Field service work is a world apart from anything i have ever seen. Field service supervisors with no experence what so ever seems like the norm rather than the exception. they seem to have no power except through the power of a write up. then it is to cover up their mistakes.

there are good reasons to have these systems on service vehicles but they can also be used for unreasonable purposes if whom ever is administering them does not understand the myriad of circumstances that go into doing field service work.

In answer to the question:

Can anyone quantify in real numbers the savings by installing GPS on service vehicles?

The article "Measuring the Benefits of GPS Tracking" highlights a case study where a company achieved fuel savings of 20% through optimized routing and reduced idle time with GPS tracking.

Here is the link: https://www.fieldtechnologiesonline.com/doc/measuring-the-benefits-of-gps-tracking-0001

I work for https://www.cleargps.com and some of the most popular problems solved by telematics are stolen vehicles and service tracking.

Hi Batman (Batman!!!!???? LOL),
We had GPS installed recently and it seams to be working wonderfully. At least 3 times a month we check it against invoices for customers that claim the Tech wasn't at the job site for as much time as he billed. It shows how much time was spent running for parts or getting a hose made. Sometimes the customer is right and sometimes he's not. It allows us to make a fair call, and do the right thing for our company and the customer. Our system has a 6 month memory which helps alot too. I've also noticed techs are asking permission now to do a brake job on their Mom's car or stopping off on the way home. I have not heard one single complaint about the GPS and I truly beleive they cant be hacked without a tremendous amount of effort. It's all good. It was also a great idea to put the delivery trucks on a seperate screen to track them so we're not making uneccessary runs.
See ya Monday.

Had trackers at my last company,Sales and Engineers,always thought we were not trusted. Illogical but true.

derek h

I agree with your comments.

Look at it this way! if you owned a company and had 4 engineers of which 3 made you a decent turnover and needed to make one of the 4 a manager, would you promote the one who makes you the most money in the field or the one who makes you the least?
simple deduction if you are looking at figures as opposed to commitment and hard work of employees.
No offence to anyone implied but its pure economics

I have worked with a company for the past year that implemented a tracker device on their service vehicles.
Within 3 months, several engineers had left, Not because they were mediocre or slackers but because of the managements attitude and sudden lack of give and take.
What they did was print out the tracker report every morning ( and still do ) then see if it corresponded with the timesheets.
This did not allow for any rounding off to the quarte hour or show that lunch was not taken.
Engineers were then subjected to questions relating to time it took to get to site, actual time that the customer signed the job sheet to the van leaving the site and even stopping to go for a bodily function.

I personally have nothing against a GPS if it is used correctly and with a bit of logic but I have found that a lot of companies promote the least productive engineers into management positions where they then look at everyone else as being work shy like they were as an engineer.

This normally results in the most productive, packing tools and leaving.

To Admin:
I started this thread over a year ago because our company was migrating towards GPS units and I wanted to get some feedback on what people around the world thought about the subject. WOW! This is definitely a hot topic indeed. I do think it is time to clean up some unrelated posts (there are many) and possibly add something to it that people could think about again.

I will add my final update about my company (PON NA) going to GPS. The switch is final, all service vans in North America (over 600) have been equipped with GPS. Not a single tech (in my division, Northeast) has been reprimanded or fired over "big brother" watching and keeping tabs. My opinion is that if management installs GPS to "watch" it's techs the system will absolutely not work. However, I have come to believe that our management team is extremely talented and they don't come to decisions lightly. There is an underlying reason for the GPS, not only insurance reasons, response time, etc. We all know that.

PON is a European company first, and in Europe the large service companies normally have a centralized dispatch center. 3 or 4 dispatchers for several hundred techs, where in America we have dispatchers at every single location. I believe this is PON's reason for installing GPS on every van, to eventually change to a European style centralized dispatch center and truly become national. Calls from any state we service will come to a centralized location and the closest tech would be dispatched. The only downside is the personal relationship but that has gone by the wayside over the years anyway and that should be left up to the sales force, not the dispatcher.

I want to thank everyone for their feedback and comments on this subject. It educated me which is really the purpose of forums in the first place.

this thread has died, at least as far as I go.
thanks all

Ed T,

There was a phrase coinded in the late 60's, when I was totally wet behind the ears, fresh out of college and just starting my career with Allis Chalmer in 1967. I received a certified letter from teh US government and was offered the opportunity to serve my country for 2 years - a duty and privlidege for sure. But first I had to take a physical exam and do things like cough, bend over, provide a specimen, read an eye exam chart, pass a color blind test and other such stuff. As I was exiting the exam center in Chicago there were some folks demonstrating out side and they were chanting this coined phrase that I extend to you - "Peace and Love".

For the record my draft board advised me that I passed the exam with flying colors and offered 3 hots & a cot and a few buck too.

Thank you everyone. There is a huge amount (7 pages) of fact and opinion in this thread which has been going for over a year now. I would like to close it and perhaps clean it up a bit so that it is more readable for future reference by new comers....Does anyone strongly disagree with me closing it off now???

thanks.
www dot trackwhatmatters.com/blog/labels/vehicle%20tracking.html
www dot trackwhatmatters.com/blog/blogger.htm
I think those are the 2 urls that got whacked by the software,

It all seems to be written from the side of someone who sells the service, and does seems rather shallow with specifics as to which hardware and/or software has which advantages or disadvantages. and it all seems designed to feed into the idea that anyone who complains has something to hide*, and that there is almost never the "informational misuse of statistics" made possible by this sort of "oversight by machine".
*The idea that anyone who complains about a possible loss of privacy [or any other "right"], or possible misuse of the loss of some right, has something to hide, is a very dangerous political idea, in my opinion.
On the other hand, to expect the person paying for your time to not want to know what you are doing seems down right ridiculous.

