Mobile Devices for a Truck Repair Shop

Fleet repair software has revolutionized the transportation and heavy duty repair industries. It streamlines day-to-day business, makes techs’ jobs easier, and provides shops with an enhanced way to satisfy customers. When technology began making its way into the business world, software benefits were tied to bulky desktop computers. These days, however, mobile devices allow you to access fleet repair software remotely. The good news is there are quite a few truck repair shop mobile devices on the market to choose from. The only problem is figuring out what kind of tablets shops should purchase.

Truck Repair Shop Mobile Devices: Which One is Best?

Tablet Selections

When it comes to tablets, you not only have different sizes to choose from but there is also a variety of brands. The most popular are Apple and Android products. Both are represented in the top 10 tablets currently available. Plus, both work well with fleet management and repair software.  Some people prefer one brand over the other. However, the truth is that both Android and Apple tablets offer similar features that make them extremely useful such as:

• light weight
• thin profile
• high resolution screens
• large CPUs, ample RAM and storage
• long battery life

Most of the time choosing between them comes down to which brand you’re a fan of and how much you want to spend. Prices can be as low as $79, but the better quality and the more features you want, the higher the cost goes.

Another choice is how big of a screen you want. Depending on how portable you need the tablet to be, you can get truck repair shop mobile devices with screens as small as 7 inches or as large as 12 or more inches. The sizes step up in 1-inch increments. While the smallest tablets are the most portable, many techs find the iPad mini with its 9-inch screen to be ideal. It offers excellent resolution on a sufficiently-sized screen while still being small and light enough to be portable. The size also means techs can still “thumb type” when holding the tablet in portrait mode.

Those who opt for truck repair shop mobile devices over 9 inches can always get a keyboard to go along with the tablet to make typing easier. Keyboards improve functionality and don’t add much weight or bulk, so portability remains intact.

The Hybrid Option

Techs out in the shop appreciate the larger tablets and often go with the tablet/keyboard combo.  On the other hand, some feel that if you’re adding a keyboard to a screen, you might as well have a laptop. Although laptops were created for convenience and to be portable, they’re still a bit bulky to be practical in the shop. That’s why Chromebooks are excellent truck repair shop mobile devices.

Chromebooks are kind of a tablet/laptop hybrid. They clamshell and have a keyboard and screen combo like a laptop, but they’re much smaller and lighter. Keep in mind that, although they look like laptops, they don’t function like a full-blown computer. Just like tablets, they work great online and with Cloud-based fleet repair software. However, Chromebooks aren’t as versatile as tablets when it comes to offline capabilities.

Pricing varies depending on which brand of Chromebook you choose and how many features you want. They’re more expensive than tablets but not much more expensive than buying a tablet and a keyboard together. The Chromebook’s battery life is longer than tablets’, and they’re just as productive. It’s true that they weigh more than tablets but, unless you buy one of the larger Chromebooks like Toshiba’s Chromebook 2 or the Dell Chromebook 13, you’ll be toting less than 2 pounds of technology.

Smartphones are Compatible With Fleet Repair Software

Smartphone sizes have fluctuated over the years, but bigger screen sizes are the trend at the moment. That makes them the truck repair shop mobile devices of choice for many techs. The screen on the Galaxy Note 8, for example, is about 3 by 6.3 inches and the resolution is 1440 by 2960 pixels. These larger smartphones are big enough to read ebooks and repair diagrams on but are still small enough to slip into a pocket. This means techs typically have their smartphones on them at all times these days, so it’s logical to use them to access fleet repair software. Plus, since many techs already have a smartphone, shops don’t have to invest in buying tablets.

In conclusion, the best truck repair shop mobile devices are the ones that have the features and size you want. Those elements can be different from one shop to the next. In the end, your budget and needs will help you choose the best mobile devices for your specific shop.