Phone systems

H

hunter

Member
Feb 4, 2010
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Hello All:
We are on a 10-4 phone system for our drivers and lately are having a lot of issues. Bell has stated that they sold the US portion of this and the new company are not keeping the 10-4 style and there-fore the phones will be discontinued at the end of October. Would any of you be able to tell me what phones that you are using for your US drivers and/or reccomend a system that we could possibly use or try out.
Thanks
 
I seem to remember a thread regarding the same topic from a couple years ago. Does anybody else remember that? There was a whole lot of input from members about this.
 
It was about the fact Telus dropped the Mike system if I remember correctly. We just use regular old phones on Telus now. Over 90% of the time my drivers have their inbound picks set up in advance so we just send trip itineraries.
 
What you are looking at now with Bell, is an app they put on the phone called ''Push-to-Talk''. It is an actual app that uses data instead of phone line... That is what we use. We got a plan from Bell for Can/Us I don't seem to remember all of it for plans... Down side is that you need a 4g network to have it working properly... Works like s*** in VT, NH, northern NY, parts of PA, Parts of MA...
 
I actually need to speak with them. We switch a lot of trailers and I need them to call and give me trailer numbers, ETA's and any issues they may have. We are trying texting but that does not seem to be working out. I have about 80 drivers each day that beep me and give me updates which I find easier then getting a mess of texts and then try and reply takes too much time. We have a couple of the push-to-talk trying them and they do not work in the States so the sales rep is coming back to check them out. He stated that he may have forgot to set it up State side (great sales pitch for new phones) Thanks All
 
They have not forgotten to set up the ''State side'' they just don't do it, as they say it will cost them to much in their Pocket. Like you said great sales pitch... We had same issue and now stuck with the problem.... Hurray for poor Customer service!!! We have over 100 lines and we constantly call because it does not work...
 
We have Bell PTT. Lots of promises, great coverage area diagrams, supposedly uses the data portion of cell phone which is supposed to only get better.

We can't wait for the contract to end and get rid of them all. It was a joke from the beginning. Our first phone bill was 500% higher and it took 8 months for them to fix it.

Don't use Bell Business Solutions.....
 
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WOW ... thanks for the tip on that. We use Bell Mobility and all drivers have Samsung Galaxy Rugby LTE phones which are PTT capable. We tested a pair for a month or so and almost bought into them ... glad we didn't now.
 
I'm sure the voice portion works fine but we strictly went with a PTT (walkie talkie type) phone and had the voice/data deactivated.

This was decided upon so that the drivers were not inclined to chat forever on them. I think that if the drivers had a choice of voice or PTT they would eventually always use the voice and the PTT option would just become useless. They cannot text, email or browse on these phone - eliminating potential driving distractions. Its only one button and no need to look at the phone, just press like a CB. When drivers call in by voice they tie up our lines, ask about the weather, what happened over the weekend, blah blah blah and it was counter productive. If you spend 5 minutes per day on the phone with 25 drivers that is just over 2 hours. It was just supposed to be a tool for quick updates.

We're looking for another option for communication......any suggestions?
 
We got all our drivers Iphones - and the app called VOXER - this app is just like the 10- 4 phone. we also purchased wireless printerss, so now we just email them everything they need to their phones and they can print right in the truck. Saves alot of money and time on stopping for faxes
 
ltltrucker said:
We got all our drivers Iphones - and the app called VOXER - this app is just like the 10- 4 phone. we also purchased wireless printerss, so now we just email them everything they need to their phones and they can print right in the truck. Saves alot of money and time on stopping for faxes
Click to expand...

Sounds great but we tried a couple phone options and the drivers just break them, drop them or can't seem to get it working. Then they email family, call/text freinds, and the bill becomes unmanageable. Next you get a driver who will deny all the charges and you can't take it off their pay.

We needed a great solution and the PTT was a great idea but Bell screwed it up. Maybe Telus' new PTT option is better.
 
I don't think it will work better on Telus, as the system needs the 4g to work properly, as the old system used the regular cell phone signal.
 
We got a terrific plan through Rogers - every driver signed a contact for the phone - that they would be responsible for any lost or damaged phones. Also got them to sign a contract about the price plan. Every month we allowed a certain amount for the bill and if they exceeded that - then they signed a release to say it was ok for us to take the difference out of their pay. It worked very well, and the price plan was cheaper than any I have ever seen before.
 
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ltltrucker said:
then they signed a release to say it was ok for us to take the difference out of their pay
Click to expand...

Which sounds more than fair and equitable. I might warn you though, if a driver decides to be an ***hole this will not hold up. The way legislation is written, even with written consent, deductions other than payroll taxes may not be withheld from an employee. Believe me I found out the hard way albeit 15 years ago.
 
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We did have that happen - I actually called the labor board to find out the legal way of doing this - they said a blanket form is no good - we had to get them to sign one every month. we had some pretty good guys. You can take whatever out of their pay as long as you have a signed paper for each deductions other then normal payroll.
 
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