Crown uses their gps as atool tomake moent fromthe customer and take it from the tech. Crown bills on the half hour to the customer and then makes the tech clock his time tothe five minute point. So at the end of the day the tech clocks 8 hours he is paid for and the crown gets to keep the other time. Which could anddoes add up to several hours they charge for that are not worked. But if the tech clocks 8 hours and only works 5 they say he is stealing from the company. Isnt this an interesting situation?

strange how these things take their own path.
I thought the discussion was about how GPS units effect the working environment for field service techs.
I have not seen anything so far that makes me think there is anyone "posting to talk about positives and negatives on the GPS units", nor do I think anyo of us have much knowledge about the differences between GPS units and their related software.

This discussion is about GPS not how to do your work orders right? I don't understand how Drlifttruck's post has anything to do about GPS. We are posting to talk about positives and negatives on the GPS units. I don't think any of us here would think of cheating our customers or employers. You better do a real good job in this economy, many us would fight for this job. So no problems over here in paradise "butter cup".

DWYSYD

Do what you say you did,.

NO worries mate!!!!!!!!!

Cheat your employer, get Fired.

Work order basics's:

1 Problem
2 Discussion
3 Solution.

Stay out of the Drive throughs and do the job that you are paid to do.

Shut up Butter Cup.

What is the problem here?

DOC

Obviously, GPS systems can be used to be a watchdog for those that like to abuse the privilege of being a road tech. GPS tracking is also used to track sales folks via company supplied cell phones. If you don't abuse it and give an honest days work for an honest days pay you should have any worries. If you worry about it then you need to worry.

There are benefits to using GPS systems - a few are:
1. Faster recovery of stolen service vans (not an uncommon occurance) with techs tools & all the other stuff before they find their way in a pawnshop. There is a lot of $$ tied up in those service vans.
2. Improved response times to customers needs - customers and their cash are kings in any business. Can be a competitive advantage to your company to gain additional business.
3. Yes, it is not uncommon for a company to have "slackers" in any part of the organization. Those on the road are harder to keep up with. They affect all in they company - meaning others have to carry more load to make up for their lack of productivity. Those folks can be weeded out quicker. With positive documentation the process is much easier. I like to get paid for what I do - seems fair.

I don't know about other states but in NH it is a state law that when you hire an employee you must put the wages and benefits that you offered the person in writing. Where is the trust there?
Most employers offer employee hand books that put in writing precisely what benefits the company will provide to the employee. You know, I have never had an employee put in writing what benefits our company will derive because of thier employment...Unless of course you consider the over their embellished resumes.
Trust goes both ways.

I have never had a problem with "being where you say you are" but I think the sad part about all of this is these systems are expensive and during economic times like this we would like to keep our jobs and not have our corporate owners waste money on equipment we don't really need. Honestly if you have employees you don't trust, don't you think it would behoove one to terminate the one or two offenders than waste tens of thousands and pay monthly charges to baby sit your untrusted employee or two? Getting these systems basically says " I don't trust you". I can't see how this would boost moral.

Is there a problem with being where you say you are?

Or doing what you said you did?

Never had that problem.

Doc

We used them more for dispatching than for tracking. Our system can show me where all my techs are at and who is actually closest to a call. If the dealer uses it in this way it is well worth the cost. Just to see who is showing up on the job would be a waste a good manager would know this anyway.

I work for a company which fitted trackers 3 years ago, all it has done is make the engineers drive slower to jobs and at the back end of the day instead of rushing a job and doing a job on the way home to get a good start for the next day, the engineers just take there time.It has shown up few d***heads,but if the service manager is doing his job he will still be able to catch these engineers out. We still get calls from the service dept asking where are you.

