How GPS Fleet Tracking Technology Can Help Optimize Your Workforce
If you aren t monitoring your employees driving behaviors, how do you know if they are being compliant with the rules of the road or if they re driving aggressively? Introduction: Avoid a Shocking Experience As an electrical services business, you know that the work your electricians are performing isn t easy. In fact, it can be dangerous and life-threatening. According to the Electrical Safety Foundation International, Electrical accidents rank 6th among all causes of work related deaths in the United States. While you trust that your employees are following safe work practices, have you ever taken into consideration their driving habits? According to the National Safety Council, motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of unintentional workplace deaths in the United States, and most of these crashes are preventable. If you aren t monitoring your employees driving behaviors, how do you know if they are being compliant with the rules of the road or if they re driving aggressively? Your vehicles are a mobile advertisement for your business. If your employees are caught speeding or swerving between cars, it s not going to be good for your reputation. GPS fleet tracking technology can help you improve your business fleet safety, reducing the risk of an accident and lowering liability. Not only that, a fleet tracking solution can help you manage your business efficiently, saving you valuable time and money. But before we take a look at fleet tracking technology, let s first examine some of the challenges electrical companies face with their businesses and fleet operations. Hard-Wired for Electricians and a Burnt Out Economy With the overall growth of the construction industry, the demand for electricians is expected to increase. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Employment of electricians is expected to grow 23 percent from 2010 to 2020, faster than the average for all occupations. Homes and businesses need more wiring than ever before, and electricians will be needed to install the necessary components. Overall growth of the construction industry and maintenance of older equipment in manufacturing plants also will require more electricians. Compounding the demand issue is the changing economy. The BLS also states that Employment of electricians fluctuates with the overall economy. On the one hand, there is great demand for electricians during peak periods of building and manufacturing. On the other hand, workers may experience periods of unemployment when the overall level of construction falls. As a result of these issues, electrical businesses are searching for a solution to help streamline their processes. But how do you optimize your workforce, increase service revenue and manage costs that are needed in order to run a successful business all at the same time? In order to answer this question, we need to address the challenges you face on a day-to-day basis. Hazardous Concerns Daily Business Challenges Between the demand for electricians and the unreliable economy, at the end of the day, you still have a business to run and with that come additional challenges. Earlier, we mentioned the effect unsafe driving habits can have on your business. Do some of your drivers have a lead foot? How do you know if you aren t monitoring your employees driving behavior? Let s take a look at lowering liability and risk. Having control over what goes on inside your office may be easy, but what goes on outside of it can be a bit more complicated. While enforcing the honor system and trusting that your employees act professional is one way of handling your fleet operations, it s also the most
impractical. When you can t monitor what s going on outside the four walls of your office, it s difficult to identify your speeding offenders or address issues like accident claims. That s not taking into consideration your employees behavior. With your crew spread out in different directions, making sure they re where they are supposed to be can be tough. And with little to no supervision, how do you know they aren t taking a long lunch break instead of working hard for your business? Another challenge business owners and managers face is inefficient routes. Looking to complete more jobs in a day? It s possible, but if you aren t providing your drivers with accurate routes, you run the risk of your drivers getting lost and missing their appointments resulting in lost revenue. Having control over what goes on inside your office may be easy, but what goes on outside of it can be a bit more complicated. While enforcing the honor system and trusting that your employees act professional is one way of handling your fleet operations, it s also the most impractical. This challenge leads us to another issue: fuel costs. By giving your drivers inefficient routes, not only are you wasting time, you re wasting fuel. Going the extra distance increases fuel consumption and if you aren t monitoring your drivers fuel usage, wasteful fuel practices like idling and speeding are going to end up costing your business money. And lastly, running an electrical business means purchasing electrical equipment. And let s face it the tools your employees use on a daily basis aren t cheap. But neither are your vehicles. With the majority of your investment residing in your fleet and equipment, having to deal with missing tools or the theft of one of your service trucks is going to ultimately hurt your bottom line. These daily challenges just scrape the surface of what it takes to manage an electrical services business. Additional expenses like insurance and vehicle maintenance add more frustration. But there is a solution to help alleviate some of the stress from the issues addressed above: GPS fleet tracking. Electrify Your Profits: How a Fleet Tracking Solution Can Benefit Your Business A GPS fleet tracking solution can provide you with the tools needed to resolve the issues mentioned above that tend to interfere with the success of your electrical business. Fleet tracking technology enables you to properly manage your fleet operations so that you can achieve measurable results. With access to