Page 18 - Oil & Energy - March 2013

Smart Fleets
Turning Up the
Heat on Efficiency
How GPS technology improves routing
and customer satisfaction for fuel delivery
By Nick Loyd, Fleetmatics
MANAGING A LARGE FLEET OF FUEL DELIVERY
vehicles should be equally as efficient as
managing a smaller fleet. Your ability to
compete on efficient routing and improved
customer service shouldn’t be sacrificed
just because of fleet size. Whether you
manage 10 or 1,000 delivery vehicles, you
can maximize operational efficiency and
transform your business by leveraging
enhancements from the latest GPS fleet
management technology.
GPS FLEET TRACKING: THE KEY TO
UNLOCKING IMPROVED OPERATIONS
Energy customers depend on your
ability to meet their needs in a timely
fashion, with excellent customer service
and at reasonable prices. If you fail to meet
or possibly fail to exceed their expectations
time and time again, chances are they will
look elsewhere. The competition is steep
and the pressure is high, so when an opera-
tional improvement or easy-to-implement
technology advancement presents itself, it
is worth a second look.
GPS technology has come a long way
since the days of on-board navigation and
turn-by-turn directions. Today a fleet man-
ager can expect GPS technology to not only
improve fuel delivery routing patterns, but
also ensure overall operations are humming
along with safety considerations in place
while enabling the utmost efficiency.
Here are a few of the operational
improvements and cost savings to look for
when implementing GPS tracking:
• Improved communication with drivers:
Effectively communicate with drivers
without ever picking up the phone and to
stay compliant with federal regulations;
• Rapid response time: Leverage
real-time data on vehicle location and
traffic patterns to most efficiently route
fuel service vehicles to customers via
the fastest possible routes;
• Reduced idling: Know when your
vehicles are idling and make improve-
ments in scheduling to address time
and fuel wasted;
• Monitor and ensure driver safety:
With vehicle speed reports and critical
event monitoring, GPS tracking will
help manage and reduce driver speeding
and safety concerns; GPS devices also
enable fleet managers to send all drivers
a message for changing weather condi-
tions for safety concerns like “black ice”
or “flooding” ahead. This saves critical
time over traditional telephone calls in
getting the message out to busy drivers;
• Reduced overall fuel costs: Whether
your business is losing fuel through
inefficient routing, excessive idling
or fuel card abuse, GPS tracking and
integrated fuel card reports can help
pinpoint issues;
• Control overtime charges: Fleet
owners can save money and reduce
overtime hours with real time moni-
toring of how long employees are in
the vehicles, time on site and when the
vehicle is ‘off the clock’ for the day.
GPS SUCCESS METRICS FROM THE FIELD
Larger fleets like Quality Service
Trucking (QST), a supply transportation and
waste disposal service for drilling companies,
have seen significant competitive advantage
improvements since adding a GPS fleet
management solution. The company reports
a total monthly savings of $85,577 in reduced
wages, decreased fuel costs and extra billing.
More important, the company achieved an
improved DOT safety rating of 4.4, as com-
pared to national average of 20.72.
“Essentially, we are able to know if a
job is being completed, if it’s done on time,
whether it’s arrived in a safe manner, and if
we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be in a
timely fashion, and enforce our safety policies
real-time,” says Janet Paull, General Manager,
Quality Service Trucking in Uniontown, PA.
“Our competitors can’t do this.”
ACCURATE FUEL TAX REPORTING IN A SNAP
Prior to the installation of GPS fleet
management software, QST managers
had to sort through stacks of manual trip
reports and manually report on mileage in
order to administer their fuel tax reporting.
This involved coordinating paper trip
reports for more than 50 drivers, compiling
the data manually, and submitting these on
a regular basis. Now, since the implementa-
tion of GPS fleet intelligence software, they
have instant access to a multi-state mileage
report, which provides information on
the total mileage driven by state for each
vehicle – and because it’s based on GPS
data, they can have complete confidence in
its accuracy.
“Now there is never a question about
mileage. We know we pay the correct
amount of tax and not a dollar more. This
will save us close to $200,000 this year –
not to mention the time savings of instant
access to a simple report,” says Paull.
OPERATIONAL TRANSFORMATION
Fuel dealers have enough challenges
without adding operational inefficiency to
the mix. It’s not easy to implement change
when you are used to running your business
operations a certain way. It’s also not easy
when you realize the way you are running
your operations isn’t working. Routing is
inefficient, customers are disappointed,
fuel costs are rising, paperwork is too time
consuming, records aren’t accurate, safety
is slipping and overtime is out of control.
Change leads to progress, and the opportu-
nity to change presents itself in the form of
a business challenge that you know you can
fix with a practical solution.
“Now we can spend our time on activi-
ties that help us grow. You can’t grow if
you’re stuck on one problem repetitively.
You have to have time to keep moving
forward,” concludes Paull.
Once you mentally make the break from
traditional, uninspired business practices and
implement a GPS fleet management solu-
tion, you will benefit from improved insight
into your business and more time for your
operational managers to focus on improving
service and customer satisfaction.
GPS fleet tracking applications like the one from Fleetmatics
give a dispatcher a comprehensive view of vehicles in the field.
18 • OIL&ENERGY