Archive for March, 2010

This video walks through a Day in the Life of a bulk products driver who makes deliveries with LCR meters. The video shows how a driver uses the following functions:

• Pre-trip – clock in, enter their vehicle ID and start their route
• Load builder – automatically create a load from the orders on their trip
• Route stops – view loads and orders for the day, as well as events for the trip or individual stops
• Enter a load – record both package and bulk products loaded on the truck. For bulk, the driver enters the compartment for use with metered delivery
• Enter an order – record products delivered (manual or with meter), enter stick readings, customer comments, capture customer signature and print delivery receipt.
• Metered delivery – for LCR-II metered delivery, wirelessly start the meter, scan assets/fleet vehicles for each delivery, and record quantities delivered per asset.  The driver can view the LCR register wirelessly at the end of the hose reel.
• Stick readings – record stick readings for bulk delivery
• Log events – log events such as ‘waiting on customer signature’, ‘waiting on dock doors’, etc.
• Post-trip – clock out to complete the trip.

DOT regulations require all commercial vehicle carriers to complete a Driver Vehicle Inspection Report (DVIR). Inspection reports must be completed both pre-trip as well as post-trip.  For more information on Federal Motor Carrier regulations  click here.

Our inspections module is setup to enable electronic vehicle inspections so drivers can complete and print DVIR’s from handheld mobile devices such as Intermec CN3’s and Motorola MC55’s.  Vehicle inspection reports are wirelessly sent to the goRoam.Mobilehub server so fleet maintenance can see all reports in near real-time. 

More importantly, we can enable post-save events so you can specify actions upon receiving electronic vehicle inspections.  For example, you can receive an email anytime an inspection is completed with a defect, or you could receive an email and automatically create a work order for that vehicle.

goRoam.Inspections allows you to easily tailor the vehicle inspection for your specific needs and questions.  The following flow shows a typical vehicle inspection flow for a driver.

Step 1 – Login in and view list of available forms. 

Select vehicle inspection from the list of available electronic forms.

Step 2 – Barcode scan or enter vehicle information

Step 3 – Check any defects on the Truck (Tractor)

Step 4 – Check Trailer for defects

Step 5 – Mechanic corrects and signs

Step 6 – Enter optional pictures, GPS or drawings

You can take a picture directly in the inspection form and mark on the picture to show where the problem areas are.  Forms can be GPS stamped in the background so you know exactly where the inspection took place.

Step 7 – Driver certifies and signs

Step 8 – Save and Close

Once completed, the inspection report is automatically sent to the server via cellular or wifi.  The driver can print a copy to a local printer such as the Zebra RW420 or email a copy.  Note that the start and stop time were automatically set, so you know exactly when the driver started and stopped.

Step 9 – View results

All inspections are automatically sent to the server where you can view, report or export results.  The submit process can be configured to automatically send an email when certain inspection fields are set or have a value (such as low oil or air pressure).

Step 10 – Print and email

The following standard report is available for all surveys. Report templates can be easily setup for your forms to condense the report to one page.  Note the report contains the full electronic signature, picture of the vehicle with markup from the driver on the defect and GPS location.  Reports can be saved as PDF’s for easy emailing.

Newsletter 1Q2010

Mobile meter integration – wireless with LCR-II meters

If you deliver bulk products and use metered delivery, you’ll want to see our handheld updates for meters.  We’ve worked closely with Liquid Controls to design a robust, reliable and easy to maintain wireless meter solution.

Your fleet maintenance can quickly install and easily maintain the truck components.  Your customers will appreciate the confidence in knowing you are fully electronic with no errors from hand entry or re-keying.  Customers can get metered Proof of Delivery by asset in near real-time.

Your drivers will appreciate easy and fast barcode scanning for fleet fueling or tank filling.  They can view the register counter on the handheld at the end of the hose reel so they know how much is delivered.   Register data is automatically recorded for truly paperless delivery.

As an owner/manager, you’ll appreciate real-time wireless delivery updates, inventory control and reliable operational data to manage your business.

This is a simple, straight-forward upgrade for existing goRoam customers or an easy installation for new customers.

We’re in the process of installing videos on the website to demonstrate metered delivery. If you want to be notified when they are available, please contact us.

Mapping and geographic enhancements

A key step in managing service and delivery organizations is knowing where your customers are.  In addition to our batch customer geocoding tools, MobileHub can geocode individual customers, view them on a map or view groups of customers on a map.

goRoam.MobileHub users  can simply load the customer edit form and click the ‘geocode me’ button to geocode a  customer’s address.  As always, you can enter detailed routing and tags for a customer. You can then use these attributes to view groups of customers on a map.  Read more…

Inspections and surveys updates

Vehicle inspections, asset inspections, customer surveys, smart meter installations, safety audits – are all examples of our how our customers use the inspections and surveys module.  We’ve added features to address some important demands:

• Completely new dispatch board that allows simultaneously showing dispatch schedules for users, roles/groups, assets (ex. trucks) and trips.
• Integration with other mobile modules to dynamically populate surveys from current forms.  For example, if you are making a delivery and the driver needs to create a survey for that order, the survey can be pre-populated with fields from that order such as customer name, address, order number, etc.
• Easy batching of dispatches. For customers who create 100’s of dispatches at a time for users, you can specify that only the next X number will be auto-sync’d. For AMR installations, customer canvassing or other large scale inspections, this is a huge benefit to mobile users as well as dispatchers.
• Survey printing using HTML templates to any supported printer such as the Zebra RW420 or Intermec PB41, PB42 or PB52. You can easily add and edit your own print templates.
• Improved barcode scanning support with customer specified lookups such as assets.
• Execute server tasks when surveys are saved so you can selectively take actions such as creating work orders or sending emails with survey results.Read more…

Training – developing reports in SQL Server Reporting Services

Whether you are a hosted customer or an on-site installation, you may have wondered how you can add your own reports.  We recently developed a training class for customers to learn how to build SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) reports, add them to the reporting server and use the MobileHub data model.

This is a great class for report development and shows how you can use SSRS to report against other databases too, such Oracle, MySQL or SQL Server instances.  We can tailor the class to your needs and include reporting against multiple databases at once, so you can integrate things like GEOTAB GPS with MobileHub delivery data.  For more information, contact us.

How to – customer comments and backorder notification emails

There are a number of notification options for pickup and delivery customers, including automatically sending emails when orders are completed in the field. The most common scenario is to automatically send an email to a bulk distribution group if a driver enters a customer comment.

An example would be the driver entering ‘tank ok no delivery per dave’ when a customer did not take a delivery. This would alert dispatch and accounting to handle the order appropriately without having to track down the driver or wait for paperwork.

To setup email notifications, use the following Company config setup parameters.

Wireless Tank Monitoring – fast payback, low cost pilot

Tank monitoring is something everyone should do for customer service (to prevent run outs) as well as distribution management (reduce unnecessary trips).  We understand that many customers don’t fully implement tank monitoring due to cost.

We have been working with i3G, a wireless tank monitoring company,  to integrate tank monitoring into our forecasting and dispatch.  i3G has a low cost, high quality tank monitoring solution. Depending on your configuration, i3G may be 1/3 to 1/2 as much to monitor tanks. This means you can monitor more tanks, including lower volume units. i3G provides inventory updates via cellular or on-site wireless. With on-site wireless, you can specify tank readings at frequent intervals during the day, which is especially helpful with high volume tanks.

We’ve worked with i3G to offer a low cost pilot so our customers can test tank monitoring quickly and easily on a small set of tanks.  Pick your toughest tanks and let’s pilot! For more information, contact us.