Ever been a meter reader? how did you record the numbers read; with some/what gadget?

Question

what were the challenges?

Answer 1

meter readers are gradually being fazed out, many cities are now installing sending units on the homes, that transmit the reading to a central computer and are read at the corporate office.

Answer 2

Yes I've been a meter reader.  I took a meter book out each day and read utility meters.  I wrote down the numbers from the register on the meter into the book on the card for that particular meter.  More recently I've seen meter readers that have an electronic meter book.  For each meter there a record with info about the account like the previous read and other relevant data.  The reader still had to read the register but now it was entered into an electronic data base then downloaded back at the office at the end of the day.

Another method I've seen at trade shows is an electronic reader that is passed over the meter and it uploads the read without having to look at the register.