I sat down with a client last week to go over the results of their year long effort to greatly reduce vehicles idle time. The numbers were astonishing. They believed by simply focusing on idling- using Roadside Systems RoMa Idle Report, Trip Activity Report, and Stops & Usage report they were able to save thousands of gallons of gas and hundreds of hours of engine run time. In addition they believe that productivity went up as well. Maybe their guys didn’t like sitting in their vehicles without the air condition running.
Late last week a prospective client asked how long of a contract they had to sign-up for if they used our GPS fleet management system. When I told them that in most cases they were month-to-month with no money down I could hear their jaws drop. They were in shock. They told me that their former GPS provider required a three year contract. Early on in the contract they had a terrible customer support experience. When they told support that they wanted out the response for all practical purposes was “too bad- you’re stuck with us for three years.”
No one should be stuck with a bad provider for a service important as GPS fleet management. Different than the vast majority of our competitors we believe we should earn your business every day. It shouldn’t be any other way!
Not long after we were married my wife asked me why I always drove to my parent’s house the way I did. I looked at her oddly and asked what she meant. She told me that either I was avoiding spending time with my mother or I just hadn’t pieced together that there is a faster way to go. She told me to let her drive on the way back. Sure enough we cut the drive by about 25%. Not bad.
Thinking about it I was just using the roads that I was familiar with- the ones I used growing up. I realized pretty quickly that is what I do with all my driving. The same thing happens with our client’s employees- they go the way they know. Our clients identify this by doing spot checks of historical map view. The historical map view gives our clients a bread crumb trail of where a vehicle went for the day. When they do identify a routing problem they sit down with employees and discuss it- better yet show them how they are driving. More often than not the light bulb goes off and drivers start thinking about where they are driving- and making you more productive.
That 15 minute convience store stop adds up fast. Labor rates can cost you as much as $60 per hour. An hour plus a week adds up fast as in thousands a year per employee. You can stop it immediately. Verify your time cards with our Trip Activity reports. Check the standard out of the soda fill up with our location report. End those rounded time cards and replace with exact time on the job. Watch your labor costs go down!
One of the most tedious jobs out there is IFTA reporting. Filing those reports every month is a pain- and a costly one. We have been told by many customers that it is a near full time jobs in many operations. even worse is having to go through an audit!
Our clients that start using the mileage report let us know pretty quickly that they aren’t sure how they existed without it. The feedback we get is that our Mileage Reports cuts their process by at least 50%. Sure you still have to have the paper logs etc but at worse our report serves as a quick check to your work and a huge asset during an audit.
I stopped by the local QT on Wednesday and as usual the best run convenience store known to man was doing great business. Every pump was taken and customers were having to make places to park. I noticed a number of our clients and felt a bit of pride!
The next day I went back and saw many of the same vehicles-including my clients. Most of the vehicles were parked in the front of the store and not the pump. My bet is that these guys were there to fill up on caffeine and donuts- not gas.
I wanted to see how prevalent this was so I went back to the office and ran the new Location Report for a couple of my clients at that stores address. I entered the address and the date range and sure enough one client had five vehicles that pulled in to that store every day! Some of the vehicles would actually sit and idle there for more than 15 minutes. The store wasn’t anywhere near any the clients office’s so these guys were going out of their way to get to there.
Our clients tell us it costs us much as $60 an hour to operate a vehicle (wages, taxes, fuel, benefits, etc.). Just cutting out
coffee and donuts on your dime could save as much$2400 a year per offender!
