This has led to increased efficiency and productivity.”
From something as simple as routing a call-in order to drivers based on their current location and inventory to important business-level decisions like buying new trucks based on existing capacity utilization – data helps you make the right decisions for your business.
Enable faster, error-free invoicing
Dispatchers can reconcile shifts in just a few clicks. They have the entire trail of what happened during a shift – so they know exactly what was loaded, delivered, and retained. That makes it easier to reconcile shifts without waiting for drivers to get back paperwork from the field/chasing around docs.
On the invoicing side – all BOLs and delivery information are sent to the back office system in a click – without accountants/billers having to hand-key every detail.
Paperless fuel dispatch ensures that all the manual hassle of invoicing is removed.
Fuel marketers who’ve moved away from the old pen-and-paper systems vouch for this.
“Automating our billing processes is saving our billing department a considerable amount of time while ensuring accuracy.” says Carl.
Build a well-integrated tech stack with tools that talk to each other
You most likely have a bunch of tools that you use – back office/accounting, pricing, tank monitoring, LCR meters etc. The problem is not having different tools but having tools that don’t integrate. When your teams have to toggle between systems, and manually enter data from one you’re slowing them down. They end up spending hours doing the admin work instead of focusing on strategic work that’s more important for company growth.
Having a fuel dispatch software that integrates with all your systems – ensures you have a single source of truth of all your data – in one place.
With fuel dispatch software – it’s not all hunky dory. Considering the number of tools, not all are actually going to be effective. Legacy software that might have worked in the past – are now becoming obsolete. Times have changed. Software has evolved so much. But most legacy systems are still stuck with their antiquated tech. And such systems only slow you down.
But it’s not like that with FleetPanda. Here’s what you need to look out for in legacy tools that might slow you down:
1.Focus moving away from fuel distribution – Legacy softwares have sunsetted a lot of the products they’ve acquired. Few are also shifting focus from fuel distribution to c-stores. We don’t come with an acquire or get acquired mindset. We’ve built our product for fuel distributors – and they’re all that matters.
2. Lack of integration with other tools – There’s no point having a dispatch software if you still have to jump from one system to another to pull out data. Find a system that easily integrates with all your tools you use (and have the capability of building custom integrations) so you have all your data in one single place.
3. Long implementation cycles – You shouldn’t have to wait for months and years to implement dispatch software. Be sure about the implementation timelines and the overall support to ensure that your team is set up for success.
4. Can’t scale with your business – Operations for every business are different. As companies grow – so do their needs and these needs are different for every business. So you need a software that can actually be customized based on your unique business needs and keeps scaling as you grow.
We built FleetPanda with all this in mind. And if you want to see what paperless fuel dispatch looks like – do give us a call or book a demo.
