UK Company Claims $95,000/Year Savings with GPS Tracking
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When a person is assigned to oversee another, a certain amount of over-the-shoulder scrutiny is to be expected. People work better when they’re being watched. No one wants to look bad in front of the boss.
Direct supervision, however, is rarely possible when the business manager is in one spot and the employee in another. That is the case with drivers out in the field. Unwatched workers will not perform at peak level. Wasted time is lost income.
A West Midlands, United Kingdom commercial door specialist is claiming to have virtually wiped out overstated mileage and overtime after instituting a GPS vehicle tracking program to its fleet of trucks. The managing director of the unit claims an overall savings of about $95,000 in a year and describes GPS tracking as “phenomenal.” Midland Door Services installs and services commercial doors, barriers, gates and shutters on a 24-hour call basis.
Field service workers, by practice, overestimate the amount of time a job requires, so that the schedule doesn’t back up in a domino effect, Manager John Lunt said.
Another bad policy that was uncovered by the vehicle tracking system was allowing personal errands to intermingle with business.
The vehicle tracking system Midland Door adopted is a real-time GPS tracking solution. Now, all the vehicles can be seen, in real time, on a map on computer at headquarters. Vehicle tracking data includes speed, direction, distance and time between stops, and addresses. There is no longer the need to “pad” delivery and departure times, because the vehicle tracking system leaves no doubt exactly where the drivers are and when. If one driver encounters maintenance problems or traffic congestion, GPS tracking will allow dispatch to quickly find a substitute driver.
Several new rules came into play once the GPS tracking system was activated. Excessive idling was discouraged, overlapping routes were avoided and drivers’ logs for payroll were checked against the vehicle tracking reports. Staff was forbidden from using company vehicles outside of work.
As a direct result of GPS tracking, the manager said, the company saved $45,000 per year in overtime costs and $50,000 a year in fuel.
There are two types of vehicle tracking systems commonly used in the business environment. Real-time vehicle tracking, such as that used at Midland Door, uses a combination of GPS satellite and wireless network technologies. Passive vehicle tracking systems work on GPS tracking exclusively and they record position updates for remote viewing at a later time. The distinction is whether the user needs to know where a vehicle is; or where it was.
GPS tracking makes workers perform more efficiently when their paychecks depend on it.
Employees are sometimes hesitant to accept vehicle tracking in the workplace because it allows managers to monitor them at all times while “on the clock.” But at Midland Door, GPS tracking worked miracles in getting staff to be on their best behavior and improving the company’s bottom line.
Source: Materials Handling World Magazine
Tags: commercial, door, fleet, GPS Tracking, savings, specialist, trucks, United Kingdom
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