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I don’t know how many people use a computer and printer in your van, but i
found a pretty easy way to hook up a lptp to a printer and still have room for a passenger. If anyone is interested i can take some pictures of it to show you. By the way it has eliminated a lot of hassles for me. Now I am able to print more professional looking invoices. If a customer changes there mind on something, instead of crossing it out or scribbling, I just edit.
Have received alot of good comments about the invoices.
Lets see it!!
I would love to see pictures of it. What kind of lap top did you go with? Are you in a hot climate? In California many laptops don’t hold up due to the heat.
We had some pretty cool laptops in the military that we took over to Iraq, they held up pretty good. I have a call into them, I will post when I hear back from them. there websight is
http://www.miltope.com/welcome.htm
they start around $7000.00, I thought they might have has a civilian model but all they build is military spec.
I use my laptop for looking up past invoices of customers and have thought about using a printer also, but the one i have is pretty bulky. Would be interested in seeing the printer your using.
I will try to get you guys pictures of my setup soon. I have been using a Dell Latitude. For more information on it you can call me on my cell at: 816-739-9162.
I saw a mini printer in an office we cleaned. I’ll try to find out where they got it. I think it was HP. It is as wide as a regular piece of computer paper and about half the size of a regular sized keyboard. Might be a little smaller. Would work well I believe.
Mike Nowlin
Just ran past this post again and thought id let yawl know what were using. We invested in the new microsoft surface pro (an amazing computer) and bought a vehicle mount from a company called ram mounts. we have a mini file cabinet between seats that the printer sits on and everything is connected via Bluetooth. works awesome. We take the tablet in to do all the measurements then print two copies have one signed and were good to go. nice copies, as many as you need, and they are all stored in an index able electronic file for later
The surface we got was $1000, but there are two less expensive models available (we got the pro version as it runs a full version of windows 8 and I didn’t want compatibility issues). A good bluetooth portable printer will run around $300 (we have the canon I100 which we have had with no complaints for about 4years now). The mount was around 120 but they have several options so price could vary. File cabinet was 30ish we just got the cheap walmart one as they are smaller. You will want a keyboard which you can get a cheap small wired one for 20ish but I like the small Bluetooth one I picked up for 70. That’s pretty well it for hardware.
Thanks, So roughly $1200. What added security measures are you taking? Are things very visible from outside the van? Is this listed in your van “equipment” on your insurance? Will the customers information be at risk if PC stolen? I understand these are precautionary issues but I think need to be considered not only in this case but even PC’s at home. Look at what happened to sales in Target stores. (down 35%)
The PC is of course password protected and either out of sight in the locked van or with me in the customer’s home. The only real customer info on them is names and addresses anyway so I’m not terribly worried about it as that is all public information anyway. We run all our CC through Square so that info isn’t stored anywhere once it goes through. I don’t think we have them listed separately on our insurance yet, but I think that is something I might look into soon. The last thing anyone wants is a Target scandal.
I’m glad to hear this. Honestly, I hesitated to bring it up because we don’t like to look at the (possible) negative side being in business. The things like “You have a better chance of being hit by lightning” situations but sometimes needs to be thought of. Dave Ramsey in his Book Entre-Leadership, Dave says “Okay, no one will die from this. So, what is the worst thing that can happen? And make your decisions based upon the benefits of the goal and the worst thing that can go wrong.” Frankly, I have a hard time thinking like a criminal and thinking of bad scenarios.
Good job! AKCleaner, thanks for the info.
with service monster and the smart phone or IPAD i find i no longer need or want a pc in the van but what i do need is a printer that can handle the extreem heat and cold, any ideas or feedback?
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