Sorry Doug, just scrolled down to read all the posts and there you where.
We have a similar system with international clients in Mexico, US, Canada and Middle East... AutoVisionWireless and LongView Advantage are our companies. We have offices in US and CA, you can send request for more info on either of the websites.

You can use GPS tracking units to wirelessly, relay real time information such as location, engine hours, battery status, on off... sent to back office billing, info can view on the internet with login and password.
We have a system AutoVision Wireless and LongView Advantage

Back to the subject of Mobile Billing.... We're doing a project to get mobile service billing from a fleet of 60 trucks. The approach we've devised is somewhat unique. We're pulling the GPS data and matching it with the customer's service address. There's no paper, no handheld/mobile, or special app needed, just the GPS. We're just pulling time and location and feeding it into the backoffice. From that we get driver hours, payroll, and service billing.

Good show - Well done!
When I read the first line of you earlier post in which you stated you had just graduated from college - I took that as right from HS to college to graduation to I just started my first job of my new career & life.
When you have your time & $ invested in your accomplishments you can be proud.
I like you worked for my education costs by working 67 hours per week in the summers of 64 thru 1967 at all of $2.67/hr. help building Ford Mustangs at the rate of 67/hr in the summer to pay tuition, room & board, books, clothes & weekly spending allowance ($5.00/wk). Later in '78 was married had two children went to night school to get my masters - my pay was much better then than in '64 -'67.

johnr j-
I started in this industry with no more than a hand shake, welcome aboard, we will show you what you need to know. I did not go to college till my 20s and now I will be 36 this year and only took me 13 years to get my Bachlors degree and paid for by my own money that I made while working 40 hours aweek. I got my college degree for self improvement, thats it, plain and simple. Do I want to move up to a managers position, no not really as I have turned it down twice allready and I am not looking for a job else where. I actually find being a forklift mechanic easy and enjoy the people I meet and the company I work for is not that bad, being a blue collar work these days is a money maker for a company where a white shirt is more of an expense. I am actually using my business degree and knowledge for other people to make money using other venues outside the forklift industry and it has paid off handsomely these last few years for me and my family.

Ben H,
Welcome to the opportunity to join the "real" world from the paper book world of a university. I was those shoes at the same point in my life, from graduation day to the start of my career there were exactly 3 days to walking into my new career. Engineering w/Business minor
I soon realized that all the "stuff" taught in college has a thread of application to how companies function and what it takes to be successful and every company has different personalities & those personalities changed as upper management and the work force changes. And the best time to get a really good education on how business really function is during a economic down term, especially when it is "survival of the fittest" time. Most anyone can be successful when the "roller coaster rid" is going riding up the northeast curve.
Another revelation is that many, "certainly not all", of those text book writers &/or professors have not spent any time in the working world, but rather in inside the hallowed halls of the university - I was in "shock and awe" when I discovered that.
Finally, after 41 years in the same industry only one time did anyone ask me to see & copy my "sheep's skin" - my very first day at my very first after college job. Four & 1/2 years in college (paid my way - no scholarships) and only asked once to see this piece of paper - busted my bubble - I got over that. Timely, accurately, professionally completion of assigned tasks and goals, above & beyond contributions, ability to work well with and within the organization as a "team" player, as well as, with outside vendors are some of the key "secretes to success". Many times company "politics" does get in the way of our personal aspirations = frustration. Patience is a virtue.

As someone who just graduted with a business management degree one of the last classes I had was an ethics class. It has been proven that someone who grown up with parents who shows the kids good study habits will succeed in the business world with good work eithics and organizational skills. Is this true in all cases....no it is not. You can not change someones work ethic unless they want to make the change and try to improve and grow themself as an individual. I will agree with an above statement, if you have good paperwork/time management skills doing the mobile billing proves no issue unless it is a system issue.

I would expect a few more systems to arrive in the next few months, as smart phone adoption reaches a more "critical mass".
I would expect a 'Software as a Service' or a "cloud based" offering for small and midsize independent forklift dealers and service companies that would do most everything a program like Minitrac or NDS does now, but do it without the redundant data reporting of one person entering it on paper to have anther enter it in data so a 3rd person can print a paper report.
If any one is interested in helping by being a "crash tester/ bug reporter/early adopter" please contact me via e-mail.

Thanks that really helps. I just want to go into this with my eyes wide open so the more input I get from people that have experience the better

Sorry Stuart, lost track of this one. Our system is Taskmaster by TBS. (Google Taskmaster PDA). My training was 1 day. It takes a while to get to know all the ins and outs though. Like Tomas says, you need to manage your time well, and I think if you're not great with paperwork then you won't be great with this either. I find the best way is to enter each job on the PDA as you complete it, otherwise you spend too much time at the end of the day trying to sort it out. You still need to use a paper diary as a back up, and we also use a paper time sheet. I tend to fill in these first. Our system forces you to at least close down the jobs for the site you are on before going to another. We also have to close jobs at the end of the day. You can close them as awaiting parts, order number etc, and then retrieve them later by a phone call to the office. Management use the figures that the system generates to show customers how efficiently we are performing, so it is important we keep to the rules. There are safeguards built into the system, however. If you "forget" about a job the system doesn't, and emails your Service Manager

Can you tell me who supplied your system.

We have been using this mobile billing for a few months now and I like it alot but some of the techs. still wait two or three days to do paperwork and then they expect the customers to sign for them on a return trip. The only technicians complaining of this system are the ones who lack proper time management skills and poor paperwork practices. Has anyone else experienced this with others they work with and was anything done to help them correct the problem?

Thanks,

Andy
That's really interesting. Can you tell me who supplied the system & how long it took you to switch over? What was the training like & how long did it take. I think it s great idea.

My company do this, but the system is based on a PDA, not a laptop. The customer receives an invoice by e-mail, which still goes through our office. The system is a lot quicker for us, as shown if we have a terminal PDA fault, andbhave to go back to paperwork! For the customer a big benefit is we can give a fairly instant estimate for any further work. Parts and labour prices are built into the system, so no adding up for us, the PDA does it. In most cases the customer will decide to OK the work there and then, thus avoiding a drawn out process of getting the office to send out a quote, etc. Also built into the system is our actual levels of van stock, which is updated daily. So it knows what you should have, even if you've forgotten. Customer details, from address, phone number, contacts on site, contract details, are all there, as are details of all trucks on site. When we have a job for a particular site we can enter jobs on other trucks without having to contact the office again. Parts lists and tech info are included too, though this is one area where the bigger screen of a laptop would be more useful. All in all though ours is the best overall computerised system I've seen. I still use a paper diary as backup, though!

The company I work for we are also going the way of billing from the vans. I am getting alot of good training from the company on how to use the software so it is not to much of a sink or swim mentality. Some of the guys in the training class are worried as it will make it harder for them to pad thier time but for me I work an honest 8 hours and bill 8 hours so I am not worried about this. I actually like the idea of me having more of an opportunity to do my own thing and wont have to wait for others to do certain functions. I can also see in the future the use of scan guns with bar codes on the parts to keep track of them and bill them accordingly to eliminate the human mistake even more.