Gee,

The way I see it.... we should be thankful we are employed at this wonderful financial time in our history.

Nuff said about that.

Any employer has the right and obligation to be assured its employees are doing what they say they are.

Monitoring of employees activity is not new, I will speak here of our profession only.

Manufacturing plants have monitored employees and productivity since the beginning of the modern age.

Auditing has been around for years, in many forms.

The now generations loves it's gadgets, cellular communications, I pod, etc. This is progress and efficiency. I love the gadgets as well.

We need to live with its side effects.

My generation was lucky to have a dime to call in to the office; we had to use the new leading technology of the era "The Watts line", now known as 800 lines.

Guess what the watts did?.(As well as the current Toll free system does)... It logged the originating place of call, time and phone # of the originating call.

We were tracked and audited back in the day before, beepers, digital pagers, cell phones, I pods, GPS, vans with power steering, AC, seatbelts or even an AM radio.... etc....etc.

Our employer's monitored where we were and what we did, to track our profitability and efficiency. It is an employer's duty and right

It just took a lot more effort and time back then.

Oh yes we had to walk to work both way uphill in the snow as well.

For the "Madonna's of Road Service" in this discussion I would like to suggest this.

Take your life savings and open your own independent service business, take on a line of product, hire people to work for you.

It may change your mind about monitoring.

It will definitely change your mind about an employer.

Nuff said, this thread needs to die.

Doc

Here is some reading material on GPS tracking.

http://www.trackwhatmatters.com/blog/labels/vehicle%20tracking.html

http://www.trackwhatmatters.com/blog/blogger.html

http:// www.fleetboss.com/needssurvey.asp

http:// www.gpsfleettracking.tv/faq.htm (this one claims a three month return on investment)

http:// www.securitymagazine.com/CDA/Articles/SEC_Highlights/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000207369

please delete this post

Thanks for the clarification John, I hope no offense was taken and none was intended in both directions. I would not want someone reading this to interpret that you think the levels of skill and commitment required to be a good field service forklift tech are roughly equal to the skills and commitment required to keep your driving license from being revoked by the state.
I feel pretty sure that _you_ know that to be a good "road tech" requires far more than JUST "doing what is right", in the way of investment of tools and time to learn all the various the job skills necessary.
I just would not want any people who do NOT know "secret of where the skill resides", to decide that the skill is held in the logo on the outside of the truck, and not the tech inside the truck, and what it takes to make that truck a much more valuable asset than the same truck was worth, sitting on the lot at the new truck dealer, and to justify that mistake with the idea that the same privilege that got them the job as [insert no getting dirty job title here] can be used as justification for them to put any friend or relative that needs a job as a field service technical customer support specialist. I have seen way to many customers pay way too much for training someone who should have never been in the forklift business.
I also wanted to reiterate the idea that every tech owes it to the paying customer to -earn- the payment every hour, and not consider their continued employment as a privilege that just not really **** up entitles them to.
Far too often in todays business and political climate, I think people hear the word "privilege" and equate it to "entitlement", I know I have.

All that said, and now heading back to the topic at hand, I would really like to know more about the differences and abilities of the available GPS tracking units and their related software, and wonder if anyone has some links to the various manufactures, or if there is a GPS tracking equipment website like forkliftaction is for the forklift industry.

Ed,
Allow my to clarify something for you. My use of the word "priviledge" means some thing that is granted to one and earned via actions or deeds vs a right which is something grant by law. These definitions and use are consistent with the Webster's.

I choose a career in the forklift truck industry and always felt I was priveleged to hold every position I held. Likewise, I have a driver's license it is a priviledge to have and I have to work to keep it - it is easy just follow the rules and regulations. In my view one should do the same no matter what position one holds.

I agree with Ed. If you think you can do a better job then here are the keys now prove it. As road techs our main concern is taking care of our customers. We are the ones that collaborate face to face with our customers. I work for my customers and keep their intentions as a number one priority. I don't think a tech would make it long if he took advantage of his customers, with the economy the way it is we are all under the microscope. Don't think for a second that any customer of mine would tolerate any abuse of any kind.

So with that said what is GPS really for? A tool to keep us from cheating our customers I think not.

You are saying that you have seen that Crown sells the same man's moment in time to more than one customer?
Would that not equal to selling the same thing twice, when there was only 1 to sell?
"if the tech clocks 8 hours and only works 5 they say he is stealing"
The tech *IS* stealing (period).
If they say it or not.
I am just not sure if he is stealing from the company or the customer, but it is -not- good.
8 hours worked and 8 hours paid. fair is fair.
If someone else steals, don't complain that they don't share.
Don't let someone else's misdeeds be a justification for your own misdeed.

And John, you say "The privilege of being a road tech".
While I am privileged to work with some of the folks I have gotten to work with, I am not "privileged" to be a road tech. It is earned each and every hour. That does not mean that I am not thankful for the opportunity to earn it, but it is in no manner a "privilege", there is no "gift" of a job,the job (and payment for it) must be earned. Road techs are doing a job most everyone else does not want to even try to do correctly, that MUST be done correctly.
your mileage may vary.