Helping Delivery Captains Deliver Smiles
The VesselWise Mobile App for Captains
July 6, 2015
Delivery captains carry great responsibility. Owners place a lot of trust in them to safely deliver their newly purchased boats. A skilled and reputable delivery captain will want to ensure that the client’s newly purchased boat is delivered quickly with no (or minimal) mechanical or cosmetic damage.
While one might think that being paid to sail a boat from one location to another is great fun (which is true, because captains have a passion for sailing), it is, after all, a job. And like any other job, it comes with accountability. Delivery captains are often required to sail yachts thousands of miles to their destinations, and long journeys make boats more susceptible to damage. Captains are responsible for the safety of the delivery crew and are expected to deliver on time, while ensuring the boat is not impaired in any way from its voyage.
How do captains minimize risk? Used boats will almost always have issues! And some of these issues will be unknown—not to disregard the hard work of the surveyor, but captains will always be extra cautious when accepting used boat deliveries. Quite reasonably, they won’t accept the assignment until they are absolutely sure that the boat is ready. After all, the longer they have to travel, the greater the risk they assume.
When it comes to new boats, captains tend to be extremely particular about not even letting a scratch appear on any surface! They make sure to note every visible issue and report it to the dealer representative or the client.
How do delivery captains log issues? This is the surprising fact and this is what inspired Captain Brandon Rundquist and Marc Ragsdale to create VesselWise. Captains lack the right tools to manage tasks and operations, so they usually record these critical issues manually in a notebook or other simple document. These notes are presented to surveyors or dealer representatives who then also carry out their procedures largely manually, paging through all the notes provided by the captain. In the absence of an established workflow, this process lacks coordination and is neither efficient nor foolproof.
Can the VesselWise mobile app help captains? The VesselWise app lets captains quickly and efficiently capture issues on board using their iPhone or iPad. Dealer representatives or warranty managers can then easily access and track these items and coordinate with subcontractors more effectively right from the app. Every item is logged and automatically goes through a systematized workflow, eliminating omission-errors, negligence and communication pitfalls.
A reputable captain will always strive for the client’s peace of mind. To do that, he or she needs to ensure that the client’s boat is safely delivered and that any issues that may have cropped up are identified and reported in an efficient manner. VesselWise enables captains to do just that, and with ease!
Learn more about the VesselWise app at vesselwise.com.
