The benefits (and necessity) of paper in a digital software world

The ubiquity of cellular 5G or 4G data service across North America is a boon for people to be connected at any-time and any-where. Whether you are in a car in the middle of Texas or on a highway in Alaska 98% of the time you are able to watch your favorite YouTube video without a worry. The problem is when the data network does go down for that 2% of the time,  it can be a  painful experience. Losing your mapping directions in the middle of navigating to a rural address or having our data connection go down when accessing your schedule can be frustrating and impact the quality of your transportation service. Having the capability to access information digitally and through the internet is a necessity in this fast past world but there are times when paper is a useful option.

SPEDSTA combines the need of a full-featured transportation scheduling software platform with the options to organize, store and distribute physical paper information as needed. A couple of these features are:

1. Ability to digitize and store images of hard-copy driver licenses, insurance documentation, vehicle maintenance records and other critical paper data. By having a digital store of your paper records, you can access this information by printing them or distributing on-demand and as needed.
2. Ability to digitize and store images of passenger intake forms, HIPAA compliance permissions and other critical passenger paper data. With this information easily accessible no longer is it necessary to have filing cabinets filled with passenger paper trails.
3. In some cases, it is necessary to have proof of ride completion by the passenger. Instead of using physical signatures on receipts etc, digital signatures can be taken and other information such as payments, comments can be captured.
4. Printing out of ride schedules for drivers. In a couple of clicks, ride schedules that look great on the mobile, tablet or PC can be easily printed to PDF and paper for distribution to drivers that prefer not to use technology as mobile phones or tablets. . If some drivers are remote to your office, emailing those PDF schedules is also another option.
5. When doing roll-ups of payments from passengers on a daily, weekly or monthly basis it might be necessary to print and mail paper invoices. Putting together custom invoices that reflect certain rate profiles and text can be created quickly and printed for mailing. Donation request letters can also be generated this way.

While having a robust software scheduling platform improves your overall transportation service, having paper based options is a great way to handle those passengers, drivers and dispatchers who prefer the use of hard copy paper.