electronic pod forms?

morning all!<br>electronic pod forms? devil's work or acceptable?<br><br>I don't know about you but trying to write out a legible POD on a clipboard balanced on the steering wheel often the result resembles a spider on acid,<br>I have found a resonable app for smartphones and blackberry from gocanvas.com which is free for 30 days but around £15.00 after, are electronic forms acceptable by everyone?<br>advantages:<br>no running out of pod forms,<br>more professional looking,<br>pod can be printed if required<br>saves paper and ink<br>disadvantages&nbsp; <br>cost,<br>no hard copy<br><br>your thoughts please,<br><br><br>

99% of the time you'd be fine BUT i have a customer querying a delivery from Friday and wants the hard copy. If we didn't have the hard copy would i have a defence?

Never trust a computer implicitly. Always back it up with paper.<br>

Its a difficult one really, i have looked at this and it is the way forward, the reason most big&nbsp;company's&nbsp;have there own systems.&nbsp;reducing&nbsp;carbon footprint etc, &nbsp;and as already said about having a hard copy&nbsp;in case you need to prove your POD well yes&nbsp;computers&nbsp;can mess up but also paper can be lost or&nbsp;ruined&nbsp;etc, &nbsp;then theres the storing of bits of paper.&nbsp;I would like to think that the system will give you a chance to view all POD and print out a copy or be able to send via email, with the added bonus of a GPS showing where it was signed for.<div><br></div><div>But i know many people will say if its not broke it dont need fixing which is true , it has to be based on what you prefer really, and with the cost factor thrown in as well,&nbsp;</div>

well most want a name and a time and many offer automated emailed pods BUT we all have to have the hardcopy too for when you get any disputes, so i'm afraid in this paperless society you can't get away from the fact you need to have paper as backup and i believe you are legally obliged to keep paperwork for a period of time anyway don't you?

good points speed but how do the likes of Interlink, royal mail ,dpd &nbsp;etc get away with it, as they only have electronic POD and they have loads of issues daily all that get dealt with ?

good point....dunno...i'd like to know the legalities of this to be honest

Yes worth looking into, if i get a chance will chat to the owner of the local Interlink Franchise see what he says about it, unless someone else here can fill us in :)

have a look at: [link]<br>I have not bothered to customise it yet,<br>nice and easy to use but will need&nbsp; the form tweeking to get it right which they say do no nowt!!<br>&nbsp;<br>

for nowt even!!<br>need more tea I think!!<br>

Well i said i would have a word about the legal side of this, after speaking to my guy at [business], he says there have been very few issues with electronic POD ,&nbsp;totally&nbsp;legal and stand up in the court of law if required, he said the most important/ critical thing to do is to insure its backed up in a couple of places so you&nbsp;don't&nbsp;lose it. ie&nbsp;on-line&nbsp;storage plus on your own external hardrive i guess. like he said&nbsp;as long&nbsp;as you have a copy it is seen no different from a piece of paper. you can still print it out / or email to potential problem customers.<div><br></div><div>He said he had more problems with Paper POD than he does know, with paper going missing etc i guess its up too what you feel is best,my only take on things is we as an&nbsp;industry should be looking to reduce our carbon footprint etc, less room required to store, prob easier to look up when required etc&nbsp;&nbsp;its prob the future but again as always going to depend on the cost.</div>