These six phrases all describe booking vehicles into bays, and the reason there are six is that the market is large rather than that the products differ. What matters underneath the naming is a structural fact: bay occupancy and labour hours are two different constraints, and a schedule that tracks only one of them will disagree with the shop by mid morning.
Two constraints, not one
A vehicle can occupy a lift for hours with nobody working on it, waiting for a part or an authorisation. If the board tracks people only, it will show capacity while every bay is full. If it tracks bays only, it will show space while every technician is committed. Both numbers have to fit, and most shops discover this the expensive way.
The customer waiting changes the order
Somebody in the waiting room, somebody who left the car, and somebody who needs it by three are three different priorities on the same list. That fact usually lives in one service adviser head and disappears when they are off. On the board it is a field; in memory it is a risk.
Waiting for authorisation is a state
Finding a second fault means a conversation before work proceeds, and the vehicle sits meanwhile. Separating in progress from waiting for a decision turns a demoralising backlog into a chase list with names against it, which is the single most useful distinction a shop board can make.
Where a mobile technician fits
Shops increasingly send somebody out as well as booking vehicles in, and that half is field dispatch: a person, a van, a customer address and a window. The two halves have different constraints and are worth scheduling in tools that understand each, rather than forcing one board to pretend it can do both.
Questions people ask about auto service scheduling software
Why so many names for the same thing?
It is a large market with a lot of advertising in it. The naming does not signal a product difference and is not worth building a comparison around.
Can a field dispatch board run a shop?
It will fight you over bays. If your constraint is lifts, buy shop software, and we would rather say that than sell you the wrong shape.
What about the mobile half?
That is ordinary field dispatch: a person going to a vehicle, with a window and a work order. Dispatchzo handles that half.