“You don’t realise just how handy it is until you put it in and start using it. Once it’s in you find you’re using it all the time, and it’s just so handy for different things. It’s always on in the office. We use it continuously.” Matt Wallace When wastewater engineering business Water Projects Ltd went looking for a GPS solution for their fleet of trucks, utes and excavators, health and safety was their top priority. “We do a lot of remote, rural work, and our guys often work alone,” explains Senior Engineer Matt Wallace. “GPS means we can know where they are all the time. The way we ensure safety is that if the vehicle doesn’t move for a specific length of time, someone in the office calls them. We have an idea of how long jobs are going to take, and if they don’t answer then we know where to look for them.” Although Water Projects Ltd had a couple of options presented to them by other providers, they weren’t impressed by the initial response. This contrasted with their experience of Fleetpin, which was straight-up and knowledgeable. “We found Fleetpin online. Todd came out and saw us,” Matt recalls. “He was great to talk to and he had all the answers.” Installed on the entire fleet Having confirmed that the Fleetpin solution met all their needs, Water Projects Ltd fitted all of their vehicles and machinery. “Security’s the reason we put the Fleetpin GPS into our excavators particularly,” Matt explains. “We try not to leave them on site, but sometimes it’s inevitable, and they don’t have registrations or chassis numbers like cars. They’re also really mobile, so they’re easy to just load onto the back of a truck.” Although health and safety and security was the motivator for seeking out a GPS solution, Matt says that the subsequent benefits have been numerous. “It’s really helpful when customers call and want to know where someone is and how long it’ll take for them to arrive on site. We can look at the screen and say ‘well, he’s just turning into your driveway.’ ‘’There’s never an argument with customers either. If they call and say ‘your service person was only here for half an hour,’ we can look at the logs and tell them that our vehicle had been on their site for an hour and a half.’’ The use of GPS has added value to Water Project’s customer service. Now when a customer calls the service team, they can very quickly look and see which of their vehicles is closest to the customer site, and send that, rather than trying to find someone who is free but might be a long way away. Getting staff on board Matt admits there was some resistance from their staff in the beginning. “It’s kind of to be expected,” he said. “The guys thought the girls in the office would be spying on them all the time.” Eventually the team was won over with the health and safety argument, with Water Projects management explaining that it is better and safer for them if the office staff know where they are in case of accident or emergency. To help them become more familiar with the Fleetpin solution, they’ve been given access to it on their smartphones, and have discovered how much easier it is to fill out job sheets when you can see to the minute where you’ve been and for how long. “They love that about it,” Matt says. “It’s so much easier and quicker for them to complete their job sheets, plus they can enter their times accurately, instead of having to guess. Then when the office staff are doing the invoicing – we charge in 15-minute increments – those invoices are so much more accurate because the guys have filled their job sheets out to the minute.” “They also love the fact that if they can’t find a site – it’s tougher in rural areas with no street names or numbers – they can call the office and say ‘Where am I? How do I get where I need to be?’” Matt explains. “And the girls can just direct them, no worries. The aerial maps are so accurate that they could say something like ‘See that big shed across the field? You need to head in that direction.’” More than expected In addition to health and safety, security, tracking, efficiency of job sheets and invoicing, Matt says that all their fleet maintenance is run through the Fleetpin solution now as well. “Regos and WOFs, oil changes, road user charges, servicing – it’s all done through Fleetpin,” he says. “The alerts system means things don’t expire or become out of date.” Matt has no hesitation in recommending Fleetpin as a GPS solution for any business owner that has a fleet of vehicles. “It’s one of those things though – you don’t realise just how handy it is until you put it in and start using it,” he says. “You initially think you might use it now and again, but once it’s in, you find you’re using it all the time, and it’s just so handy for different things. It’s always on in the office. We use it continuously, and I didn’t think that would be the case at the start.”