your fleet data 24/7, you can identify areas of your fleet operations that need improvement. An important benefit of a GPS fleet tracking solution is improving driver safety. A fleet tracking solution allows you to monitor driving behavior so that you can take corrective action with your stubborn drivers and reward your top performers. Additionally, fleet tracking technology gives you the data to fight false claims and in return, lower your liability. That s not all many insurance companies reward businesses that utilize fleet tracking technology with a significant discount on their insurance premiums. When it comes to your employees, you trust that they are doing their job during business hours. With GPS fleet tracking and a Detailed Activity Report, you can monitor your employees productivity to make sure that they are arriving on time and that all jobs are completed each day. Not only that, you can validate your employees hours, lowering your overhead expenses while gaining accurate labor costs. And if you re caught in between a customer dispute, you can easily review your fleet tracking data to verify job completion, turning any dispute into a closed case. Another key benefit for electrical businesses using a fleet management solution is the ability
to create efficient routes. With fleet tracking technology, you can plan the shortest route so that your drivers spend less time on the road and more time servicing your customers. Being able to complete more jobs in a day will increase your service revenue and driver productivity, while also decreasing your fuel costs. One company was able to save $25,000 in fuel costs annually in addition to providing their customers with accurate and faster ETAs. Wondering how a fleet tracking solution can reduce your fuel costs and consumption? With an Idle Report, you can monitor your vehicles to make sure they aren t being left running while parked at a job site. Did you know that every thirty minutes your drivers leave their vehicles idling, one-tenth of a gallon of fuel is wasted per vehicle? Take that number and multiply it by the number of vehicles you have in your fleet, a few times each day during the week and you can see how this cost can become out of control. Do some of your drivers have the need for speed? If that s the case, they re wasting gas. But with Speed Alerts, you can receive a notification the moment one of your drivers exceeds the speed limit, helping you identify your aggressive drivers so that you can hold them accountable. The success stories surrounding GPS fleet tracking technology are remarkable. One company was able to save $25,000 in fuel costs annually in addition to providing their customers with accurate and faster ETAs. Another fleet tracking customer was able to increase overall fleet productivity by 35 percent while decreasing their fuel costs by 20 percent because they were able to monitor their driver s behavior and hold them responsible for their actions. With your crew spread out across your coverage areas, protecting your service vehicles and the equipment that s on them can be difficult. With GPS fleet tracking, you can keep an eye on your high-value tools and gain insight into their location and their usage. One fleet tracking client was able to recover more than $400,000 in assets because they could track where its vehicles had been stolen. And that s not all. In the event that your equipment or service vehicle is stolen, you can track and recover your assets, saving you thousands of dollars and lost productivity. One fleet tracking client was able to recover more than $400,000 in assets because they could track where its vehicles had been stolen. A fleet tracking solution can help you manage your electrical business effectively while maximizing your revenue. Automating your businesses processes will allow you to address the issues discussed in this paper thoroughly. With daily, weekly and monthly reporting, you can manage your electrical business 24/7, whether you are in the office or out in the field. Measuring your fleet operations will allow you to identify your business inefficiencies, giving you the chance to take a proactive approach to optimizing your fleet. Now that we have analyzed the benefits a fleet tracking solution can provide your business, let s look at why the NexTraq Fleet Tracking platform is the best choice. The NexTraq Fleet Tracking Platform: The Value Leader The NexTraq Fleet Tracking platform and its applications Fleet Dispatch, Fleet Metrics and Fleet Mobile allow you to proactively manage and track your fleet of vehicles while reducing your operational costs and maximizing revenue. With the 100 percent web-based solution, you can access your fleet data anytime, anywhere. Because the NexTraq platform is a cloud-based solution, there is no software to purchase or to install. It s as easy as logging into our platform from any web-enabled device whether it s a PC, ipad, PDA or smartphone. With our Fleet Metrics application, you can view your entire fleet as a whole or focus on a single driver to see where they are and what they are doing. Additionally, you can review key data on every vehicle, including vehicle start and stops, idling times, driver speed and more. Not only that, with NexTraq s Asset Tracker line, you can keep track of your high-value equipment with customized updates and alerts.
With our Fleet Dispatch application, you can gain a clear understanding of where your fleet is and where it is going while improving driver communication and lowering costs. Use Fleet Dispatch to provide your drivers with voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions, daily itineraries, status updates and more. With NexTraq s Fleet Tracking platform and more than 20 reports and 17 real-time alerts, you can measure every aspect of your business, helping you identify which areas of your operations need improvement, including fuel usage and vehicle maintenance. Call us at 800-358-6178 for a free consultation. Or, if you would like more information about how NexTraq can help optimize your electrical business, visit our website specifically dedicated to your industry at nextraq.com/electrical. NexTraq delivers Real Results. Rapid ROI.