Critical of computer programs
Page 26
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EVERYONE seems to be rushing into going
computerised. I have looked at almost all the systems that are being offered to the transport industry on microcomputers. I now feel that it is about time that someone gave a warning about the dangers involved with some of the these
systems.
I am not going to mention the company that I work for because I don't want this letter to be dismissed as just an advert. But it took me three years of extremely hard work to write a program of genuine use to the transport industry. We
had to code every single program around the transport business to get the desired results.
All the programs I have looked at which are on offer as road haulage systems are no more than hacked about versions of normal accounts programs. These are simply not good enough to be of any use to a haulier.
The people that I have spoken to used the program for a few months because it was a novelty and then realised that it was taking them longer to do their bookwork on the computer than it had previously taken to do it manually. Consequently, the machines are now not used and the hauliers have wasted something in the region of 0,000 of their hardearned money.
The message from me is: do not buy a computer that merely does your sales ledger and expect it to revolutionise your business; it won't. If the invoices look like the sort of thing a manufacturing company might send you, then the program has not been written for transport. The invoices should hold both the collection addresses and the delivery addresses in full plus the weights, plus the customers' references, plus the price for each and every consignment. But that is only the invoicing. The program should, if it has been written for transport companies, hold a host of other useful information; for example, a booking diary, vehicle defect and vehicle maintenance records, part-load and return-load information, drivers' jobs sheets, vehicle manifests, etcetera.
However, still beware: any computer can be programmed to accept this information, but you have to be able to get it back out again.
DEREK BEEVOR Berkhamsted Hertfordshire