The one thing that I hope everyone understands is that people have a tendency to "paint" their emotions, thoughts and concerns on the people they are around, expecting others to have the same thoughts, So a scam artist thinks everyone else is trying to scam them, and a theif thinks everyone else is trying to thief from them, a lazy person expects everyone else to be lazy, and a honest person expects everyone else to be honest, a person that likes gravy expects everyone else to like gravy, and someone who is thinking of ways to get out of doing hard work expects everyone else to be thinking of ways to avoid hard work.
I can well understand how a gps tracking service could be a valuable tool to improve dispatch, especially with a lot of techs to keep track of, but like any complicated and very new tool, the proper use of that tool requires some learning curve and correct usage to avoid getting hurt. Can you imagine just being given a tig welder, and being told to use it, with no one to ask what is the correct way to use it? Either someone gets burned, or the thing does not get used, even if it is left "turned on".
That is pretty much what we have done with GPS tracking. we have hired someone we call "dispatcher" because they could not be a field tech due to lack of understanding the job the field tech is doing, given them a rather expensive new tool, and then found out we don't even know of any "experts" in how to use it, much less have some training plan set up, on how to use it without getting anyone burnt.
To answer that last 2 questions of batman, gps is here to stay, just like the fact we work for computers and not people anymore, get used to it. And yes Management does alway need either "continuous improvement" or an overhaul to allow continuous improvement.
Stagnation does not get you to the front of the line..

First, thanks everyone for all the reply's to my post.

My company went full blown GPS on every service van, probably about 200 total and here is what I have to say so far.

Supposedly, the system paid for itself in less than 3 weeks. I think that is management trying to make sure they cover their as**s because of what the system costs. Numbers are easy to fudge.

I was in the service office just the other day and asked one of the dispatchers how the whole GPS thing was working. We have guys idling their vans for over an hour in the morning, some techs out, with the vans, until 11:30PM, not at a customer and others driving over 85 MPH. I asked her what was being done about that and she promptly responded: NOTHING! In fact we have techs only away from their house for about 5 hours and charging 8 and 9 hours. HELLO!

So, this goes right back to my original post: If you have competent management your company does not need GPS. Nothing has been said to these "bad" techs since GPS has been implemented. This does nothing but lower the moral of all the good techs who see this. In my eyes, if your company s**ks it is completely due to management. It is management's job to run the company.

One question: If GM puts out a terrible product, pays their workers too much money, gives in to union demands too easily, and eventually goes bankrupt, is that the fault of the line worker or the management who left it get to that ridiculous point? Is GPS necessary or does management need an overhaul?

If you think you need GPS than you need to fire your untrustworthy technician or two. Don't handcuff your entire work crew because of a few bad seeds. Its too tempting to use this tool as way to pester your technicians, leading to instant resentment of your team. So go ahead implement the GPS units and watch your moral tank faster than our stock market.

i,m the same ,don,t cheat the system. but i,m the only engineer in this area so i get all the jobs in this area anyway. unless i,m on holiday that is

I think the general point should be, if a tech bills his time and then some or simply "covers his time then that's great.

However, don't come to work everyday billing 8 or 9 hours somewhere but go home in 6. Thats not fair to the company, the customer or the other employees in the organization.

Great topic, cant beleive i missed this one.I have a tracker on my van and never have any bother from my manager, but then again i dont get customer complaints,not many comebacks,and never fiddle the time so he doesent need to bother me.

i drove 2 1/2 hrs to a customer to find one of uor guys already there and this is when we had gps.Like I said with or with out not much changed here.Gps still didnt weed out bad servicemen.

Response to Batman: Not to sound "Sarcastic" but as for questions #1 and #2, I think you answered your own questions and No, you are not full of yourself. I have always believed that it is managements responsibility monitor employees and there productivity as well as profitability, but if they have no clue, how can they determine what is and what "aint"?
As for #3, a good dispatcher and GPS could save $$$ by routing Techs in a cost effective manner eliminating back tracking and criss-crossing, keeping mileage down. Again, we go back to "competent" people monitoring the system.
If it is used as a "Tool" and not as a "weapon", GPS will work. It will not take long to see who is doing it right, and who is not, but we need to keep in mind, A good dispatcher is the key to making it work, some of the excess fuel usage and high mileage and low productivity could be caused from poor dispatching. I have had them run me "the long way around the barn", Rush you through a job so you can drive a hundred miles to put a battery in a truck, when there was a tech 3 miles up the road doing PM's that could have taken the call. I have passed other Techs out on the road that drove by the place I was headed for that could have taken the call, any of you out there seen this?
I realize there are some bad apples in every bunch, but I have seen Techs get chewed out because of a lousy dispatcher.
Just my 2 cents!

Response to Easy M: It would work if used "correctly" and monitored by "Competent" personnel.

I guess there is no argument there EasyM...