When Fullbay Met Whip Around: An Integration Story

Diesel can be red
But it can also be blue
Here’s a new blog post
From Fullbay to you!

G’afternoon, Fullbay family, and a very Happy Valentine’s Day to you!

We realize you may be reading this after Valentine’s Day. You know what? That’s all right. Grab yourself a piece of chocolate or a nice beverage and sit down anyway, because we’ve got an epic love story to tell you.

(Editor’s Note: Suz, maybe this is a little much.)

Dude, you said this was a hype blog.

(Editor’s Note: No, YOU said it was a hype blog. I just said write about the integration.)

DO YOU WANT THEM TO BE HYPED OR NOT, AARON?

(Editor’s Note: *facepalm*)

Anyway, today we’re here to share the story of an integration that we’re pretty excited about. Yes, ladies and gents, you read the title correctly: Fullbay is teaming up with fleet maintenance software Whip Around so you can port DVIR defects directly into Fullbay.

But Fullbay, some of you might be saying, what’s Whip Around? I don’t have a fleet?

Hey, that’s okay! This integration is going to benefit independent shops, too. But we know it’s hard to root for characters in a rom-com without getting to know them first, so let’s talk a little bit about Whip Around, and what its life was like before this tall, handsome repair shop management software walked into its life.

THE TALE OF WHIP AROUND

The story begins, as Lord of the Rings does, in the Shire…um, we mean New Zealand.

Imagine, for a moment, you’re in a warehouse, watching some drivers circling their vehicles, occasionally writing things down. You ask a driver what’s up. “Alas,” the driver says, “I’m working on the DVIR.”

(If you’ve just landed on the Fullbay blog because you love diesel-related poetry and are not sure what DVIR is, we’ve got ya: Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports are filed by the drivers of commercial vehicles, usually before and after every shift. They note down defects or problems that must be fixed. Would you like to know more? Head on over to Klendathu—er, our article on the topic.)

Eagle-eyed readers will note the drivers were writing. Like, with pen and paper. The drivers would then submit that report to the head office. Actual requested or required fixes could take days or weeks to come through.

So, you’re hanging out with this driver, listening to them talk about filling out all this paperwork. You think, Say, wouldn’t it be more efficient to submit these things digitally? Hey, wait a second…

That, friends, is how Whip Around came to be.

They’ve since expanded considerably into the United States, and a good number of fleet managers trust Whip Around with their vehicles.

A SHARED INTEREST IN SAFETY

The Fullbay gang doesn’t tout going digital just because it looks nice. No, we have seen the havoc wrought by reliance on paperwork — the papers flying everywhere, the notes scribbled on Post-Its that are lost beneath coffee cups and Doritos bags, the time it takes to share necessary information.

Even when you get everything right, paper just slows things down.

Now, there is something to be said in taking your time on a service or repair. But you don’t want to take your time getting a vehicle in for a repair if it needs one. This is why the digital DVIR shines — it gets the ball rolling much faster, and in turn helps everyone on the road stay safer.

Fullbay being Fullbay could not resist the sound of that.

Heck, Whip Around’s customers probably sound a lot like Fullbay’s. Their day job is making sure their fleet operates, and they want to make sure their operations are safe, as well.

We dig it.

SO WHAT’S THIS INTEGRATION?

If you’re a Fullbay customer, the Whip Around integration allows you to receive DVIR defects right inside Fullbay.

Once the integration is activated, your fleet customers will complete DVIRs inside Whip Around as usual. Any failed items will be documented and photographed, and the report submitted. Defects and failures will automatically pop up (in real-time) as a service request in your Fullbay account. You don’t have to do any fiddling or manual input. Once you’ve completed the repair, the ticket in Whip Around will update to “Corrected.”

And that’s really it. Your fleet repair workflow will be noticeably smoother once you remove the manual entry of DVIR defects from the process. Vehicles will enter and exit the repair and maintenance process faster, which means more uptime, which means more revenue for your customers and safer roads for everyone.

It’s pretty neat.

For a fuller walkthrough and a how-to on setting up (as well as some snazzy visuals to help you see how it’ll all look), here’s Louis:

But Fullbay, you might be saying, I don’t have fleet customers.

Sure…you might not have any now. But you might get some in the future, particularly as this integration gets even better!

IT ALL STARTED WITH A CUSTOMER REQUEST

We’ve all seen that Hallmark movie where the friend goes, “Hey, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

In this case, it was a customer who used both Fullbay and Whip Around who sat the two companies down at a pizza joint in the Bronx and said, “I’ll be right back,” and then disappeared into the night, leaving the two companies to figure out what they liked about each other.

Okay, no, that’s not how it went. The customer did say “Wow, if you guys could work together that’d be swell” or something to that effect, and the discussion was intriguing enough to make its way up the chains of the respective companies. One day, Whip Around CEO Noah Hickey met with Fullbay CEO Patrick McKittrick at a trade show; given the similarities in company values, they decided an integration was worth pursuing.

Once the deal was sealed, the actual work of building the integration began. The process took about eight months from handshake to rollout, and began with the two development teams creating what they called a “walking skeleton.”

(Editor’s Note: She is…not making that up.)

A walking skeleton, in dev terms, is not a resurrected corpse or other undead being, so if you landed on this story hoping to find some sweet zombie references — well, sorry, try next week. The walking skeleton is instead a big-picture look at the potential integration and what they can do with it. They started with an easy question: What would bring the most value for customers?

Once the engineering team got looped in, weekly check-ins became a thing. Once the integration was in a semi-final form, they looped in some existing customers for beta testing, and once that was done, it was time to go to market.

(The above is a highly simplified version of all the work that went into this integration — or really any integration — go devs!)

The integration is now live. If you’re into it, you can find it on your dashboard.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

You’re free to cannonball into the gloriousness of the Fullbay/Whip Around integration without further instruction, but current Fullbay subscribers can attend a free webinar hosted by Scott Gordon (Fullbay’s VP of Product) and Patrick, who will share more about the history of the integration, how it will benefit shop owners and fleet managers, and what we hope to see from the integration in the months to come. They’ll also be chatting with one of Whip Around’s product people and answering any questions attendees have about the integration and the meaning of life.

(Editor’s Note: Do not ask them about the meaning of life, please.)

The webinar is on February 25, 2025, at 11 AM Arizona time (which is 10 AM PST and 1 PM EST). Sign up here (again, Fullbay customers only at this point — sorry!) and have a great time.

And remember, opposites may attract, but it’s often similarities that keep people together. When two companies think about road safety and making life easier for diesel repair folks, well, that’s amore!