Do I need GPS tracking to dispatch well?

You need to know who is closest and whether they are running late. Ratchly shows technician locations during the working day for exactly that, and technicians can see what is shared.

Can I dispatch from my phone?

Yes — the dispatch map and board work on a phone, which matters when the dispatcher is also running calls.

Buyer's guide

Best HVAC dispatch software for small teams

Dispatch is a live problem. The right tool answers 'who is closest and free?' before the customer finishes the call.

Ratchly jobs board with technician assignment and job status.

Dispatch software earns its keep in the gap between a call coming in and a truck being pointed at it. If answering 'who can take this?' still requires ringing two technicians, the software is not doing the job.

The tools below are grouped by the size of operation they suit. For a small shop, live location plus a board you can drag beats a planning module you will never open.

The short answer

Choose Ratchly if

Live technician locations on a dispatch map
Drag-to-reassign straight from the map or the board
Drive-time aware suggestions for the next assignment
Customer gets an ETA without anyone typing one

Choose another platform if

You dispatch dozens of trucks across regions
You need a call-center console

How we judged these

Time to reassign an emergency call
Live technician visibility without phoning them
Whether the customer's ETA updates automatically
Mobile usability for a dispatcher who is also on the tools

The options, by who they fit

Ratchly

Owner-dispatchers running up to about ten technicians.

Strengths

Live operations map with clustering and status colours
Reassign by dragging a job onto a technician
Automatic ETA messaging to the customer

Watch out for

HVAC-first — other trades work, but the defaults are HVAC
No enterprise procurement, franchise rollup or call-center modules

Enterprise dispatch suites

Large contractors with dedicated dispatchers.

Strengths

Deep routing and capacity tooling

Watch out for

Requires staff to run it properly

General FSM tools

Mixed-trade small businesses.

Strengths

Adequate assignment workflows

Watch out for

Live location and ETA messaging may be add-ons

Questions contractors ask

Do I need GPS tracking to dispatch well?: You need to know who is closest and whether they are running late. Ratchly shows technician locations during the working day for exactly that, and technicians can see what is shared.
Can I dispatch from my phone?: Yes — the dispatch map and board work on a phone, which matters when the dispatcher is also running calls.

Keep comparing

Go deeper on the product

Test it on one real week

Load your customers, put this week's jobs on the board, and see how long it takes to go from arrival to a paid invoice. That comparison beats any table.