GPS Tracking ROI

How much time and how much fuel am I losing from idling engines? ( 9 March 2006)Are my drivers speeding and where? (10 March 2006)Where are my miles going? Am I making full use of expensive assets? (11 March 2006)How much is asset abuse really costing my company? (12 March 2006)What time are my drivers starting work and what time are they completing their shifts? (13 March 2006)(Today’s Topic) How many minutes of pre and post trip time are you paying for?  Are my drivers arriving on time for their deliveries?  Are my drivers making unauthorized stops?How productive are my assets?  Are my sales representatives making their required customer calls?  Where are my miles going? Am I making full use of expensive assets?

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How many minutes of pre and post trip time are you paying for?

This subject keys directly to the savings issue from yesterday, paying for work hours that aren’t being worked. So, why am I repeating myself?

Well, I’m not, actually. There’s a strong difference here that’s important to understand. Yesterday, we spoke about companies who give drivers take home vehicles. Obviously, there’s a potential time accounting problem when you don’t see your employees from day to day. But if your employees report  to central locations every day, especially if you have some type of electronic time clock, you don’t have a problem, right?

Well, sorry to tell you this, but in my many years of selling, tuning and consulting on GPS tracking systems, I find a lot of government and business entities who have problems, before and after work times, no matter how sophisticated their time clocks are.

Joe Employee and his wife, Jane Employee work from 0800 to 1700, with an hour off for lunch. Especially since they drive to and from work together and clock in and out within seconds of each other, you’d figure you get the same work from them, wouldn’t you? Well, your figuring would not add up.

On a typical Monday, say today, Joe and Jane both pull into the company parking lot at 0755 and both hit the time clock at 0759. They both go to their lockers, look for messages and head out the door to their trucks. Jane starts her van, let’s it idle less than 30 seconds while she puts on her seatbelt, adjusts the mirrors and glances at the first stop listed for the day to decide which direction she should turn when leaving the parking lot. She’s on the road, making money for your company before 0806. You’ll get at least 54 minutes of productive work out of Jane in the first hour from 8 to 9 am.

Joe, however, heads to his van, starts it up, and then remembers he forgot to put away some returns he brought back yesterday. Leaving the van to warm up, he goes back in the building, cleans up his mess, chats a few minutes with the new girl on the front desk, gets a refill on his coffee, drops by the maintenance office to complain about how old his truck is and to ask when he’s getting a new one, and then finally heads out the door, jumps in his van and barrels out of the parking lot at 0826. You’re only getting a maximum of 34 minutes of productive paid time from Joe this first hour today. Just 20 minutes less than Jane. So is this something to be concerned with?

Well Jane and Joe will both work about 250 days for you each year. If they get paid $10 an hour, they are costing you close to $20 an hour, with overheads …but call it $15 just for conservative figuring.  250 days times 20 minutes (1/3 of an hour) times $15 an hour true cost?

How about $1250 bucks a year less paid work you are getting from Joe than Jane. And you wonder why I tell business owners that a $600 investment in a vehicle tracker will give an ROI in well under a year?

It’s only common sense that some ‘pre-trip’ time and some ‘post-trip’ time are needed, but how many business owners can determine what these hours are costing them. Unless you measure, you won’t know the good drivers from the bad. In a medium-size city here in Colorado, the Street Department wanted to track their street sweeper use.

Management already knew that many machines were coming in at the end of the day earlier than they really needed to, the noise of the drivers sitting around in the break room on city time, being paid to wait until quitting time was enough to tell tem that.

When they implemented the tracking system, what do you think the chief problem that showed up was? Might be a surprise, but it was drivers badgering the dispatcher to pull off reports of their work for that day so they could razz each other about who got back early instead of ‘looking good’ by putting in a full day’s work.  Daily productivity, in this case, broom on the street time,  went up a full 15%, with no other management changes.

How much would a15% improvement in your productivity net for your bottom line? Remember, you can’t manage what you can’t measure!