The Rental Equipment Register (RER) Innovative Product Award was established in 2003 to honor excellence in new product development in the equipment rental industry. Each year, a panel of industry judges narrow the pool of entries to one winner in each category and this year, Point-of-Rental System’s Dispatch Center with GPS Integration was selected as the winner in the Computer Software category.
The GPS integration in the latest version of Point-of-Rental Systems’ Dispatch Center puts the rental company’s dispatcher in the driver’s seat, giving drivers tools for success and allowing the whole team to provide superior customer service. The new GPS integration features computer-aided routing, GPS vehicle tracking, in-cab directions and stop details, arrival and departure updates that allow for proactive route adjustments and customer notifications – all to help actively manage the rental operation and stand out among the competition.
“What makes the Dispatch Center with GPS different from other dispatching software is the full integration into the rental software and two-way communication with the trucks, ” says Jason Albus, Point-of-Rental systems engineer. “Our software seamlessly gathers and updates contract information from the rental software, allowing the customer service reps, drivers and the dispatchers to view the same real-time data. Some other systems require users to enter the addresses into a third-party program in order to dispatch and track the routes with no updating of the rental software data. Our software transmits contact and jobsite information directly to the truck and tracks the vehicle’s progress of each vehicle and records arrival & departure times along with estimated time to the next stop. This allows managers to take action when a stop will be late.”
Counter personnel are able to inform the customer of their order’s status in real-time. Management can isolate drivers that spend time in non-authorized locations and can even be alerted when a driver enters such locations. Dispatchers can quickly find the nearest truck to pick up items that are called off rent or that require service. Users will be able to determine how often the driver is on time and how good onsite time estimations are. Benefits include more efficient driving, eliminating out-of-sight goofing off, not having to refund delivery fees caused by late arrivals, and accurately pre-planning weeks in advance, all making the ROI on these features attractive.
“This system makes good dispatchers better and helps inexperienced ones avoid costly mistakes,” says Jason Campisi, whose company South Jersey Party Rentals has adopted the software. “It creates another level of employee accountability with drive times and onsite times. It also gives the sales team good estimated times of arrival for clients without having to talk to the dispatcher 20 times a day.”
For additional information on the Innovative Product Award, visit https://www.rermag.com.
For inquiries on the Point-of-Rental System’s Dispatch Center module and its features, please visit us at the ARA Show in New Orleans or call us at 800-944-7368.