Owners of towing and roadside assistance businesses are feeling the crunch as the economy continues its downward trajectory. In particular, many towing companies are dealing with the pain of staff shortages as they struggle to find — and retain — good drivers. These shortages mean logistics are even more important than ever, with customers waiting fourteen — or more — hours to get towing assistance.
In the face of the staffing crisis, 22% of towing assistance providers are noting that they have had to turn away jobs because they had more work than they can handle. When tow businesses do have multiple jobs, nearly three quarters of them are prioritizing them based on a number of factors, primary of which is location. Prioritizing by location can reduce fuel costs and reduce travel times, allowing more jobs to be completed and resulting in reduced wait times for customers. However, managing multiple jobs with fewer drivers demands greater organization and management from administrative staff.
One way to optimize roadside operations quickly and easily is to use powerful document management software (DMS) to organize critical information. A fully optimized tow business not only allows you to do more with less, but it increases customer satisfaction to help your company stand out from the competition.
Document Management for Towing — Your Smart Solution to Job Prioritization and Better Customer Service
Keeping jobs organized and resources optimized is critical for towing/roadside assistance operations, particularly if you are experiencing a staffing shortage. Document management software (DMS) solutions allow you to keep invoices, schedules, routes and more organized and optimized, without the need for cumbersome paper documents. In addition, DMS solutions can bring added value to your towing operation, including:
The Ability to Track Jobs in Real Time
Once a job comes in, you can use a DMS to track the performance of the work from initial contact through driver dispatch and final towing destination. In fact, most document management solutions can be used remotely, so drivers and other personnel can easily access the information they need from their mobile devices. This remote access can help your drivers be more responsive, improving customer service and reducing driver frustration at the same time.
A Smart Way to Manage Work Orders — and Your Customer Database
Manual input of work orders and customer information can result in errors, which in turn can slow down the billing cycle and reduce productivity. And errors in billing can cause problems with customer relations, potentially affecting your reputation in the local area. Using a DMS to create a paperless billing process that is integrated with your customer database can streamline these processes and significantly improve response and billing times.
The Ability to Review and Organize Jobs with Automated Reports
To gain better transparency into the way your business is operating, you can use a DMS to generate audits and reports over any aspect of your organization — from truck routing to invoicing. When you are able to review each job by location, performance, cost, and other factors, you will be better able to structure routes for optimal efficiency. In addition, you can provide driver instructions based on location, job type, or customer requirements to improve responsiveness and increase your competitive advantage.
Blue Technologies Has the Right Document Management Options for Your Towing Business
Document management solutions come in a wide range of applications. To use one effectively, you will want to sit down with experts and outline your company’s current challenges, needs, goals — and budget. Using this information, the document management specialists at Blue Technologies can custom tailor a solution that specifically targets areas of business you wish to streamline or improve.
At Blue Technologies, we focus on providing document solutions that help our clients create clarity surrounding their operations, reduce the errors that often accompany manual or paper-based business processes, and optimize their business processes for increased efficiency, performance, and profitability.
Don’t let the staff shortage hold your towing business back. Contact a Blue Technologies consultant to learn how our document management solutions can help your company get a grip on logistics to maximize performance and profitability.
