Driving impressions
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Cliftook Winhaul 2000 for a test drive on a 200MHz Pentium PC with 32Mb of RAM running Windows 95. Installation from the CD was straightforward, taking less than four minutes and taking up 11Mb of hard disk space. As part of the initial installation, users have to phone the Winhaul technical support team for an authorisation code.
The next step was to enter all the data for vehicles, drivers and regular customers. We spent 30-40 minutes on this for just three vehicles, two customers and two drivers, although it would doubtless be a lot quicker a second time around. This done, we could set about exploring the system properly.
In general we found it straightforward to use, moving with ease among the simple but effective screens. We were able to schedule In jobs, allocate resources to them, print automated invoices and generate management reports on vehicles, drivers and customers; not least some valuable management Information on fuel consumption and other operating costs.
However, we did encounter a couple of problems en route. In entering a date for one job. we suddenly got the error message "Invalid property value" before being dumped back out into Windows. Later, when trying to enter details of a new vehicle, we were given another error and booted out. We rang the technical support desk which suggested reasons including Windows being wrongly configured; Windows becoming "confused"; and us typing in the wrong character in the wrong place.
Whatever the reason, being booted right out of the software as a result seems a bit drastic.
Another curious foible was that the software quite happily allowed us to enter a new job with a date in the past, send a driver whose licence had expired (even though licence expiry was entered under the driver record) and even allocate a 17-tonne load to a Ford Transit. A little prompting to correct user mistakes wouldn't go amiss in future versions, Documentation came in the form of a small booklet inside the CD case to get users up and running. The program also includes a heathy amount of on-line help, although we could find no trace within It of the automated data backup utility. It soon emerged this was not an oversight in the help file—the backup utilities at the time of our test were only available on a free floppy disk.
Despite these gripes, we were generally impressed by Winhaul 2000. While It's true that it is a fairly basic offering without any frills, it will doubtless suit the operations—and wallets—of many a small haulier.