Utility Companies Invest in Rugged Tablets for Fleet Management

Utility companies are faced with multiple issues that affect their operations. When it comes to providing service, one of the most important things to manage is the delivery of on-time service and repairs. Minimizing fleet downtime means maximizing service delivery to customers.

Rugged tablets provide structure, efficiency, and real-time communication for fleet management. Todays mobile technology uses software that can maintain accurate information about where inventory is located and assure that service vehicles are loaded with the items necessary for the specific jobs they are scheduled to perform before they are dispatched. Also tracking that fleet vehicles are maintained and scheduled for repairs when needed and on a regular basis. Rugged tablets meet the needs of these utility companies to perform efficiently, thus providing a high level of service to their customers.

Fleet Inventory Tracking

A single trip completion and lengthening the time to repair vehicles can add costs associated with multiple trips and damage to customer relationships. With the aid of rugged tablets with an integrated barcode scanner, fleet managers can track fleet vehicles and equipment at all times.

Rugged tablets help track the descriptive details needed for having the right inventory like cable splices, fuses, disconnect switches, personal protective equipment, power lines, and transformers. End-to-end inventory with the aid of rugged tablets ensures that necessary parts are on the right vehicle bound for the right destination and reduce or eliminate delays, added costs, and wasted time.

Preventive and Repair Maintenance

Rugged tablets can be integrated with fleet scheduling software that is customizable depending on the companys preventive maintenance schedules. This makes it easy to see when assets are due for service or maintenance and for fleet managers to track dates, mileage, hours, or kilometers and know immediately where their fleet stands at any given time. 

Tracking repair maintenance is just as important as tracking preventive maintenance. Monitoring trends in repair maintenance can help fleet managers decide whether to keep or retire a vehicle or piece of equipment and know when to invest in new equipment. With the use of rugged tablets integrated with the 3D RealSense camera, fleet managers can take and upload a photo of the vehicle, itemize the parts and labor costs while capturing maintenance and repair records automatically. Rugged tablets streamline processes by tracking which vehicles have been updated, the date and time they were updated, and what repairs were done, as well as when they need to be repaired again.

Many utility providers have been implementing automated systems in managing their fleets over a period of time-based on budgetary and infrastructure considerations. It is important that the devices they consider can support a wide range of operating systems and inventory management applications that may be in use both now and in the future.