Keeping Tabs

Contractors find GPS vehicle tracking provides a boost to efficiency and that field technicians readily embrace it as a tool that helps the company

Some technicians don’t care for Global Positioning System vehicle tracking, but there’s no doubt they offer business owners a convenient way to run fleets more efficiently. GPS helps companies increase productivity and profitability by routing service calls more efficiently, saving fuel, time and money.

In addition, for companies whose technicians work in remote areas where cell phone service is spotty or nonexistent, GPS offers a safety net that alerts dispatchers to potential health or safety issues. Some systems also provide enough detail to help technicians learn better driving habits. Here, three contractors tell about their experiences with GPS tracking.

“We run GPS on 32 vehicles, from vacuum trucks that flush and clean sewer lines to service trucks and camera vans to management vehicles,” says Dolores Eaton, CEO and president of Ivis Inc. in Edmonton, Alta. “We’ve been phasing in GPS sporadically as we could afford it since 2001.

“It’s a useful tool because sometimes we can’t get a hold of staff when they’re out on a job where there’s no cell phone service. We can send a message through the GPS and let them know there’s another job coming. Then when they get back in the truck, they can reply back.

“We also bought GPS to track and dispatch vehicles more effectively. We have a monitor in the office that shows where our trucks are at all times. We can tell if they’re in having coffee on a regular basis or whether they’re working on a jobsite.

“There wasn’t any resentment from our employees. Actually, they found it helpful. I tell them it’s a security and safety issue – if a truck is sitting for too long, then we know someone who’s alone might be hurt. We can then give them a call, and if no one answers, that could be a concern.

“It also helps us handle customer complaints. If a customer says a guy was there less time than he actually was, we can prove it because we can track how long they were on the jobsite. We’re very happy with it. There are some things I’d like to get tied into it: see how much fuel is being used, for example, and when vehicle maintenance is required. But for now, it’s a good tool for resolving customer complaints, tracking employees’ locations, and sending them messages.”

“We primarily do residential plumbing and drain cleaning within a 90-mile radius around Abilene,” says David Ratliff, owner and general manager of Midway Plumbing. “We started using GPS three years ago. It’s a big advantage when we don’t have a map for a small town in a rural area. We just look up the address and print out a map.

“In addition, we can actually tell a technician if he’s missed a turn on the way there. We can see the trucks in real time on a big flat-screen monitor in our dispatch office. It also automatically keeps guys honest. All our guys use handhelds to clock in and clock out of jobs to receive payment. Sometimes a guy forgets to clock out. If you can trim 10 minutes here and seven minutes there, it adds up over the long haul.

“GPS also makes us more efficient. If one of our guys is on a job and he calls into the warehouse manager and needs something special, our manager can go to the dispatcher, click on that guy’s truck to see where he’s at, print off a map, and off he goes. As we go to laptops in the trucks, we’ll be able to e-mail maps to the technicians.

“I think we spend less than $400 a month on GPS, and in terms of productivity and lost time and correcting time cards, GPS pays for itself, without a doubt. I don’t think the drivers dislike it at all. It just keeps everybody honest.

“I didn’t have that big of a problem with employees. That wasn’t the main reason for getting GPS. But the fact that they know they’re being tracked prevents problems from happening. They can’t do side work at night with your trucks, and if a truck is stolen, we can locate it.

“It also helps when a customer says a driver didn’t get to the job until, say, 9:30 a.m., and we have a record that shows he was on site at 8:05 a.m. That has happened two or three times in the last three years. It’s just another tool to run your business profitably and efficiently. And the guys know it makes them more efficient, too.”

“We cover a 150-mile radius around Salunga, which is near Harrisburg in south-central Pennsylvania,” says Shawn Perry, project manager for Kline’s Services. “We started using GPS on all our rolling equipment about a year ago. It’s tied into our guys’ cell phones.

“The system tracks a lot of things, from hard braking to fuel consumption to hours on the job. It’s a pretty good tool if you use it the right way. We can track driver performance daily or weekly, or track it by group – how that group is performing on the road, how many stops they make, and how long they’re at each stop. We can verify that on-site times match what they’re putting on their paperwork.

“Our three dispatchers access the GPS on the Web by logging in with a password. There they can look at an online map on the computer screen. The guys resented it at first – the Big Brother syndrome. They questioned whether we trust that they’re doing their jobs. But once they realized we mainly use it for efficiency, and that it’s a tool that helps the company grow, they changed their mind-set. Especially in this economy, we have to be absolutely sure we do everything as efficiently as possible.

“GPS helps us save money because we can better track what we’re doing, so we’re more productive operationally. Logistically, we can get more runs in during a day.”



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