InspectARide has two main report formats you can choose from which are the Standard and Compact formats. Here is a short video that talks about the differences between the two which will make it easier for you to decide which will work best for you.

William C. Durant is an important person in the history of some of the most well-known car brands and manufacturers in the world. Let’s take a quick look at how he had such as large impact.

Getting Started and the Creation of General Motors Company

Durant started a carriage company (Flint Road Cart Company) in 1886 which grew to the point where it was a $2M business selling carts around the world.  The business continued to grow and eventually, the Durant-Dort Carriage Company became the number one horse-drawn vehicle seller in the world. In 1904 Durant was brought in as the controlling investor in Buick, and in just a few years Buick became the top-producing automobile manufacturer in the US. In 1908 Durant formed the General Motors Company to be a holding company that would acquire existing automakers and other companies.

Forced Out

Within the first year General Motors acquired Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Cartercar, Elmore, Oakland (later became Pontiac) and by the end of 1910 had purchased a total of 30 companies. The company ran into some financial troubles as a result of all of the acquisitions which led to Durant being forced out by the corporation’s board.

Durant quickly teamed up with Louis Chevrolet (a Swiss race car driver) and started the Chevrolet Motor Company in 1911. The company got off to a good start, but Durant and Louis saw things differently which lead to Durant purchasing Louis’s shares of the company. By 1916, the company was profitable enough to allow Durant to repurchase a controlling interest in General Motors. This led to Durant being president of General Motors and Chevrolet being merged into the company as a separate division. His time in charge did not last long as in 1920 he lost control of General Motors to other shareholders.

Durant Motors and Afterward

In 1921 Durant started Durant Motors and quickly acquired companies with the goal of rivaling General Motors. This company did not bring the same success as he had with General Motors. The Wall Street Crash in 1929 and the Great Depression led to tough financial times for Durant. He lived the rest of his life on a pension provided by a few people on behalf of General Motors and passed away in 1947.

Writing up inspection reports takes time and in some cases, a lot of time. People who do inspections are always looking for ways to make the process faster and easier.

Here are 5 tips for saving time:

• Use Dropdown Lists – Typing takes time and to the extent that you can eliminate extra typing, you’ll save time. The best way to cut down on typing is to have common answers/responses in dropdown lists. Inserting an answer with the tap of the finger is much faster than having to type it out each time.
• Pre-Fill Answers – Using pre-filled answers is a great way to save time and is very helpful if you are inspecting the same vehicles over and over again. Instead of having to write out the basic info about the vehicle such as the VIN, make, model, etc, each time you do an inspection, pre-fill it in your checklist and save a few minutes on each inspection.
• Create Report While Inspecting – If you’re taking notes on paper while doing the inspection and typing them up later, then you have a lot of opportunities to save time. If you use a mobile device and create the report while inspecting you’ll cut out all the time that you currently spend typing up the report afterward from your handwritten notes.
• Use the Right Checklist – Using the right checklist makes a big difference. If you have a checklist that includes a bunch of information that isn’t relevant then you’ll waste time crossing it out or marking it ‘Not Applicable’.
• Use one Device – Being able to use a single device to record results, take pictures (and include them in your report), and then get the report where it needs to go saves time and hassle.

What about pictures?

There is no way around the fact that including pictures in your reports takes more time when creating the report than if you don’t include any.  However, they add a ton of value so most inspectors are willing to add a little time in order to get a better result. Pictures can actually save you time in the long run in that they help eliminate questions and cut down on follow-up. If you’re including pictures the key is to make sure you have an efficient way of taking them and getting them in your reports.

We’ve recently added a lot of resources to the support section of our website to make it easier for everyone to get the help they need! These additions include 25 more step-by-step How To documents and 10 more video tutorials.

You can find them here:

How-Tos – http://inspectaride.com/support/howto.php

Tutorials – http://inspectaride.com/support/tutorials.php

Of course, you can always give us a call at (888)695-7681 or email us at support@inspectaride.com if you need help, but it’s nice to have good resources available online!