GPS Improves Driver Productivity
Wasted time is the enemy of savings and revenue-generation for any fleet

Fleet managers know that driver productivity is a key factor in their important mission to maximize fleet revenue while maintaining the lowest costs for their companies.

A powerful, reliable GPS fleet management system can produce remarkable results in improved driver productivity.

The following are just a few examples of how GPS can help put an end to the wasted time that drains drivers of their valuable productivity:

GPS Replaces Time Clock: An Atlanta, Georgia-based electrical contracting company used a standard time clock to keep track of its fleet technicians' work day. In theory, at the start of every eight hour business day, technicians were expected to punch in at 7 a.m., go on their service calls throughout the day, and return to base to punch out at 4 p.m. In practice, however, the owner would often see drivers hanging around the home office during the morning, long after they had punched in. What's more, at the end of the day, he would see his drivers loitering at home base well before four o'clock in the afternoon. These drivers would punch the clock early, leaving some service calls unfinished or not done at all. These calls would have to be rolled over or redone and charged to the company as overtime, resulting in a double business loss of time and money.

To increase productivity and save overtime, the owner replaced his old time clock with GPS location reports that showed the drivers' arrivals and departures.

After removing the time clock, the owner considered the time that his drivers actually left the office as the start of their day and the time they returned to and departed from the office as the official end of their day. He expected them to be on the road by 7:30 AM and back at the office by 3:30 PM. This new timetable gave drivers eight hours--one half hour to check in every morning and one half hour to turn in receipts in the afternoon. Drivers were allotted one hour for lunch. Drivers knew that they would only get paid for the actual time they spent on service calls completed between their arrival at home base in the morning and their departure at the end of the day. Consequently, the company experienced a positive change in behaviors, a significant reduction in overtime costs, and eliminated loitering at the home office.

A Smorgasbord of Morning Idle: Each work day morning, the eight vehicle fleet of a Colorado-based business gathered at company headquarters. Company drivers would leave their trucks idling for 15 minutes or longer while lingering around the office. Only three weeks after having their FleetBoss GPS solution installed, this company discovered that their fleet had logged over 35 hours in excessive vehicle idling. This fuel and time wasting idle cost their business over $60 per week which equated to idle-related fuel losses of nearly $3,000 annually.

Curbing Behaviors That Kill Productivity: FleetBoss clients have provided numerous examples of innocent or irresponsible productivity-killing behaviors that came to light once they could measure fleet performance using their FleetBoss GPS solutions.

• Morning Breakfasts/Friday Lunch Breaks: Several FleetBoss clients have shared stories about their drivers gathering together for breakfast after morning check-in or for lunch during the work week. While applauding the collegial work environment that inspires these assemblies, employers who use GPS often discover that many drivers travel 30 minutes or more out of their way just to meet with other workers. Consequently, breakfast or lunch breaks last much longer than their one hour allotment, and companies end up paying higher costs due to wasted fuel and lost productivity.
  
  
• Increased Liability/Bad Publicity: One business owner explained that one of his drivers had been arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) in the company van. Using his GPS solution, the owner discovered that his driver had been at a local bar for more than 5 hours prior to his arrest. The owner then "edited" the name of the bar in the location column and pulled up a GPS history of that location for the previous 3 months. He was shocked by what he discovered.
  
  Not only had his driver been frequenting this same bar at least 3 times a week but two of his other drivers had also been using their company vehicles to meet at this bar regularly, during business hours and on their way home from work. Apart from lost productivity and potentially serious corporate liability, the bad publicity resulting from official vehicles parked outside a bar during the day was a blow to the company's customer and public relations.

As the preceding examples show, the right GPS fleet management system can be a tremendous tool for maximizing the productivity of any fleet.

Contact a FleetBoss representative to learn more.

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